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LESSON 2
The Custom of Food Samples
When reading a restaurant menu, we often wonder what the dish will actually look like. No worries. Japanese restaurants have taken away the anxiety, and often the disappointment, by creating shokuhin sampuru—food samples.
Food samples are said to have started from the Japanese mottainai spirit. Restaurants once had the custom of showing a real sample of “Today’s Dish” outside and throwing it away after closing. Then in the early Showa period, plastic food samples were first invented.
This unique Japanese custom is attracting the attention of people from overseas. They seem both puzzled and delighted to see these realistic, colorful duplications, which are created with skill and craftsmanship, down to each grain of rice. It also makes the ordering process easy for the non-Japanese-speaking tourists. Customers can just look at the food samples displayed in the showcase at the entrance to choose which dish to order.
Now, many tourists purchase them to bring home as souvenirs, and some even try to make a few samples themselves. This custom may soon be spreading to other countries as an amusing, charming part of Japanese food culture.