Hacker News Reader

Japanese food art is nuts. There are specialists in the art of creating super realistic-looking fake food. This is not merely decorative, it also is set up as a display in restaurant fronts to whet the appetite and give you an idea of what's on the menu.

View on HN

And boy does that make it difficult to decide where to eat.

But also easier to order. I've taken more than one waiter outside and pointed at the plastic food.

Most Japanese restaurants have menus illustrated with photographs of their photogenic dishes. Foreigners who can't read the menu items can simply point to what they want. Japan's beautiful cuisine is not just aesthetic, it's functional as well. A lot of Japanese craftsman culture is like this, both beautiful and profoundly functional. A broken ceramic vessel repaired with kintsugi not only has an extended lifetime, it's arguably more beautiful than when it was brand new.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com