Sunday, January 15, 2012

food display making

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(deep fried shrimps)  


(ham and lettuce)
(yellow tail in the making)

I joined a food sample workshop last weekend. The name of the food sample company is Morino Sample in Hirano Ward, Osaka. 
Mold is made from silicon. Was used to be used to make a mold but not any more.
 
(a father cooking with his kids)
  

Food sample display is commonly seen at restaurants in Japan. It may take ten minutes in foreign countries to choose a dish and make an order but here it may take only a couple of minutes thanks to food sample display. The presentation is so real that it's appetizing.  
 They can just point out what looks delicious for them to the restaurant staff with their fingers.  

Food display originated in Japan about 80 years ago and is seen only in Japan, Korea and China
 It hasn't spread to other countries yet. I suppose the custom of using food sample display is closely related to our visually-oriented character.  


(fruit pieces)


The staff at the workshop give us a white plain cake and we put fruit pieces, chocolate, ice cream on the cake.  All of them may look like real but they are plastic food displays.
 
(fruit pieces put on a cake) 

I put kiwi pieces, pineapple, oranges, strawberries on ice cream but I put too much fruits so they looked overloaded.
(Putting varnish on my cakeIt's a piece of cake!)  



Pink ice cream in the center, apple, kiwi fruit on side...It's so much fun!


After topping chocolate on my parfait, I applied a coat of varnish  to finish this. They sold various kinds of food straps including sushi, tempura, noodles. Just seeing them made me hungry but all of them were so cute!
  Morino Food holds workshops every weekends. It takes about two hours to make a cake or parfait. Hopefully this custom of presenting food samples will spread to the other side of the world.
    
(food sample straps)    







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Sunday, January 8, 2012

Gardens in green

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(bamboo grove in Tenryuji)

Bamboo grove is something very Japanese. Bamboo groves are seen in Arashiyama, western part of Kyoto City. When the breeze blows, we can hear the refreshing rustle of bamboo leaves.


(Taizoin)

The Taizo-in Garden in Myoshinji is one of the best gardens in Kyoto. It's comparatively a new garden which was laid out in 1966. This garden uses the optical illusion and looks long from front to back. Seasonal flowers bloom whenever you go and the stream of water is running from upstream.

(Sanzenin)

Cedars stand straight up in green garden of Sanzenin in Ohara.
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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

New Year charms

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This is a bamboo rake and a charm for raking in good fortune sold at shrines during new year holidays. 
Seven deities of good fortune drawn from Buddhistm, Shinto and Taoist traditions are on board a treasure ship. These deities are believed to give people longevity, talent of music and art and prosperity in business. It’s a popular custom for the Japanese to visit temples and shrines of these seven deities.
  
Egg plant, hawk and Mt. Fuji are something we can have happiness for the coming year if we have a dream of one of them during the new year holidays.

Rice straw rope is hung at the entrance of a house. An orange and fern are put onto the sacred straw rope with white paper. In the center of the rope, Somin Shorai, a name of a Chinese man is written. According to a legend, he was a poor younger brother who offered a room to Gozutenno, a Chinese deity who is believed to get rid of a bad luck whereas his rich older brother didn’t when the deity asked both of them for a room overnight. The younger brother became rich and happy with the help of the deity so
It’s believed if we put this name on the straw rope, we will be able to avoid bad luck.  

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New Year display

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Happy New Year! Akemashite Omedetou!
(bamboo arrangement is displayed at Kyoto Station )


 Christmas displays at department stores, grocery stores and stations are changed to New Year displays over the night. The change is so sudden but through.
Various colored chrysanthemums, plum branches are put into bamboo stems and put on red carpet and places in front of gold screen. 
Gold and red are regarded as happy color representing lighthearted atmosphere of a new year. 
We had an unprecedented disaster last year so I pray for a peaceful year.
      
 

The picture below is ordinary New Year’s pine and bamboo decorations. The flower arrangement above was done by new  style of arranging flowers.



(Kadomatsu-bamboo and pine decoratioin)



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