We visited Kappabashi-dori (or kitchen town) near Asakusa earlier this afternoon. This kitchen supply store-lined street reminds me of the restaurant supply district on the Bowery in New York and boasts an enormous assortment of inedible plastic display food (sampuru) that is commonly found outside restaurants in Japan. There are composed popular dishes like katsu karē (カツカレー?) or breaded pork cutlet over curry and rice, ramen, and agedashi tofu (揚げ出し豆腐) or fried tofu with hot broth. They also have a variety of sliced meats for shabu-shabu (しゃぶしゃぶ) restaurants as well as sliced fruits, scoops of ice cream, mixed drinks, sushi rolls, glass of beer, etc.
It was pretty wild to see all of the fake food in the same room and the level of detail was astounding. One of the cucumber and tomato sandwiches actually had visible tomato seeds from the side view. The manufacturers are also known to custom-tailor the sampuru to reflect each restaurant's specialty. According to wikipedia, many of the fake food manufacturers fiercely guard their industry replication secrets and some extraordinary examples of sampuru have been exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum in Britain.
I was hoping to pick up a bunch of reproduction food for my friend's daughter and her play kitchen, but everything was pretty pricey; apparently the plastic food reproduction in Japan is a multi-billion dollar industry.
[1. c. lynn]
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