美食模型：不能入口的誘惑
異域采風
Host： You know， when you go to a restaurant and they have a plate with the daily special on display？ Well， in Japan， restaurants often have their entire menu on display. Looks good too， like it’s ready to eat， except you can’t because the food is made of plastic. Turns out that all of that fake sushi， Ramen and chicken katsu curry is made on one street in Tokyo， Kappabashi Street.
Steve Dolinsky （Food writer）： Kappabashi is kind of the local source for all the housewares， kitchenwares. You see a lot of chefs shopping over there to fill their restaurants with products， but you also see some of these “Shokuhin Sanpuru” stores. They make these samples of food. Pretty much， if you can eat something on this planet， it can be replicated in Tokyo.
Host： A lot of restaurants in Japan do this. So， if I’m a 1）restaurateur， what do I do？ Take my menu down to Kappabashi Street， and one of these little factories will create models of my food for me？
Steve： Exactly. The sample store I went to was 2）Maiduru. They’ve been around since 1948. They actually want the restaurateurs and chefs to bring the food in. Sometimes， they said， people send it in via mail. This is not just for restaurants in Japan. These are for restaurants all over the world. If you’ve been to an Asian restaurant anywhere in America， you’ve been to Chinatown somewhere， and you see all that plastic food in the front window， chances are it came from Kappabashi Street， actually from some of the factories just outside of Tokyo， like this Maiduru that I visited earlier today.
Host： The place like Maiduru， what do their workshops look like？ More like a kitchen or more like an artist’s studio？
Steve： Yeah， it’s something out of an artist’s studio. People 3）hunched over wooden tables， wearing masks， being very 4）meticulous， painting things， forming things， pulling moulds out of ovens. I mean， we saw these women that were 5）airbrushing lobsters and lemons and hand painting the little fat streaks on top of Wagyu beef， or pieces of Maguro tuna， I mean really， really 6）intricate work. Some of these people went to art schools； some just have a really good eye for food.