Food samples Designpocket

The storefront at Designpocket features rows of plastic lettuce, ramen bowls, and glistening sashimi that look wet to the touch. This shop specializes in the Japanese craft of sampuru, or food samples. In the nineteen thirties, a man named Takizo Iwasaki created the first wax-based samples to help illiterate customers identify dishes on restaurant menus. Today, the store sells these hyper-realistic replicas to tourists and collectors who want to capture a perfect, unchanging meal to take home.