Japanese Food Replica

One of the pictures above is a replica. Can you guess which one is it?

Food replica of steak

Food replica was invented in 1920s.

Back then, colored photographs were not distributed yet in Japan. Such reason led making a model of what was popular in Tokyo, the culture center of Japan, and this trend of making a replica spread as the model was introduced to many companies.

The purpose back then was to present samples. These samples provided not only aesthetic pleasure but also increased appetite. As a result, the replicas were developed to appeal the foods.

At the beginning, paraffin was used.

However, the import of it became impossible as the Second World War started, and they stopped using it. The wax had some problems as it was easy to break to discolor.

So, plastic was used more gradually.

Today, rubber, vinyl chloride and etc. are used to make them.

By the way, the answer to the question at the start was V.

Were you able to recognize?

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We will introduce how to make these food models.

This is a procedure to make fried shrimp.

Prepare sol (raw material of vinyl plastic).

Make a silicon model from a real shrimp fry.

Pour the sol.

Bake in oven.

Detach from silicon model to get the base form.

Start coloring.

Attach other parts by heating.

Put on base color of the model..

Melt the paraffin to use as frying powder.

Put color on paraffin.

Put paraffin on cold water.

Attach the completed paraffin.

It is finished.

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Here are other types of food replica.

And the little weird ones…

Food replica made of wood.

Food replicas are made by pure handwork of master craftsman, so the price is quite high. Recently, they are often used as gifts.

Also, food replica making kits are sold these days so that anyone can make their own.

#japanesefood