Sanpuru

Short note: 「チンチン好吗？」と日本人のクラスメートに話しかけられちゃった。
Greeted by my Japanese classmate, who took Mandarin as his optional subject - "How is your [insert that body part]?"

Sanpuru is the Japanese version of the word "sample", which refers to the plastic food display which you see so often in front of the restaurants in Japan. Perhaps it is not a trend in the restaurants, including the Japanese restaurant in Malaysia, to have a set of plastic food displayed at the entrance of the restaurants, but it is a very common sight here in Japan. Maybe one day, we also can have our own nasi lemak and char koey teow which are made from plastic to be displayed in front of the stalls.

These sanpuru shops can be found along the Kappabashi Street, which is located in between Ueno and Asakusa in Tokyo.

No, no, no. A sanpuru shop doesn't sell this huge pig haha.

So, what exactly can you find in a sanpuru shop? Since it came from the word "sample", you might guessed that these shops sells sample food stuff. But no, that is not what exactly sanpuru shops sell. To make this a simple entry, I will not write much, just pictures taken from a couple of these shops.

Entrance to the shop.

Big lobsters are not for sale haha.

Colourful sushi. They call this nigiri sushi (握り寿司).

This would be temaki zushi (手巻き寿司).

Onigiri with different kinds of filling.

Various kinds of ramen.

Meats for yakiniku and other common Japanese dishes.

Ebi tenpura.

Grilled fishes.

These plastic food are made to look so real that sometimes I thought the food displayed in restaurants are real. But they are quite pricey at the same time. Some were made into little key chains and magnets to be sold as souvenirs. There are also some other shops which sells plastic bento sets and I bet those stuff look even cuter. Too bad it was a Sunday and most shops are usually closed on the day. Maybe I will go there again one day.

Mich suggested that I get a whole set of the food from this shops so that we would not have to cook everyday in the future. Just buy these plastic food and put them on the table every time it is eating time. Save time and cost haha.

Cakes and buns.

Pizzas and breads.

Breads.

Beers, which look really real.

Ice creams.

Fruits. No durians though.

Vegetables.

Of so many stuff displayed there, I was only interested on one thing.

Japanese curry rice and of course, naan!

Don't you feel like taking a bite on the naan haha.