Plastic Moulds of Food

I’ve always wondered why so many restaurants in Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan have plastic moulds of their menu items.  Was it cheaper to have these moulds made and displayed in a window, opposed to just having pictures printed on their menus?  I guess many of these restaurants only have a standard menu posted up somewhere in the restaurant, so it would make sense to be able to see what your food is expected to look like, but isn’t this a bit of a gamble?  What if the food you serve looks nothing like what the mould shows?  And it’s not like the plastic moulds really make the food out to look so delicious that it entices you to step into the restaurant!  Although, some do turn out much better than others.

In Canada, I’ve only ever seen plastic moulds a few times in Chinatown, and I think they were always at Japanese restaurants.  Usually, I don’t pay that much attention to them because I find that the food you are served comes out looking nothing like the moulds do.

This kind of changed when I was at Kyobashi Station in Osaka.  We were on our way to Universal Studios but had to stop for a quick lunch.  The station is very small and only had a couple of choices.  We saw a noodle shop’s display of their plastic moulds and decided to try it out.  When the food came, I was pleasantly surprised to find how similar it looked to the mould.  I honestly don’t remember if there were menus or how the food tasted, but just remember the food looking really similar to the mould!