If you've never lived in Japan, what kinds of foods come to mind when you first think of the country? Sushi? Rice? Soy Sauce? Miso soup?
Now, if you've lived in Japan, I guarantee the answers will be entirely different. Fermented soyabean pasta, octopus pizza, shredded cabbage as a salad, hamburger rice balls, hot dog naan dog (that comes in a pita with meat sauce), deep fried fish paste with seaweed flavoring and stuffed with artificial cheese.... the list of totally odd, unexpected, but completely normal for the Nihonjin (Japanese people) goes on and on.
There are however a few consistent odd items. If I had to choose one, it would definitely be mayonnaise.
Japan loves mayo. Mayo is in EVERYTHING. Every rice ball, on seafood, every sandwich, on hamburgers, as salad dressing, as dip for your vegetables... I'm not even kidding. Most people I know are not picky eaters but the one thing they've either had to learn to accept or know to ask about in a restaurant is added mayonnaise.
With that in mind, my choice for picking mayonnaise (and also that it's the funniest word ever!!) is unsurprising.
Japanese mayo is a little different from American mayo. Not so thick and a little sweeter, it always comes in a squeezable bottle.
I've included some supermarket photos of mayo for some fun background. (Half of the super market aisle is all mayo bottles. My friend wanted to buy a 1kg squeezable bottle of mayo yesterday... just because he could.)
On the left is corn mayonnaise. On the right is tuna mayonnaise. obvs.
The left is shrimp mayonnaise. The right is sesame mayonnaise.
And this is clearly the salad dressing mayonnaise section.
This is actually my favorite kind. It's pretty good. Wasabi Mayo.
When I was trying to decide what to do for my project only one thing came to mind when I thought of mayonnaise:
a portrait of Michael Jackson. I don't know why and I'm being totally honest, but it's all I really wanted to do. It proved slightly more difficult than planned, so I had to add a few more food ingredients.
Squeezey the mayo!!
Rough outline:
Final product: "Michael in Mayo"
-- ingredients: mayo, coffee, hot chocolate powder, a little bit of aubergine skin, and chili peppers for the lips
YES. This is the best. You are the best.
ReplyDeletethis is brilliant! can i have one specially made for my birthday??
ReplyDeleteKRISSY WHY YOU WASTING FOOD? DON'T YOU KNOW FOOD DOES NOT GROW ON TREES? channeling mom for a second.
ReplyDeletebut for real: um, AMAZING. you should be a mayo street artist.