It looks like a breakfast at a fancy ryokan inn, but all this food came from a humble 7-Eleven and cost about 10 bucks. 

Visitors to Japan, and Japanese people themselves, have been known to sing the praises of convenience store food. Anthony Bourdain once waxed lyrical over egg sandwiches from Lawson and Katy Perry couldn’t contain her excitement over their Karaage-kun chicken nuggets, but now it’s time to elevate convenience store food into the realm of fine dining, thanks to some tips from YouTuber, photographer and Twitter user @_si_yo_ri_.

To show us how simple it is to transform a cheap meal into one you’d see at a restaurant, @_si_yo_ri_ popped by 7-Eleven to pick up the following items. With a luxury breakfast in mind, these were the products purchased: tofu; sautéed burdock; Japanese rolled omelette; stewed hijiki seaweed; sautéed soy pulp and vegetables; salt-grilled mackerel; yellow pickled radish assortment; miso soup.

As you can tell from the image above, the items purchased don’t look fancy at all. In fact, if you told someone you were making breakfast for them and they saw a load of packages like this on your kitchen counter, they’d be less than impressed and might even go so far as to call you a cheapskate.

However, all it takes is a few flourishes and some small plates from 100-yen store Daiso to transform the konbini-store meal into something you’d see at breakfast at a fancy hotel or ryokan inn.

Making it even more impressive is the fact that all these items, except for the rice, come pre-prepared and don’t require any cooking. The most you’d have to do in the kitchen is pour boiling water over the instant miso and maybe heat the fish in the microwave and that’s it!

▼ Proof that half the pleasure of eating is in the presentation.

People around the country were surprised to see konbini food looking so luxurious, sending @_si_yo_ri_’s tweet viral with over 250,000 likes in less than two days.

https://twitter.com/_si_yo_ri_/status/1292660464799764480

According to @_si_yo_ri_, the key to great presentation is choosing an array of plates, in different shapes and sizes, to provide variation for the eye, and by extension, palate. It doesn’t have to cost you the earth, either, as all the plates used in the photo come from Daiso, and the total for the 7-Eleven shop came to 1,127 yen (US$10.55). And for dessert, there was cheese soufflé, which cost around 300 yen for two pieces.

Being a photographer with an artistic eye also helps when presenting a meal, and @_si_yo_ri_ is here to help with that aspect too, sharing a video on YouTube showing what went on behind-the-scenes of the photo shoot.

The 7-Eleven meal transformation has been inspiring people around the country to share their own upgraded home meal photos online, and @_si_yo_ri_ says he’s enjoying seeing everyone’s images.

So next time you sit down for a quick meal at home, why not elevate it with some of the tips and tricks shown here and share your photos with the photographer? Now that we’re not travelling around Japan as much as usual, a breakfast at home like this is the next best thing to staying at a ryokan inn!

Source: Twitter/@_si_yo_ri_
Top image: Twitter/@_si_yo_ri_
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