“Lettuce that’s looking at you like it wants you to buy it.”
Lettuce is one of those foods where the individual parts of the plant we eat are distinct from the harvestable foodstuff as a whole, which is why we refer to “leaves” and “heads” of lettuce. But while you can find heads of lettuce in supermarkets all over the world, only in Japan will you encounter lettuce with faces.
And it’s not just any face that this lettuce has, but the face of Tatsuya Fujiwara, which is also the face of Death Note’s Light Yagami, who was portrayed by Fujiwara in the 2006 live-action theatrical adaptation of the psychological/supernatural thriller.
▼ “Lettuce that’s looking at you like it wants you to buy it,” explains the sign.
Thankfully, Japan’s face lettuce is not the result of genetic mutations or a malicious mark of impending death. Instead, it’s an attempt to reduce food waste, something that Japanese society tends to be pretty conscious of and concerned about. According to Japanese food and condiment company Ajinomoto, over 60 percent of shoppers in Japan end up throwing out unused portions of lettuce they’ve purchased in the summer. Part of the problem is that the intense summer heat and humidity mean that fresh produce doesn’t stay fresh for all that long, and another issue is that traditional Japanese dishes don’t really call for lettuce. The most common way for lettuce to be eaten in Japan is for it to be put into raw vegetable salads, but that lack of variety means that lettuce can go unused if people are craving a more creative dish instead.
So Ajinomoto has come up with a variety of recipes using its Cook Do line of seasonings, such as chilled ramen noodles with lettuce, shabu shabu-style pork with lettuce, and lettuce gyoza where the leafy vegetable substitutes for the conventional dumpling skin. To help get the word out, Ajinomoto, through a partnership with Japanese agricultural organization Zen-Noh, is printing a QR code on wrappers for lettuce heads which, when scanned with your phone’s camera, will take you to a website where the recipes are (the site it can also be accessed regularly here).
That QR code is printed on the inside of the wrappers, though, and in order to really grab people’s attention, on the outside is the face of Tatsuya Fujiwara.
Fujiwara isn’t a random selection to be the literal face of lettuce. He’s also the spokesmodel for Ajinomoto’s Cook Do Oyster Sauce, which is heavily featured in its lettuce recipes.
In total, 10,000 heads of Fujiwara face lettuce, officially called Cook Do Oyster Sauce Tatsuya Fujiwara Kattekuretasu (a pun with katte kure/”buy this” and retasu, the Japanese pronunciation of “lettuce”), will be available. It went on sale at Tokyo’s Ginza Nagano Nagano local products store on July 21, and comes next to the following supermarket branches in the Tokyo and Kansai areas.
● Heiwado supermarkets
From July 25: Al Plaza Moriyama, Al Plaza Kusatsu, Vivacity Heiwado, Al Plaza Kyotanabe, Al Plaza Korien, Al Plaza Ibaraki, Al Plaza Joyo, Al Plaza Katata, Friend Mart Uji, Friend Mart Momo Terrace branches
● Comodi-iida supermarkets
From July 27: Takinogawa, Machiya, Higashi Kawaguchi, Hirai, Kami-Itabashi branches
From July 28: Shikahama, Higashi Mukojima, Kawaguchi Ripre, Kosuge, Asaka branches
No pricing details have been announced, but it’s probably safe to assume that it’ll be more or less in line with non-face lettuce.
Source: PR Times
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times, Ajinomoto
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