kewpie
Japan will see your chocolate-carrying rabbit and raise you a co-opted mayonnaise mascot wearing a muppet costume.
If you’re American then sorry, Kewpie doesn’t think you’re ready for its hard-core naked angel logo like most of Earth is.
You can take a doll out of the store, but the staff will have to cut off one of its fingers first…
We visited the Kewpie Mayo Cafe on Mayonnaise Day, March 1, to sample some smooth and sophisticated mayo-drenched cuisine!
The latest edition of Japan’s bi-annual Wonder Festival brought out both male and female cosplayers, plus Sailor Moon figurines, which are well-known stalwarts of any good event celebrating anime and the creative arts. But what about the actual handmade models that put the wonder into the festival?
Amateur hobbyists converge at the event to display and sell unique goods, resulting in an array of never-before-seen models and items that can’t be found anywhere else. From ramen kewpie dolls to seductive vegetables, we’ve got photos of the most imaginative and eye-popping goods you’ll see this season.
For most of my life, I’ve never been much of a mayonnaise fan. It went well on burgers and stuff, but really if the world’s supply had suddenly vanished I don’t think my life would have skipped a beat. That is until coming to Japan and discovering the beauty that is Kewpie brand mayonnaise.
Kewpie Mayo’s taste can best be described as waking up on a lazy Sunday morning to the gentle breath of a kitten by your face as you lay next to your model lover. We’re talking print model not runway – runway is more like Kenko brand mayonnaise.
And so, Kewpie Mayo has become an indispensable condiment to my daily dining routine as it has to millions of others in Japan. However, where can us devoted lovers of the sweet sauce go for information on the history and development of mayonnaise? Mayoterrace, that’s where!
If you are a mayonnaise hater, stay out of Japan. You wouldn’t think it, but the good ole American companion to Wonder Bread is a staple of down home Japanese cooking. From potato salad to lotus root smothered in mayonnaise, at least in Chibu where I live, you can’t sit down to a meal without some mayonnaise-based dish on the table. Aside from being a main dressing for side dishes, mayonnaise is squeezed atop traditional Japanese dishes such as okonomiyaki (Japanese “pizza”), takoyaki (fried balls of dough with squid in the middle), yakisoba (a noodle dish), and many kinds of katsu (fried meat).
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