What the fuck were they thinking?
It isn’t just the gross (literally) violation of traditional Asian ettiquite, it’s also just pretentious schlock! I hate these hack chefs who are more concerned with the quirky presentation than the food.
It’s not like this is an act of war or anything, except against good taste. Still, Abe should get even. Maybe the next time they have dinner, he can serve Netanyahu dessert in a dish shaped like Jesus.
I’m not saying it’s common Japanese culture, but I’ve seen interest stories of Japanese restaurant that serves food in a mock toilet bowl and the local patrons seem to get a kick out of it.
I dunno, that’s more of a cheese-and-crackers kind of meal.
Heck, I’m not the least bit Jewish, Japanese or anything else, yet I would be offended. Who wants their dessert served in a shoe? Personally, I’d prefer a condom or a slop bucket.
More bad ways to serve food:
https://twitter.com/WeWantPlates
These are not all bad–the T-rex serving dish is totally awesome, and the coral caviar dish is beautiful. Bacon on a clothesline, though. 
So… ixnay on that kitty litter box cake I had in mind for your birthday…?
Thats a novelty thing where they know in advance what to expect. Yes this is mind numbingly stupid, I mean lots of western people would find dessert in a shoe gross (I would) but for any country with buddhist influence it’s really really offensive. Feet and shoes are the lowest part of the body (spiritually), offering food in a shoe like this is saying “you are so low that this is all you deserve, to eat out of a shoe”. I’m sure the Japanese PM knows it wasn’t deliberate but still, did the “celebrity” chef not do even the slightest bit of research on Japanese culture?
coremelt:
Heck, it would have been nice for Netanyahu to know that that’s true in Judaism itself - note that Moses is instructed to remove his shoes at the burning bush (Exodus 3:5). It’s something that he or his chef should have thought about even without needing to know about a foreign culture.
At least it was dessert and not a main dish like…sole.
Nitpick: it’s pronounced “keesh”, and spelt quiche.
So you’re archly lacing into Netanyahu for serving food meant to amuse the eye as well as please the tongue? You heel!
for truly stupid, thy this:
I once read a newspaper reporter claim that he saw a high ranking Chinese politician who gave a gift to a visiting Israeli politician.
The gift was a book.
The book was Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
But maybe on the other hand, the shoe thing is even stupider…
Because you can politely accept a book and then quietly place it aside and ignore it. You can’t ignore your dinner plate at an official banquet.
I find it hard to even believe it was accidental. It seems more like the type of “accident” that lets you get away with doing something.
And fill it with tasty sweets, apparently. :dubious:
Such a restaurant was right next to my hotel in Taipei, Taiwan. It was not crowded that I ever saw and I never felt the urge to venture inside.
Reminds me of when the Russians introduced the Japanese to that book, and the Japanese promptly invited the Jews to Japan:
Roosevelt wasn’t Jewish, of course, but that didn’t stop American isolationists from calling him “Rosenfeld” to solidify their position that getting involved in WWII and beating up on all those nice Germans would be a bad thing.
It’s like that time that Iraqi guy threw his shoes at President Bush and the news guys were all, “In their culture, throwing a shoe at someone is a grave insult”.
Yeah, chucking your shoe at somebody isn’t exactly a friendly gesture in American culture either.
Or any culture.