Food Like Grandma Used to Sew

There’s a little café down by the fishin’ hole in Wadabori Park. On sunny days when the catch-and-release crowd is out in force it is filled with people downing plates of yaki soba, onigiri, and other food that’s good for washing down a beer with. The odds that I will ever eat there were increased when I happened across the food display, outside next to the 8-foot-tall talking humanoid popcorn machine. Instead of the usual plastic images of what’s on offer, the food in this display is made of felt and yarn, a handmade labor of love. It’s not quite as mouth-watering as your well-made plate of plastic dumplings, but it seems far more sincere. However, the idea of putting woolen soba noodles in my mouth is a bit of a buzzkill.

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