Food Jewelry and Food Decor

First cupcakes, then macarons (aka macaroons), and now whoopie pies and cake pops. America has fallen head over heels for adorable mini desserts. Apparently, the Japanese have taken the obsession a step further.

Recently in Tokyo I spotted a ton of food jewelry and accessories. Necklaces, rings, cell phone charms, and even Pez dispensers. Here are some expensive blinged-out pistachio macarons made by Q-pot, which I found in the jewelry section of the Takashimaya Times Square department store in Shinjuku. (If Takashimaya NY hadn't closed, you might have been able to find them there.) Ok, I admit, kawaii!! 可愛い

The Q-pot website is absolutely adorable. It turns out that they go far beyond patisserie jewelry. For example, they do fried eggs, cheese, and as fashionistas must already know - Summer 2010 is the season for mini burgers with googley eyes. They're like the Mickey and Minnie Mouse of hamburgers... the king and queen of the slider kingdom...the Hamburglars of today (McDonald's, take notice). 

Clearly Q-pot is not new on the scene. They've done collaborations with Fauchon, Richart, Blythe, Haagan-Dazs, and even iPod. The designer behind it all is Tadaaki Wakamatsu - a 32 year-old former fashion model. He was inspired to create designs that made people happy, and it certainly is an easy way to get people to smile.

Now for the coup de grâce: I found a little shop in Tokyo (Omotesando) that had a blinged-out pez dispenser with dollhouse-size touches from Disney's Beauty and the Beast. It wasn't for sale and I don't know who made it. Oops, correction, this is a Pinky dispenser, not a pez dispenser. You can easily buy Pinky in Japanese grocery shops in the SF Bay Area.

 

If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area and want some food decor for yourself, this weekend of July 17/18, 2010, New People (across from JapanTown) is having a sale on its patisserie and ice cream candles. This shop is SF Weekly's "Best New Shopping Experience” of 2010.