“This is easier if they had simply been painted many times, such as mayonnaise and various sources. Clean look!”
The Magic Five is a crafty, Japanese spread bottle with five parallel holes. If you squeeze just right, you can decorate a plate, food or person (huzzah!) with pretty much any reasonably-thick, chunk-free condiment of your choosing.
After discovering the bottle at an okonomiyaki counter in Kyoto during my first trip to Japan last November, I was hooked — then mega-disappointed I couldn’t find one at Tokyu Hands. Finally, I managed to import one. Find out how after the jump…
I’m a sauce guy. Not exclusively for taste, but play. Anytime a saucy desert, dinner or starter plate is put in front of me, I’m dragging a fork or toothpick through it to create a “spider web” or “checker board” (above) or Jackson Pollack.
The good news: This product is awesome for doing all of the above design work and more. I’m mostly decorating poached eggs with a mix of hot sauce, Tabasco, and ketchup. But mayo or anything with a similar consistency works great. Hot sauce with chunky peppers or skins are not good.
The bad news: It’s sold only in Japan, where it’s being marketed as an “As Seen On Tv”-style cooking aid. The only online outlet seems to be via shopping.yahoo.co.jp, which currently won’t ship outside Japan*. Total bummer.
The good news (for me): Lisa has family in Tokyo. We split a set of two (below) for 1,259 yen, roughly $13 (including shipping, which was pricier than the Magic Five!). Worth every yen. I’ll go out on a limb and say Lisa and I are now both budding decorators. She’s using Kewpie mayo in hers. I’m jealous, and now very hungry.
*If you live in Japan, buy these and eBay them. You won’t be sorry.
As someone who cooks okonomiyaki on a regular basis, I totally need one of these.
They have the three hole variety at Daiso in Seattle, $1.50 each. I use one for Kewpie and one for okonomiyaki sauce. I could hook you up if you wanted a couple.
Also useful for drawing musical staves on your food. Clef, key, and time signature not included.
Hmmm, conductive paste of some kind would make for on-the-fly circuits X5!
Nono Jimmy, don’t eat that!
Oh dear.
Tokyu Hands is amazing. Amazing mechanical pencils and doodads galore.
they should have these at five guys for some reason
This isn’t just a Japanese thing. They use something similar to this to apply condiments at Quizno’s, although it has three nozzles rather than five.