BIG IN JAPAN: KONAPUN

This is a bowl of ramen.

Not really.

It's konapun, an inedible food toy "cooked" in this awesomely cute miniature kitchen.

Manufactured by giant Japanese toy maker Bandai, konapun are miniature food "cooking" sets  that allow you to create mini, realistic food items with  (mostly) the aid of powdered sodium alginate, a brown seaweed extract used as a stabilizer for dairy products.

Kona, as I Googled it, means either  "flour," "meal" or "powder".

Konapun are labeled as inedible because you have to mix the powdered seaweed extract with additives and coloring to achieve the realistic color and textures of the food you want to recreate.

Like parfait.

Click on the pic to see how these were made!

Burger and fries.

Click on the pic to see how these were fried!

Curry and rice.

Click on the pic to see how this meal was made!

If you watched the burger and fries video above (which, as I write this,  is at 15 Million views) you might have noticed that the burger patty and fries were fried. This is because the "oil" actually contains citric acid,  which  reacts to the sodium alginate by forming miniscule bubbles, making it look like it was "frying."  For many enthusiasts, the fun is in the cooking.

Here is a one crazy video that uses real egg to make a konapun breakfast.

Click on the pic to see the video.

Now that's cooking in really small spaces!