General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIsrael offended Japan's prime minister by serving him dessert out of a shoe, which Japanese people '
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife had their dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife interrupted by an offensive cultural faux pas dessert was served in a shoe.
Shoes are "despised" in Japanese culture, and it's a weird idea in any case to serve food out of a shoe.
A Japanese diplomat called it offensive and questioned what the meal, prepared by an Israeli celebrity chef, was trying to accomplish.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife had their dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife interrupted by an offensive cultural faux pas dessert was served in a shoe.
While serving food out of a shoe seems like an odd choice for any culture, it has a special and offensive connotation in Japan.
"This was a stupid and insensitive decision," a senior Israeli diplomat who served in Japan told Hebrew-language Yediot Aharonot, according to JPost.
"There is nothing more despised in Japanese culture than shoes. Not only do they not enter their houses while wearing shoes, you will not find shoes in their offices either. Even the prime minister, ministers and members of parliament do not wear shoes to work... It is equivalent to serving a Jewish guest chocolates in a dish shaped like a pig," the diplomat said.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-offended-japans-prime-minister-by-serving-him-dessert-out-of-a-shoe-which-japanese-people-despise/ar-AAwSM8j?li=BBnbfcL
Bibi is such a clASS act.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)A deliberate insult, in my view.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Throwing the shoe was the highest insult that he could issue toward Bush, it effectively said that Bush was dirty swine not worthy of more than being hit by a shoe that may have stepped in filth at some time.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)malaise
(268,724 posts)dalton99a
(81,406 posts)Kirk Lover
(3,608 posts)over there....they drinking tRUMP water ?
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Some in that crowd have been known to drink alcohol from a shoe is celebration.
dalton99a
(81,406 posts)boston bean
(36,219 posts)ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)The article said the shoes were metal sculptures.
boston bean
(36,219 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)It wasn't an actual shoe.
MineralMan
(146,262 posts)Looks exactly like a shoe to me.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)but in a metal sculpture by industrial designer Tom Dixon.
LisaL
(44,972 posts)Still don't get the idea as to why it was served in a replica that looked exactly like the real deal. Who finds that appetizing?
Hekate
(90,565 posts)That dessert does not look appetizing. Or amusing.
Many cultures around the world thnk of feet and shoes as dirty. They leave their shoes and sandals outside the door. Showing the soles of your feet to a guest (as might happen in cultures where people sit on the floor) is considered insulting.
Japan is one of these cultures. But the Israeli chef doesn't have to look that far to find an example: the same goes for the Arabic/Middle Eastern cultures that interpenetrate Israel itself.
RockRaven
(14,915 posts)it's just a metal replica designed to roast marshmallows instead of poisoning European Jews, so there's no way Bibi would be offended by this desert presentation at my state dinner, right?
Tarc
(10,475 posts)Netanyahu cheerleader, are we?
MineralMan
(146,262 posts)It represented a shoe. It accurately duplicate a shoe. Visually, it was precisely a shoe, regardless of the materials.
I saw the photo of it. Without close examination, it appeared to be a shoe. Dessert was served in it. It was a dessert served in a representation of a shoe to a world leader.
It was a Magritte image of a shoe. It doesn't matter, because it was a dessert served in a shoe for all intents and purposes.
MosheFeingold
(3,051 posts)I know about because I have a Salvadore Dali plate inscribed "This is a plate" as a bit of a joke in response.
The "this is not a pipe" is an allusion to Winston Churchill walking into a meeting of generals with a table top map with positions of troops on it. They were discussing grandiose future plans for the territory during the war.
Churchill looked at it and sneered, "the map is not the territory, gentlemen. Win the territory, then draw the map."
It was considered quite rude, but quite correct. Typical Churchill, in other words.
MineralMan
(146,262 posts)In reality, representations of things are often taken to be the things they represent. That's a logical error, of course, but a natural one, made by most people in some circumstances.
Serving dessert in a very accurate representation of a shoe is equivalent to serving it in an actual shoe, really. The result is a problem, if you serve it to a person for whom a shoe is a loathsome object.
It was a terrible decision on the part of that chef. Probably just a stupid mistake, though, which I'm sure Abe recognized as such, really.
A cultural faux pas can be explained, but it would be better if it were avoided in the first place, I think.
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)What the hell does a shoe have to do with dessert? What the hell does a shoe have to do with any kind of food?
Can anyone think of a food/shoe metaphor? I sure can't.
Generic Brad
(14,272 posts)scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)Retrograde
(10,130 posts)although I think it was a stunt shoe. And Sir John Franklin, noted for losing himself and all his men in the Arctic in the 1840s, was known as the "man who ate his shoes" because he boiled the leather for nourishment on a previous expedition. But starving ad literally having nothing else to eat except leather is not the same as using shoes as serving platters at a formal dinner.
Using unusual objects as serving dishes isn't new, and IMHO is a sign that the chef isn't quite sure of their food being able to stand o]n its own. This website has some dumb examples.
OneBro
(1,159 posts)GoCubsGo
(32,075 posts)The napkins stuffed in that thing look like dirty socks.
What a bunch of dumbasses.
Buns_of_Fire
(17,158 posts)But that would be more appropriate for the main course, not dessert.
For dessert, I would have recommended a scoop of chocolate ice cream on a bed of tasty edible underwear.
That Bibi, he's such a cutup.
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)Cha
(296,893 posts)heard of food served out of a shoe.. dessert or otherwise
Did they have to go out of their way to offend the Japanese?
oasis
(49,338 posts)DavidDvorkin
(19,469 posts)What reason could there be for a deliberate insult? That would make no sense.
RockRaven
(14,915 posts)that someone who lives in a nation surrounded by nations of people who are obviously offended by shoe-related maneuvers would accidentally be so careless as to serve someone food in a shoe without finding out whether or not their nation also had a tendency to be offended by shoe-related maneuvers.
JI7
(89,241 posts)even think it would be an issue with Japan.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,488 posts)most mature governments have cultural experts that cross-check everything for state functions to insure there's nothing culturally sensitive or offensive to any guests, and that protocol is correct.
Apparently, that guy in Israel was off for the day......
NBachers
(17,083 posts)KY_EnviroGuy
(14,488 posts)Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)madaboutharry
(40,190 posts)The shoe in question, if you read the article, is actually a bowl shaped like a shoe - not a real shoe. But why food would have been served to the Japanese PM like this indicates someone wasn't doing his job very well.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)betsuni
(25,380 posts)Common problem these days, wanting to be "creative."
MosheFeingold
(3,051 posts)I wonder if this is an in-joke among the Japanese chefs.