Seafood Restaurant Fines Customers Who Leave Food on Their Plate
The first rule of seafood is, "if you see food, you eat it."
One restaurant in Sapporo, Japan, is making sure their customers adhere to that decree by fining those who do not finish every last bit of food that is placed before them.
On its menu, Hachikyo clearly states that failure to consume every last bit of their signature dish — a bowl of rice topped with all-you-can-eat salmon roe — will result in a surcharge which will be donated to the fishermen who made the food possible.
A blogger at Gold Rush offers this firsthand account (via RocketNews24):
According to the explanation in the menu, the working conditions for fishermen are harsh and so dangerous that it's not unknown for lives to be lost. To show our gratitude and appreciation for the food they provide, it is forbidden to leave even one grain of rice in your bowl. Customers who do not finish their tsukko meshi must give a donation.
Midori Yokoyama goes on to note that the "tsukko meshi" will set you back about 1,890 yen (~$20), but that it is well worth it.
For the record, a waitress told Yokoyama that "hardly anyone leaves their tsukko meshi unfinished."
The shop owner says the concept has proven popular enough to allow him to open a second location in Tokyo this coming April.
