Doraemon’s gadgets in real life? Give us the Anywhere Door, Super Gourmet Spice – they would add flavour to life
- From Memory Bread to the Anywhere Door, the wonderful, resourceful world of the futuristic cartoon robot cat Doraemon is full of items you wish were real
- I asked a few friends in the food industry what they would invent to make their life and work infinitely better – one suggested a mini me to work in the kitchen
I am currently reading the book All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai, a story that begins when one man’s invention – capable of generating an infinite amount of clean energy – changed the world.
The protagonist, Tom, describes the multitude of ways that life has been transformed since, with vignettes of life in the future that feel reminiscent of sci-fi cartoon The Jetsons.
Among the life improvements, there is a gadget called a food synthesiser – “a system [that] outputs whatever meal you feel like from a nutrient gel mixed with colour, flavour and texture protocols … it’s indistinguishable from what you think of as real food, except that it’s uniquely gauged to your tongue’s sensory receptors so it tastes and feels ideal every time”.
In Tom’s world, there are no browning avocados or mouldy sourdough – only perfection.
I cannot help but think that the contraption is relatively unimaginative compared to all the weird and wonderful gadgets depicted in Doraemon, the long-running Japanese manga and anime series by Fujiko Fujio that has charmed generations since the eponymous blue robot cat flew into existence in 1970.
The exhibition is a cute reminder of the whimsical genius of Doraemon, whose 4D pouch holds countless secret tools that can conveniently help – or sometimes hinder – other characters.
The most famous is, of course, the Dokodemo Door – known as the Anywhere Door, which can transport the user immediately between two places no matter the distance, but there are plenty of intriguing food-related gadgets too.
Memory Bread (or Copying Toast) is another classic, which can help the user memorise anything that has been pressed into the piece of bread – as long as it has been digested correctly and not, erm, expelled before the need to recall the information.
Among some of the more obscure gadgets, I love the idea of the Gourmet Tablecloth, which allows you to conjure any dish you please with a shaking of the cloth followed by a voice command – pure magic for dinner parties.
Doraemon also had gadgets to deal with high emotions, like the Popcorn Hat, which would transform the wearer’s red-hot anger into actual heat, which would in turn generate fresh popcorn and calm down the person at the same time.
Unfortunately, the worse they are at cooking, the less edible the popcorn they produce.
It got me thinking – what other fun food-related gadgets might serve us right now? Might I suggest the Degustation Dumpling, which upon consumption speeds up any multiple-course menu into a compact 1.5 hour seating?
A No-More-Flakiness Egg Tart for deadbeat friends? Or perhaps a literal Longevity Noodle that can help extend the lifespan of our favourite restaurants?
“I always hope to cook following my feelings, senses and inspirations,” he explains. “But, as a professional chef, I need to record all the weights of the ingredients, how much I cooked, and for how long, at what temperature.
“The Multiple Recorder would record everything … and make a recipe with video and photos. It should be a scale, thermometer, camera, video, timer and editor all in one!”
For food writer Miyako Kai, there is nothing better than the Anywhere Door. “It’s a magic tool I [have thought] of at least a few times a year for a couple of decades,” she says.
“I still remember the moment when I was a high-school girl, on the way back from school, waiting for my train for a long time. It was snowy and freezing cold, and I wished for the Dokodemo Door to appear in front of me.”
She adds that during Covid, such a door would have been indispensable, allowing her to visit loved ones in Japan.
Now that the world is open again, she has another dream gadget: “I want a special version of this door to come with a Dokodemo Table. Then, we are guaranteed to have a table at any restaurant that is hard to book!”
