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In the scene where Chihiro's parents start pigging out,

O Nom Nom Nom

We see Chihiro's father eating some soft, almost gelatinous blob that seems to have fins or something.

Is this an actual food item? If so, what is it? If not, is it based off any real life dishes?

I want some! Moar!

Maroon
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кяαzєя
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  • At first i thought it was chicken but the "fins" are too close to be the wings and legs – Memor-X Nov 26 '14 at 04:20
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    I'm not aware of any creature with a shape like that, although I'm not a biologist. It's unusual for animals to be shaped like that in general, though. Maybe it's something native to the spirit world? – Clockwork-Muse Nov 26 '14 at 10:00
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    I just have to comment that this damn scene makes me super hungry every time I see it. I'd totally risk being turned into a pig to try out that succulent feast! – System Down Nov 26 '14 at 23:40
  • I think it'd be better to give a read circle to the object u're asking. – 絢瀬絵里 Nov 28 '14 at 09:14

2 Answers2

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It appears that the food was noted as "lamb stomach" (haggis or similar) at the Studio Ghibli Layout Designs exhibitions.

Haggis
The "fins" are where the haggis is sewn or tied.

I wasn't there at the exhibitions and don't own the exhibition catalogue, so I can only cite this blog post as source. According to the blog post, the annotation for that scene is

中にジューシーな具が入っている。トロトロした子羊の胃袋のような感じ

so the food has a juicy filling and "dozes off" like a lamb stomach. While the description doesn't tell us the name of the food, it likens it to, and probably is, a lamb stomach.

Perhaps you've been told that the food is ba-wan, a Taiwanese street food. Perhaps you've been told that the town from Spirited Away is modeled after Jiufen, a tourist attraction in Taiwan. They are at best misinformation and at worst disinformation propagated by travel agencies and shopkeepers to increase sales. Hayao Miyazaki has denied twice, once in the TVBS news interview, and once more in the CTi news interview that Jiufen was an inspiration for the film's settings. What were really the inspirations and/or models for the settings are listed in this well-researched article: the Dougo Onsen, the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum and Meguro Gajoen being the officially confirmed places.

Gao
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  • how can he use chopstick to eat that. . . that food looks heavy -_- – Tanya von Degurechaff Mar 22 '16 at 04:19
  • @NamikazeSheena [Chopsticks can pick up anything](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5pMMRqiME8). – Gao Mar 22 '16 at 10:54
  • ha . . . i don't have that kind of arm strenght. are they wrapped with actual lamb stomach ? – Tanya von Degurechaff Mar 22 '16 at 11:02
  • Wow, I expected the Lamb's stomach, Haggis to look different when watching Spirited Away. I've always wanted to know what the dad was eating....but it looks straight up nasty. But hey! you never know, unless you try it right? – Arlana Loving Dec 15 '18 at 23:18
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    https://twitter.com/MaroYonebayashi/status/1307128080725684224 An senior Ghibili animator, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, seems to indicate that it was supposed to be the stomach of a coelacanth. – кяαzєя Sep 24 '20 at 18:29
  • @кяαzєя I am confused. Was it originally supposed to be the stomach of a coelacanth in the storyboard and they dropped the idea or not? – Gao Sep 25 '20 at 04:43
  • It was not in the storyboards according to the animator. But noted to probably from the sketches by Miyazaki: https://twitter.com/MaroYonebayashi/status/1307154347373989892 – кяαzєя Sep 25 '20 at 07:05
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No it's called Ba-wan. That's what it is.. There are tons of links that will tell you. https://www.buzzfeed.com/christinalan/heres-how-to-eat-everything-youve-ever-wanted-fr

Kristina
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    If you read the accepted answer, you'll read that it has been conclusively shown that it is NOT Ba-wan and you've been misinformed. – Arcane Dec 21 '16 at 05:44
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    Rather than just linking to the external site, could you include the relevant content from that site here? We prefer if the answers here are complete to avoid link-rot and to make answers here complete. Link-only answers are not considered good answers even if they're correct. http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/8231/are-answers-that-just-contain-links-elsewhere-really-good-answers – Arcane Dec 21 '16 at 05:45