These food look fancier than those from many of the bento-type Japanese restaurants around here, and certainly better than those from probably all the hospitals here!
The comments are hilarious too.
'I wanna give birth in Japan. And I am a 60 year old man…
Funny, I had seen this article elsewhere and I was rather fascinated with it. There has been similar articles about school lunches from around the world and again the US school lunch, similar to it’s hospital food was far inferior to the global equivalents.
I think the most interesting thing is there is such an obvious sense of pride in the presentation of the food. It is such a start contract to the hospital food served here, on drab colored tray’s of hardly identifiable globs of food mass. (Is that mashed potatoes or my turkey?)
What impresses me is that I count 12 meals. Here in the US moms are lucky to get one overnight in the hospital. Maybe 2 or 3 nasty meals whose mere aroma would kill anyone’s appetite served in plastic plates on, as @NotJrvedivici observed, drab colored trays.
If I was hospitalized in Japan, I might not want to recover!
I doubt the Japanese hospital foods actually taste good compare to their restaurant counterpart. That being said, are the Japanese hospital foods better than American hospital foods? Maybe. Yet, most people probably don’t care all that much about foods anyway.
My very good friend just gave birth two weeks ago in a very well known hospital in nyc while staying in a private suite and yet the food was so appalling (room temp mac and cheese, a small plate of broccoli that started life frozen and was then over cooked and then some, a cup of cold chicken (??) noodle soup, and six grapes. And jello of course )
The poor thing literally had not eaten for close to 24hrs between the labor and c-section and recovery! I arrived not long after this first so called meal arrived and left soon thereafter to get a sandwich for her at the corner bodega which in comparison was gourmet.
These Japanese meals just demonstrate how much more balanced and vegetable/fish focused their typical meals are. The chawan mushi is a nice touch, although i would pass on the natto…
But we know jello trumps every other national cuisines. Everyone likes jello. Tell me you don’t like jello. As for room temperature Mac and Cheese and cool chicken noodle soup, these are healthier and safer. What is your friend burn herself with a hot Mac and Cheese? Who will get sued? Furthermore, hot soup only means microwaved soup… which has radiation.
I’d get knocked up just to have those meals…
They should make you hold your bowl of soup when you get x-rays! Two birds with one shot of radiation!
Well, keep in mind, they only serve hot soup in Japan, we don’t do that in America. Also, hot foods are so unnatural.
They serve hot soup in American hospitals too!!
Don’t try to ruin my new dining concept. A.Y.C.E.S.&M.R.I.
Well, then they are microwaved hot soup then. Fake!
I actually really hate jello…! I always have, even as a kid. And shortly after finding out where gelatin comes from i have put concerned effort into avoiding it…
Seconded. And the fact that my grandmother made it in an empty Nescafe jar did not help. You know what goes well with fake lime flavor? Not instant coffee, I can tell you that much.
Oh… wow… that sounds like a really,…um…, special treat grandma came up with there…! 
Sounds like she would have done better with just some microwave oatmeal. My wife’s maternity ward food was about the same. She had no appetite and I ended up eating all her food. It was terrible.
I was admitted for emergency surgery here in foodie-heaven Berkeley, CA. They asked me which medications I was taking, and I listed my high blood pressure med., among others. But for some reason they didn’t give me that medication. They then noticed that my BP was a little high and put me on a low-sodium regime. Imagine the blandest American hospital food, then take away all the salt. I couldn’t stand more than a few bites, and the day after release, I got a nice carnitas burrito for lunch (after taking the BP medication, of course).
Gag! Coffee scented fruity jello!
The crappier thing about hospital menus is they often rotate on a two or three week basis. Having stayed in extensively, I’ve had to see some of those awful meals repeatedly.
My grandmother was an ur-recycler, one of those old ladies who could find a new purpose for any item. The perceived virtue of this practice was supposed to make you ignore its frequent ickiness.
Do you think those Japanese hospital meals look good because they just look foreign and interesting? I don’t think they are really great Japanese food. At best, they are the same quality as of Japanese supermarket Japanese meals, but probably worse.
They are fine, but nothing spectacular.
The Guardian has a post about it:
"My wife’s lunch on the maternity ward at a municipal hospital in Japan. Patients pay 260 yen per meal and the staff note how much of it you eat. It tastes more bland than in looks (if that’s possible). "
