Don't Hold the Mayo!(Japan's favourite Mayonnaise Kitchen )

Kouji Nakamura mixes a cocktail in his shaker, squeezes a bit of mayonnaise into it, gives it a good shake and voila! "This is mayogarita," he declares, putting down a glass of milky white stuff that smells like vinegar. Next he concocts a "mayoty dog," which is like a salty dog--vodka and grapefruit juice--with the rim of the glass coated in mayo instead of salt. If that makes you flinch, wait until dinner arrives: a pot of mayonnaise fondue, followed by a plate of chopped celery and octopus swimming in tomato and mayonnaise sauce. At the next table, a young couple slices a big, mayo-filled pizza. It's a typical Saturday night at Mayonnaise Kitchen, Japan's first mayo-themed restaurant. When Nakamura, 31, opened the eatery in a Tokyo suburb two summers ago, he recalls, "some said, 'Who would come to a place that just serves mayonnaise?' " Plenty of people, as it turned out; Nakamura opened his second Tokyo restaurant last April.

Surely no city in the world is better suited for such a place: Japanese love mayonnaise. And they are known for their abundant--and creative-- consumption of it. While use of such traditional seasonings as salt, soy sauce and miso paste has been on the decline, mayo consumption has risen 10 percent in the past two years. An average Japanese eats 1.9 kilograms of mayonnaise a year (though that's still less than half of what an American gobbles up). But while Americans limit its use mainly to salad dressings, sandwiches and dips, Japanese recipes are far more diverse--including mayonnaise soup and country mayo cake. Even rice balls, the traditional fast food, come with such mouth-watering fillings as fish egg and mayo, and stewed pork and mayo. Japanese food companies sell the condiment in soft plastic squeeze bottles, making it easy to top everything with mayonnaise. Even in the recession, in which most segments of the food market are suffering, "[Demand for] mayonnaise is surprisingly strong," says Tsutomu Matsuno, an analyst at Tokyo's Daiwa Institute of Research.

That's not surprising if you watch Mariko Suzuki eat. Suzuki, 26, who lives in Fukui, northern Japan, eats everything--Japanese noodles, sashimi, curry, spaghetti, hamburgers--mixed with mayonnaise. When dining at a restaurant, she often asks a waiter to bring some on the side. In fact, Suzuki loves mayonnaise so much that in 1996 she launched ...