Japanese proverbs and food?

Question:

You can't eat the moshi in the picture
Can't eat a painted cake
Even when a samurai hasn't eaten, he holds his toothpick high
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What is the meaning of these proverbs? How should we understand them? Can anyone explain?
Thanks in advance

Answer:

Japanese proverbs are called Kotowaza in Japanese and cover a large amount of different sayings about different areas of Japanese culture. Some are quite similar to ones that you can find in the English language and some I expect are imported from Chinese proverbs.

You can't eat the mochi in the picture
絵に描いた餅（は食えぬ）
e ni kaita mochi (wa kuenu)

This means that no matter how good the imagination, dream or fantasy is, it is still not reality. The deeper meaning could possibly be to not spend your days daydreaming about something that cannot be done or achieved.

Even when a samurai hasn't eaten, he still holds his toothpick high
bushi wa kuwanedo taka youji
武士はく食わねど高楊枝

This means that you always pretend to be rich, even if you aren't in the same way that a samurai would pretend to clean his teeth with a toothpick as if he had just eaten a feast, even if he hadn't. The deeper meaning could possibly be about honour and pride and not letting things get you down.

I haven't heard of the painted cake one, but I guess it is probably the same as the mochi one... mochi is sometimes called rice cake in English, so could just be a different translation of it.