Sometimes, I'd see a funky shirt in Japan and I'd think the person who wrote the Engrish on it just had to know that it was on the pervy side. Can someone name anything "meat beast" and not know what it sounds like? I don't like burgers and I don't eat fast food, but I'd have my husband buy this burger and try it (as he likes both garlic and meat) for no other reason than its name. I guess that makes this pretty good marketing whether they are aware of the connotations the English carries or not.
The beast has a chicken patty in addition to the beef and the quattro cheese has beef, a hash brown patty and four types of cheese - colby jack, two kinds of cheese sauce, and cheddar. All in all, they sound pretty decadent.
Burger King Japan has released this rather cryptic ad with accompany text that says, "coming soon". One can only guess at the monstrosity that may be related to it. The statue is eating a burger and the apple appears to be stuffed with lettuce and bacon. It could be that they're going to have a burger which contains apples or uses apples instead of bread for a bun. However, chances are that this is a far more boring item and that the apple refers to "The Big Apple" (as does the Stature of Liberty) and that we're going to be seeing something called a "New York" burger released on January 28.
Any guesses from my readers as to what would make for a New York burger or what this ad might mean?
Burger King conducts an annual campaign which can be very confusing to those who aren't familiar with the ins and outs of Japanese spelling and pronunciation of various letters as well as their unique term for "all you can eat." When an English speaker reads only the English on this ad, it may appear that they're dealing with people who ride bikes or that the king has decided that his door swings both ways.
The reason this is written as "BiKing" is that "Viking" in Japan means "all you can eat" and the sound of "b" and "v" is a problem for most Japanese listeners when it comes to English. From 2:00-11:00 PM, customers can buy a set and for 30 minutes, they can have any component of it (onion rings or fries, drink, burger) refilled. If you're caught trying to take out leftovers (absolutely no take-out on this deal) or sharing with others, you will have to put on a creepy King mask and stand outside the shop with a sandwich board admitting your crime. Okay, that's a big, fat lie. We all know that most Japanese would rather die than die of embarrassment admitting that they tried to weasel free grub out of the King. If you cheat on the deal, you have to pay for each component separately.
This is an interesting campaign (which started on November 15) because it allows people to have all you can eat on potentially high value items like a burger. However, given the 30-minute time limit and the fact that most Japanese people are not capable of hogging down a ton of food at once - barring the competitive eaters out there - this is probably a money maker for Burger King rather than a loser.
It's interesting that America is always tagged for its large-size offerings - especially when it comes to things that are unhealthy like fast food - but Japan is the place that has sold monster burgers and giant kakigori (shaved ice). For the record, the kakigori in the linked video isn't nearly the biggest one I've seen shown on T.V. It's just one that I found an easy connection to showing.
The "King's Harvest" burgers, released on September 27 in Japan, include a "big bacon whopper" which has what looks like a strip of bacon the was carved from the full length of a whole piglet. The more modest sandwich on the right is a BK bolognese and includes, unsurprisngly, bolognese sauce. Both also include a hash brown patty. This is to make sure that, if you were worried about consuming sufficient carbohydrates and saturated fat, that you have nothing to worry about.
It's interesting that these are called "King's Harvest". Presumably, a "harvest" means plants. Unless those plants happen to be potatoes, there's little about these that says "harvest" and more that saws "slaughter". Though I wouldn't try this if I were in Japan now, my husband said that he would try the bacon burger. However, he'd take out the hash brown patty and eat it separately.
"Garlic Meat Beast" sounds like a good name for a lot of things. It would be a great name for a rock band. It certainly would make a nice euphemism for a part of the male anatomy, especially if its owner is an aficionado of garlic. Incidentally, the Japanese does not say "beast", but says "garlic meat monster". That would be an even better name for a rock band.
These burgers became available on July 26, these became available, though for some reason they are not being sold at the Burger King near where I used to live (Shin-Koenji). I guess that meat monsters simply are not welcome there.
The word "stamina" in Japan is a code word for "high in calories and fat" and it is applied to the meat monster pictured at the top. As you can see, it has three kinds of meat as well as garlic chips, though one is a grilled piece of chicken so that shouldn't lend too much of a load to the calorie total. Unfortunately, I could not get stats on this as it was't included in the nutrition information on Burger King's site. I'd wager, however, that it'd be best to skip dinner if you have the beast for lunch.
Burger King Japan has embraced the idea that fast food and liquor go together for quite some time. You could get a Heineken and a high ball there already. From June 28, 2013, select locations will also offer Mojito, Cuba Libre, Long Island Iced Tea, and pink daiquiris. The last one is for the ladies whose discerning dates have decided to wine and dine on a budget, no doubt.
If the idea of getting loaded on exotic drinks isn't enticing enough, you can also order ribs. This will allow you to get drunk and then dribble sauce all over yourself to boot. For 980 yen (about $10), you get the plate pictured above with three ribs on the bone, onion, pickles, and a small salad.
The locations that this deal is currently available at are Ochanomizu, Ebisu Garden Place, and Roppongi.
This is a quick post mainly to mention one of Burger King Japan's goofier options. As you can see above (and by my headline), they're selling a burger with 500% more onion. As a great fan of onions (my husband and I go through an enormous bag about once a month), this doesn't sound too bad, but it seems like an odd selling point to offer a teriyaki burger with 5 slices of onion. You can go back to work with 500% more obnoxious breath than usual.
A campaign for the burger was started on March 8 and the usual price is 880 yen ($9.18), but you can get your onion on for a mere 680 yen ($7.09) while the campaign is rolling. The other prices are for "set" meals (the burger with fries and a drink). Obviously, onions don't come cheap in Japan.
This is actually one of those things which is funkier than it seems. Would a burger ever be marketed here in the U.S. with 500% more onion (or any other vegetable)? I think not. ;-)
There are two things to mention today. One is that, on Friday, September 28, Burger King is offering a limited edition burger with a black bun. This has been mentioned in a lot of other news outlets that are far bigger than my blog so I don't want that to be the only focus of this post. The burger is to bring attention to the fact that it is Burger King's 5th anniversary in Japan. The thing is, it's not really their 5th anniversary. Burger King was in Japan far earlier, but they failed and disappeared then returned. They opened their first business in 1982 and closed in 2001, so this celebrates the last 5 successful years from 2007-2012. It's a little like Liz Taylor's two marriages to Richard Burton and pretending the first time never happened.
Image taken from Burger King Japan's press release on their web site.
The burger's bun is black because it has been mixed with squid ink. I'm sure that'll get your mouths watering. There is also something about bamboo charcoal being used to bring out the flavor of the burger and the bun. Some outlets are mistakenly reporting that the buns are black because of the charcoal, but I think that's a mistake as they'd have to be burned to a crisp to be so black due to any sort of cooking. There's also paprika as part of the flavor profile.
If I were still in Japan, I wouldn't touch this with a 10-foot pole because I don't eat beef. My husband probably would have tried it, but I'm guessing even he might have been put off by the notion of squid ink in his food. I'm sure that it's far less disgusting than it sounds, but it sounds fairly gross. Anyway, by the time you read this, the burger will be finished since it'll only be available in limited quantities for one day.
On the side of BK's rival, McDonald's, there is a somewhat more compelling item. They're selling a "MacFlurry" which is blended with strawberry sauce and little bits of KitKat. I don't know if it is a coincidence, but this is being released on the same day as the black burger (September 28). It's available for 230 yen ($3.07) from 10:30 am and can't be had at all shops, but it will be around for longer than a single day.
The image makes it appear that the bits of KitKat are actually pretty tiny. This isn't surprising since too much candy in it would make the result too sweet for Japanese tastes. The big focus is on the strawberry sauce. If anyone in Japan gives this a try, I'd be curious about the sweetness level and the textural aspects. It seems like very little of the wafers would come through with such specks of KitKat as shown here.
Updated: October 24 with YouTube video of people eating it added.
Some things are so bizarre that you think they have to be a Photoshop mash-up or part of the Onion. When I learned about this, I thought it simply had to be a joke. Why would Burger King push Windows 7? Why would Microsoft want to ally itself with a fast food place to promote software?
Well, it turns out that it is no joke. From October 22 to 28, Burger King is selling a monster burger with 7 patties (each about 4 oz./113 grams) on an "American size" (13 cm/5 in.) bun. The catch is that they are only selling 30 of these burgers each day at the price of 777 yen ($8.50), but this is no surprise. They couldn't possibly make any money off of these if they sold an unlimited quantity of them at that price. After the first 30 people, the price is the usual price one would pay for having extra patties added to the burger (1450 yen/$15.88).
The burger comes in a paper wrapper with a Windows logo on the top and is about 10 cm/4 in. in height and 11 cm/4.3 in. in diameter. Word is that it has over 2000 calories. One person who sampled it said that it felt like eating a small animal in terms of the feel of the quantity of meat. It was also impossible for the writer (a Japanese person) to open his mouth wide enough to wrap it around the burger. Obviously, I won't be tracking down one of these as I don't even like hamburgers, let alone ones that are likely to lock my jaw if I try and eat one.
If this sort of food were offered in the U.S., everyone would be crashing down on both Microsoft and Burger King and talking about how this sort of excess contributes to the obesity epidemic. At the very least, it'd show up on This is why you're fat (I spoke too soon, it's already there!). In Japan, it's just something people chortle at, shake their heads at and about which they say, "those kooky Japanese".
A little update: The Shinjuku iLand Tower Burger King said they ran out of these (that is, sold the first 30 at 770 yen) by 9:00 am when they open at 7:00 am. They also said that some people then paid the full price (1450 yen) for them thereafter. I guess that once they got the idea in the idea in their heads that they wanted it, they just had to have it.
