As the harvest moon rises over Tokyo, you know it’s once again time to top all kinds of food with a raw egg to pay homage to Lady Luna. Usually this manifests as a raw egg swimming around on top of your bowl of noodles (which you loudly admire for its seasonality then quickly mix in or pray the soup is hot enough to cook the gooey white part before it must pass your lips).
But if you think you can save yourself by only eating western favorites until the moon returns to normal, think again!
That’s not melted cheese. It’s egg. Which (for a limited time) is gracing KFC’s regular chicken sandwich, the spicy one, AND (just to add a Mexican twist that doesn’t exist in nature) the vaguely burrito-inspired “Twister.”
McDonalds makes a feeble attempt to stay in the moonburger game with this vegetable-challenged offering that tries to make the egg part more appealing by slapping on some bacon to suggest maybe you could eat it for breakfast…?
Burger King is late to the starting line this year, probably because the backlash from substituting pineapple for egg last year was greeted with a resounding “ALL THE NO” from Japanese tsukimi purists and foreign burger fans alike.
But burgers aren’t the only food with egg on its face right now. Domino’s Japan doesn’t even try to deliver traditional tsukimi goodness within its 30-minute window, but makes up for lack of eggy rawness by piling on multiple slices more appropriate for moon-viewing season on Jupiter…
And finally—as if it was possible to blaspheme Italian pasta any harder—this Tokyo restaurant’s spaghetti isn’t just topped with egg, it’s “Naporitan” style. Which means the thing that’s making that sauce red is…ketchup.
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And if you know someone who’s planning a Japan trip, here are all the places I take my friends when they come to town…
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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly e-magazine Japanagram, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had
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