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Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Fast Food Vs. Sarah Michelle Gellar

Just a quick entry here as it is late and I am too sleepy to be very coherent. However, I just saw Sarah Michelle Gellar touting "The Grudge 2" on the Conan O'Brien show a few minutes ago. She has recently come back from Tokyo from filming "The Grudge 2" so Conan asked her how she liked Japan.

She said she went to McDonalds and in Tokyo you have to ask for your hamburger without egg on it otherwise they will put a raw egg on it. She warned the viewers "Make sure you ask for your burger without an egg on it, they put one on every hamburger" Then they laughed and made some jokes about it.

Now this is why everyone thinks Japan is such a wacky place. People come back from visits to Japan with all these weird stories that no one can really prove or disprove because not that many people you know have visited there. T and I are, or should I say "were" frequent fliers at McDonalds - Until we watched the movie "Super Size Me" and I have NEVER seen an egg on a hamburger at McDonalds or Wendy's for that matter. I have never been asked if I wanted an egg removed from a burger nor seen T eat an egg burger before and I have watched him eat dried squid for breakfast! We have probably been to half the McDonalds in the Tokyo area and I haven't seen that. Maybe someone reading this has???

The McDonalds near us is actually a very pleasant place to go. It has many overly friendly employees in beautifully clean uniforms and they even wear the matching hats. When you go through drive thru and your order takes a little time they bring out your meal and give you an extra coca cola or something for your trouble and bow as you drive off. The place is very clean and they pick up the tray after you finish but I think that is because they think Gaijin won't figure out the recycling bins. They got that right.

Once we went through the McDonald's drive thru and they didn't give T the honey mustard for his chicken thingies....McNuggets, I think they call 'em. So he called to complain and they actually sent someone to drive over and bring him some honey mustard PLUS they gave him a fresh order of nuggets!! Now would you ever see that done in America??? Not hardly. You don't complain in case they might spit in your food or something equally vile. One day I will write about the customer service in Japan. One word to start - Outstanding.

Cant Wait for Wendy's

They have most of the usual fast food joints in Japan. McDonalds, Wendy's, Pizza Hut, KFC (Which they call "Kentucky") Subway, Outback Steakhouse, Mr. Donut, Denny's etc...Usually I have found the menu to be basically the same as the US menu. Notable exceptions though would be Denny's and Pizza Hut. On every menu, of course, there are a few Japanese specials and favorites but even in the US there are regional variations. I remember having an arguement with a Japanese friend over whether Red Lobster was an American company or not.

Point is, I never saw an egg on a hamburger in McDonalds in Tokyo. Where was Sarah Michelle Gellar?

Addition to Post 10/21/2206:

I should add an explantion of the comments on here as well.

The Japanese are fond of "Moon Viewing" The moon is admired and people celebrate with food for viewing the full moon in Autumn. Called O-tsukimi and held usually on September 15th or August 15th, according to the old lunar calendar and called Ju-go-ya.

The raw egg hamburger dealy is a special food around for the moon viewing time. Or you can order it from restuarants . So it does exist is my point I never made, but not as a McDonalds staple for every burger you have to panic about getting a raw egg on it.

6 Comments:

Blogger illahee said...

maybe she was here during the moon viewing burger time. LOL

3:08 AM  
Blogger pointybunny said...

Lol, illahee you just made my morning!

7:43 AM  
Blogger pointybunny said...

I was just talking with T and he agreed with you illahee, it definitely must have been moon viewing!

9:19 PM  
Blogger Perogyo said...

My husband loves the egg burger. I made him eat it on the balcony so I wouldn't have to smell or look at it.

2:46 AM  
Blogger Joanna said...

Egg on burger's is an Australian thing... Japanese people probably got the idea there...

8:44 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

it's not "raw" egg, is it?
I think it's a sunny side up thing.

9:04 PM  

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