Shirihoudai

McDonalds. . .the safe heaven for any traveller.  Where a Big Mac will always be a Big Mac no matter what country you’re in.  Unless you’re in India where they don’t eat cow, then I don’t know what you’ll order there.   In any case, I didn’t include it into my japanese-restaurant-chains post because it is too well known to be a secret.  What you may not realize are the multitudes of menu differences compared to a typical American McD’s.  

The above mentioned Big Mac (biggu makku) is there but no Quarter Pounder - makes sense since they are on the metric system, right?  Another staple is the Teriyaki Mac (teriyaki mack bagaa).  I was addicted to these things until they came out with a seasonal burger called the Kalbi Mac (karubi makku).  Kalbi Mac is a burger with a heaping portion of marinated korean kalbi meat on top - sugoi oishii!  There is the Mega Mac which is way too much McDonalds food for anyone at one sitting, but in a country with the top eating champions, I’m not surprised.

In addition to the Filet-o-Fish (fi-re-o-fisshu), they have the Shrimp Filet!!! Known as the Ebi Filet, I tried the one with sesame sauce and it was good!  Crunchy on the outside and filled with plump shrimps bursting with their shrimpy flavor on the inside.  Couple that with french fries and a drink (iced coffee for me of course) and you got yourself a winning combo.  All around town and on tv, i saw commercials of this hot chick eating the sandwich.  Her name is Yuri Ebihara:

Talk about lucking out with your name.  Ebi = shrimp so of course her nickname became Ebi-chan.  Cute eh?  But the campaign worked. . . doesn’t it make you want to eat one of those? 

Some of the seasonal sandwiches I stay away from are the: Italian Mac, Pizza Mac, Shiokara-Natto Mac. . . just kidding on the last one, but expect to see it soon!