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McDonald’s Japan teases customers with a crazy mentaiko burger

Oona McGee Apr 4, 2024
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But we have the last laugh in the end.

After many years of creating weird and impossible menu items to prank customers on April Fools’ Day, some of the more PR-savvy companies are getting smarter with their jokes by sharing ideas that are still far-fetched, but just possible enough for us to create ourselves.

That’s what McDonald’s did this year, first by sharing an image on Twitter of a bento that looked so good we ended up buying everything to recreate it, and then sharing another image, later in the day, of a burger with a “mentaiko patty“.

倍バーガーに新たな仲間が登場！？#エイプリルフール pic.twitter.com/ncl3gvO5N1

— マクドナルド (@McDonaldsJapan) April 1, 2024

As you can see in the tweet above, the dream burger contains two thick mounds of mentaiko (spicy pollock roe) instead of a meat patty. And because mentaiko is a specialty in Fukuoka Prefecture, on the island of Kyushu, the message declares that it’s “limited to Fukuoka“.

It didn’t take long for the tweet to be viewed millions of times, with people salivating for a taste of it, but the “Today is April Fools’ Day” message beneath the image, and the hashtag ” #エイプリルフール” (“April Fools'”), made it clear that this amazing-looking burger wouldn’t really be on the menu anywhere.

However, with the main ingredients of a McDonald’s burger and mentaiko actually existing in the real world, albeit separately, it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility to recreate.

▼ So that’s what we did.

Our reporter Egawa Tasuku was on hand to ensure we got as close as possible to the mentaiko burger shown in the tweet, investigating the image carefully before deciding that the Teriyaki McBurger without teriyaki sauce would be the best fit for the job.

After purchasing the Teriyaki McBurger for 400 yen (US$2.64), the only other ingredient needed was the mentaiko, so he shopped around for one that looked most like the one in the photo. This turned out to be harder than first thought, though, as all the mentaiko at convenience stores like Lawson and 7-Eleven were considerably small, as were the ones at supermarkets near his home. Lamenting the fact that he didn’t think to buy mentaiko at a specialty outlet in the basement of a department store in Tokyo, he eventually decided to make do by doubling up on some smaller ones to create the same sense of volume.

Being a stickler for detail, he made sure to only purchase mentaiko that had been manufactured in Fukuoka Prefecture (福岡県), to truly respect the original concept.

Now that he had all the ingredients, it was time to construct them, so he first removed the patty from the burger…

▼ …and arranged the mentaiko just so.

He ended up using four out of the six slices to recreate the same voluminous look of the mentaiko in the April Fools’ Day burger.

▼ Behold — an April Fools’ Day joke becomes reality!

Placing it alongside the tweet on his computer screen, Egawa was chuffed with what he had created. Sure, the lettuce could’ve been a little greener for greater resemblance, but all in all, it looked pretty much like the concept burger!

Egawa felt a flutter of excitement as he bit into his masterpiece, and as he chewed, he was pleased to discover that it didn’t taste bad at all. Sure, it wasn’t write-home fantastic, but that could’ve been down to the quality of the mentaiko, as he’s certain the taste would’ve been even better if he’d purchased an expensive type from an esteemed company.

Still, the combination of mentaiko, lettuce, mayonnaise-based sauce, and bread wasn’t a bad one, and he reckons a burger like this would certainly have fans if McDonald’s were to add it to the menu.

So in the end, McDonald’s may have been out to prank us, but we were the ones to have the last laugh in the end. Now we can’t wait to see what joke products the chain has in store for us next year, because we’ll be ready to try them!

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