Fast Food Nation
In one area my respect for Japanese society has been in freefall recently. Until rather recently, Japanese have always had rather healthy diets. They tend to drink unsweetened drinks, have a national aversion to GM foods, and eat a lot of raw or lightly processed foods.
Things are changing. I made fun of the US consumers for actually putting McGriddles in their bodies, but they are here in Japan as well now. Worse still, McDonalds Japan recently introduced the MegaMac. A 900-calorie four-beef-like patty burger guaranteed to provide the USDA daily allowance of grease for a family of twelve. McDonalds, literally, can’t keep them in stock.
Pizza Hut, however, has now caused me to abandon all hope. The other night I ordered a pizza. (Hey, I take care of myself, but it’s not like I’m a granola-munching hippie!) They now offer a new crust that improves on their thick-and-greasy cheese-filled crust. The outside of the crust is actually made of dozens of little pig-in-a-blanket like rolls. Each gingerly containing a slice of bacon wrapping a piece of sausage suspended in grease. The pizza also comes with a honey-maple syrup which you are supposed to pour over the crust before eating it.
I’m not even sure you could get American’s to eat that slop, but it’s so popular here in Japan you have to reserve it in advance.
May 3rd, 2007 at 4:40 am
Seems Pizza Hut is doing such experiments everywhere. In Pakistan, first it was the cheese-filled crust. Now they offer a kebab-filled one. It’s chicken, but its still extra meat with lots of cals. Plus, I’ve grown to deeply dislike chicken so am not falling for that one.
I personally am hooked to their thin-crust, all veggie pizza. It’s something that a lot of Pakistanis won’t even bother with (being meat, especially chicken meat, lovers), but I love it and it has a pretty healthy dose of mushrooms and olives etc.
My favorite these days are the American-style burgers from Gun Smoke that are massive and have comparitively very little spices. But even this is probably less harmful than what’s normally consumed here.
May 3rd, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Actually, I love their thin-crust pizzas. I’m afraid to ask, but what is normally consumed over there?
May 4th, 2007 at 1:27 am
Nothing very unusual, but not something I’d call healthy. Actually, most of what you find outside is more unhygenic than unhealthy.
“Chicken Karahi” is quite popular. It’s pieces of chicken fried in fats (or oil) and extra spices. Then there are the chunks of lamb or mutton fried in their own fat, the smell of which I usually can’t stand. The rest isn’t really that bad, but you know how fussy I can be when it comes to food.