One word, convenience. Over the years, Japanese fast food chains have come out with some of the most (theoretically) delicious as well as most expensive fast food items money can buy. While “fast food expensive” is going to be a lot less than “Batman expensive” I think you’ll all agree that these expensive fast food items are, well, very expensive for fast food. Plus, your butler deserves a day off once in a while, right?

Let’s go through some of these gastronomical fast food dishes. They’re sure to make your wallet thinner and your stomach thicker.

The Quattro Prestige

Cost: ￥3900 (~$40)
Where: Domino’s

If it has the word “prestige” you know that it’s probably pretty good (and expensive). The Quattro Prestige pizza has four segments, all with a different “I’m-a-super-rich-dbag” toppings:

1. Snow Crab And Shrimp Gratin
2. Mangalitsa Pork With Bordeaux Sauce
3. Fresh Mozzarella And Beef Stew
4. Margherita (boo, how boring)

I’ve come across some other similar variations as well, including things with truffles, jumbo shrimp, Iberico Ham, and more. You can get the quarters as single pizzas as well, though if you’re going to go all out, go all out on one pizza. Your stomach will surely thank you.

Lobster Surf n’ Turf Burger, Premium Caviar & Lobster Sandwich

Cost: ￥1280 (~$13)
Where: Wendy’s

For what you’re getting, ~$13 isn’t all that much. There were two burgers being offered:

1. Lobster Surf n’ Turf
2. Premium Caviar & Lobster

Not sure why they have to specify that the caviar is premium (what about the lobster?). I suppose they would be missing out on that huge caviar connoisseur market if they didn’t mention that additional selling point. If a sandwich/burger isn’t enough for you (or if you aren’t into those things), Wendy’s also offered a salad at the same time, combining the best of both worlds.

Garden Sensation Salad With Lobster & Caviar

Cost: ￥1580 (~$16)
Where: Wendy’s

From what I hear, the Garden Sensations Salad is a regular thing at Wendy’s. Now take that and add lobster and caviar to the mix. This is what I imagine rich people doing to their fast food salads anyways, so it all makes sense to me. I wonder if I’d just eat the toppings, though. Everything else just looks so un-premium to me.

Kobe Beef Steak Pizza

Cost: ￥5800 (~$60)
Where: Domino’s

Kobe beef is one of the most delicious beefs in the world. The cows are massaged, fed beer, and live the most amazing life a cow could ever live before getting slaughtered to become Domino’s pizza toppings. Excellent Beef + terrible pizza dough? Sounds like a recipe for people picking off the toppings (you can give the dough and cheese to that weird kid who only can eat cheese pizza, at least).

The large is 5800 yen, and the medium is 4800 yen. Me? I’d rather get a $50 kobe beef steak, I think. That’s really the only part I’m here for anyways, Domino’s.

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Tenderloin Beef Truffle Sauce Burger

Cost: ￥1129 (~$11)
Where: Lotteria

While I’m more of a MOS Burger guy myself, Lotteria can be pretty good too. This burger definitely makes me lean over the “which-fast-food-is-my-favorite?” fence a little bit. Anything with truffle sauce is going to be a winner, and the price tag isn’t Kobe Beef Pizza level, at the very least.

Their selling point is that the luxury meat coming from the cows to this burger exists in only 3% of the cow, making it especially premium and rare. To me it looks pretty plain but I’m sure the taste speaks for itself. Sign me up.

Matsuzaka Hamburger Steak Burger

Cost: ￥1800 (~$18)
Where: Lotteria

Not to be outdone by… themselves… Loterria does the Matsuzaka Hamburger Steak Burger once every year on November 29 (more on that in a sec). The meat is supposedly a “wonderful hamburger” and for the price and occasion, I should hope so. You see, November 29 is “good meat day.” How did they come up with that? Let’s take a look:

November 29 = 11/29

11 is the い and い of いち. It also coincidentally looks like “ii”.

“ii” is the romaji for いい, which means “good”

29 in Japanese, if you read them separately as numbers, is 二(に) and 九(く). That equals にく (niku)

Niku means meat (肉) in Japanese.

Therefore: いいにく day is “good meat.”

Since it’s a day, it’s “Good Meat Day.”

I like that bun, too. 11/29 seems like a good day to me.

Foie Gras Rossini Burger

Cost: ￥1280 (~$13)
Where: Wendy’s

While foie gras is illegal in parts of the US now, Japan certainly isn’t shy about eating things that are controversial. The foie gras burger by Wendy’s is one of those examples. Not only is there foie gras paté on the burger, but there are truffles as well. This is about as rich as it gets and was one of the first of several ridiculous premium Wendy’s burgers to hit Japan. As they’re trying to get a foothold in the very competitive Japanese fast food scene, they wanted to stand out and well… I think they did (and continue to do) a pretty good job.

Iberico Bacon Burger

Cost: ￥980 (~$10)
Where: Wendy’s

This has the word bacon in it, so I’m sold right from the beginning (did somebody say bacon?). Iberico is a specifically premium and thick cut bacon that looks incredibly delicious, though I’ve never had it myself. While regular bacon on burgers looks good, this looks a lot better than any bacon I’ve ever seen in the fast food scene. Of course, you’re going to have to pay the price… a price that isn’t all that bad, all things considered.

Takumi Burger

Cost: ￥1000 (~$10)
Where: MOS Burger

The Takumi Burger (匠味/artisan flavor) was a series of burgers by MOS Burger that included Tasmanian beef patties plus ten toppings (some of which were: sliced avocado, grated wasabi, and other seasonal ingredients). I’m always a fan of MOS burger burgers, so when they make something good I’m guessing it’s quite good. I’ll definitely be looking out for this one in the future to pop up again.

Quarter Pounder Jewelry

Cost: ￥1000 (~$10)
Where: McDonalds

For the first time ever, McDonalds has put out a 1,000 yen burger in Japan (and possibly the most expensive McDonalds burger ever in the world).  This “jewelry” series is, I’m guessing, supposed to make the burgers seem more valuable. Unlike some jewelry, though, these burgers are only limited item and certainly not forever. If you’re in Japan right now, this is the one and only premium fast food item from this list that you could possibly buy, so pay close attention to the dates. You’ve missed “Gold Ring,” but “Black Diamond” and “Ruby Spark” are yet to come. I’d recommend getting in line right now.

The flavors are:

• Gold Ring: Pineapple, thick cut bacon, quarter pound patty, Monterey Jack cheese,, BBQ sauce, and 10 different spices.
• Black Diamond: Truffle sauce, quarter pound patty, grilled mushrooms, and melted cheese.
• Ruby Spark: 5 slices of chorizo, avocado, quarter pound patty, pepper jack cheese.

Based off the names, I was hoping they’d contain some very illegal Pokémon meat, but I’ll manage somehow. If the current level of fanciness isn’t enough, apparently there was one Mcdonalds that gussied up some special seating just for people who ordered the 1000 yen meal:

I guess some McDonalds didn’t think you were getting enough value for your 1000 yen meal. Just you wait, this will become so popular that they have to get rid of the 100 yen menu section and replace it with the 1000 yen menu section. One can dream, anyways.

Which of the three do you want inside of you most?

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Sadly, almost all of these items were only temporary, meaning you’d be hard pressed to find any of these right now. That being said, the future is bright! Wendy’s can’t seem to stop with their ridiculous PR-inducing premium food items and now even McDonalds is in the mix. The other fast food chains will surely do something again at some point as well. It’s not a matter of “if,” it’s a matter of “when.”

If I could rent out my time machine to you so that you could go back and eat just one of these items what would it be? For me I think it would have to be the Matsuzaka Hamburger Steak Burger because, well, I don’t know. That meat just looks so good and different from the rest (not to mention the bun as well). How about you? Anyone else holding out for a future special ￥4000 panda ear truffle burger from McDonalds?

What is an Okonomiyaki, Anyway?

Okonomiyaki can best be described as a kind of savory pancake. Often translated as an “as you like it pancake,” okonomiyaki can contain a wide variety of ingredients. Okonomiyaki is mainly associated with Hiroshima and the Kansai region of Japan, and there’s often much debate between okonomiyaki aficionados as to which style is superior (it’s Kansai style, in case you were wondering).

Toppings and batters tend to vary according to region but most commonly include any combination of cabbage, meat, seafood, corn, bean sprouts, okonomiyaki sauce (which is kind of similar to steak sauce), mayonnaise, dried bonito flakes, green onion, pickled red ginger, dried seaweed powder, and tempura crumbs. It’s awesome.

Basically, you take some batter with cabbage tossed in, add some savory items from above, cook on a hot surface/pan/whatever, then top with fixings and sauces. There’s a lot of customization here, but they’re all super tasty.

Unfortunately, there’s not really a definitive history on the dish since it’s not really specific as to what makes one up, but it’s speculated that these types of savory pancake thingies have been around in Japan since the 16th century or so. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t even tried one until after I visited Japan. I’d been missing out on so much!

The turn to okonomiyaki as we know it today seems to have started in the early 1900s. In Japan, Western food was considered anything made from wheat flour, and street vendors wanted to capitalize on this fad of Western food in Japan. Therefore, they would whip up a simple batter and make thin pancakes on an open air griddle and fill it with savory ingredients, kind of like a burrito.

Competition was fierce though and vendors were always trying to outdo each other. Developed first in Tokyo, it soon evolved to include Worcestershire sauce (another import from the West) and cabbage among other things to give it more body. Its popularity quickly spread and eventually morphed into what we know as okonomiyaki today.

Kansai Style vs Hiroshima Style

The Kansai style is easily the most predominant (and best) variant of the dish and is found most widely throughout Japan. All the ingredients are mixed together as above, and it’s cooked much like you would prepare a normal pancake.

In Hiroshima, however, they do things totally wacky. First of all, the ingredients are layered rather than mixed which is ludicrous. The layers are usually batter, cabbage, pork, and optional items such as squid, octopus, and cheese. Noodles are also used as a base and/or topping with fried egg and a generous amount of okonomiyaki sauce. I’d be okay if it was just the egg or the excessive sauce, but noodles is taking it too far, Hiroshima – too far!

The amount of cabbage used is also about three to four times the amount used in Kansai style. Obviously, this is three to four times too much as the Kansai style’s amount of cabbage is perfect. The cabbage found in the inferior Hiroshima version is piled very high atop the okonomiyaki and then squashed down with a spatula. A heathen’s pancake, to be sure.

The Preparation

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn_vvp4Uj0Q&feature=g-upl']

Some restaurants will prepare the okonomiyaki for you, while others will leave you in charge of its preparation – they just supply the materials and the means. The latter is definitely more fun, especially if you know what you’re doing. If you don’t, well then you’re in trouble (see video above*). Better to let someone else take care of it for you.

These type of “do it yourself” restaurants aren’t all that uncommon in Japan (some even have you catching your own fish!), and while it may seem like a lazy way to get the patrons to do most of the work themselves, it is nice to have your meal cooked and prepared exactly to your own specifications. Again, assuming you know what you’re doing.

Okonomiyaki in America

Quite sadly, okonomiyaki does not seem to be very popular in America at all. I can’t comment on other countries outside of Japan, but in America at least, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it on the menu in Japanese restaurants (at least not in Ohio, anyway). If it were, I’d be eating it all the time.

Do not despair though! It is still possible to make your own okonomiyaki (if you’re brave). It’s not something I’ve yet attempted myself, but since writing this post and reinvigorating my love for the almighty okonomiyaki, I think I’ll have to give it a go sometime soon. For those brave souls interested, you can attempt to craft your own okonomiyaki by following a recipe online, such as this one from Okonomiyaki World.

If you can find a place that serves these in America, or if you are in Japan, please do yourself a favor and try some okonomiyaki. You won’t regret it.

So tell me, have you ever had okonomiyaki before? Do you love it? What’s your favorite style? Ever tried to make it yourself? Let us know in the comments!

*The drama from the video in this post is Kekkon Dekinai Otoko, one of my all-time favorite J-dramas. Check it out!