Time To Get “Wrapped Up” In Tokyo!

Yes, this is a triple cheeseburger wrapped in plastic! When I posted Tokyo food pics recently, I received a few comments asking “where’s the beef?”

Well, here it is!

I knew I was in for a “burger-ific” time in Tokyo – after all, I’ve posted many times about the unique burger for sale here – and when I arrived in town, I saw this in front of me on my first day out in the crowded streets:

Yes, it’s a “burger” shirt! With that in mind, I forced my wife Alex to search the crowded street of Kabuki-cho and Shinjuku for just one thing: a burger!

This was Alex’s first time to Tokyo, so we hit a bunch of different neighborhoods – all packed with people – with a singular goal in mind. I knew I had to try a burger while I was here, and one day as we rounded a corner, look what we found:

Yes, it was a bit rainy outside, but Lotteria burger was exactly what I wanted to find. I have posted about them many times, and I had to see it for myself. Once inside, the burger chain was already showing me signs of greatness:

The “special” burger was a $10 Wagyu beef burger – served simply with a big round wagyu patty, some lettuce and mayonnaise…

At first glance, the burger isn’t impressive: not that big, daily plain in appearance – but take a bite and what you get is a huge mouthful of wagyu flavor!

The flavor was terrific, and the crunchy lettuce and mayo were a great accompaniment…in fact, the only issue was that patty: it was so huge and round like a tennis ball that the patty and lettuce kept sliding out of the bun!

Alex had a bite and agreed that it had a very strong beef flavor – and it was a nice way to bite down on some unique Tokyo wagyu!

Lotteria offers tiny little cubicle seating, and inspirational signs all around you…it was a fun place to go for a quick bite!

However, I wasn’t able to sample my favorite Lotteria burger, which is this:

The “Burger With Everything On It!”

I could have had a shrimp burger, a burger with an egg on it, and other varieties as well. They were out of the special edition “burger with everything on it”, but don’t worry, you can see the entire recipe for it here:

https://johnrieber.com/2016/04/26/a-towering-tokyo-burger-lotterias-amazing-burger-with-everything-on-it/

I also decided to make my food wearable, so I located this T-Shirt:

How could I resist buying this? Alex did ask me – over and over again – if I was seriously going to wear it, but I shrugged and said “who knows?

Now, time for some plastic food!

Meet Chef Kappabashi!

Well, that’s not his name, but it is IS the name of Tokyo’s “kitchen town”, a series of streets full of kitchen supplies – and plastic food! It sits alongside a small road that is very colorful:

In Japan, every restaurant shows you the kind of food they serve by lining up “plastic” samples in the window – so you know exactly what kind of menu they offer…so we went to the source to buy our own…

Maiduru’s Legendary “Fake Food!”

The best-known store for plastic food is Maiduru, so we went into to see all of the greatest plastic food they had to offer:

My son Jeff joined Alex in a search for a new iPhone cover for me – you know, to replace this one:

Unfortunately, there were no good replacements, and the iPhone6 offered this crazy option:

Yes, it’s an oyster shell stuffed with what looks like a yellow oyster! And it was HUGE! No such luck with that, so I did the next best thing.

I bought this plasticized triple cheeseburger!

What will I do with it? You are asking the wrong question! The real question is: “how cool are you?” And the answer is: “very.”

I think I will use it as a paperweight – or just a triple cheeseburger always in the office to remind me of lunch.

If you want to see more Tokyo burger magic, take a look at this “Stairway To Heaven”:

This “Tokyo Burger Tower” was dubbed a “stairway to heaven”…here is the entire recipe:

https://johnrieber.com/2014/11/11/tokyo-burger-towers-led-zeppelin-burgers-wild-wild-meat-the-worlds-most-creative-burgers/

Of course, we’ve been enjoying a lot of different food in Tokyo – beginning with the food that Japan is perhaps best known for:

“Breakfast Sushi!”

As one of my Japanese friends told me the other day: “even WE don’t do that!” That is “breakfast sushi”, because it is served that Tokyo’s legendary fish market beginning at 7a!

We ate it, and we loved it, and you can see more pictures of our sushi breakfast AND a tour of the legendary Tsukiji fish market here:

https://johnrieber.com/2016/07/06/tokyos-legendary-fish-market-sushi-for-breakfast-an-iconic-japanese-landmark-closes/

We also ate one of our favorite meals – a bento box of eel!

Even better was the “eel waiting room” we endured – which you can see more of here:

https://johnrieber.com/2016/07/04/the-magic-of-tokyo-2016-eel-waiting-rooms-golden-gai-drinking-cat-ads/

Finally, we ate another classic Japanese food: Tempura!

Check out that tasty adventure here:

https://johnrieber.com/2016/07/07/tokyo-food-musical-bento-boxes-sea-urchin-tempura-biting-down-hard-in-japan/

Let me know what you’d bite down on in Tokyo!

Categories: Art, BACON, Books / Media, cookbooks, Exotic Travel, Food, food blog, Food Review, Funny Pictures, Hamburgers, Japan, Memoirs, Recipes, Restaurants, Technology, Tokyo!, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir, Wacky Food

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