Western fast food chains are opening, re-opening and getting fancy in Japan. With over-the-top takes on familiar menu items, the country might want to start counting those imported calories. Sink your teeth into these Japanese twists on American fast food, and tell us if you still think food in Japan is healthy.
It's always more fun to start with dessert. The newest taste sensation to threaten the once-slim Japanese waistline is Starbucks' chocolate cookie crumble frappuccino with white chocolate pudding, launched last week. The name is a mouthful, and so is the confection. The cup is half-filled with pudding, topped up with chocolate milkshake, layered thick with whipped cream and then drizzled with chocolate sauce and dusted with chocolate cookie crumbles. Despite the pudding base, it's served with a straw — the faster to suck down the 700 calories in a grande, or 550 in a more modest tall.
But that's nothing compared to Burger King's "Bacon Bomb Burger." During a special campaign, you can add 15 slices of bacon to your sandwich for ¥100. They list the basic Whopper at 660 calories. Fifteen slices of bacon, at 40 calories a slice, doubles that. The Double Whopper with cheese is 985 calories before the bacon bombing even begins. The low price seems as much like a dare as a PR stunt, and people have been taking them up on it and posting the results online — see the video below if you've ever wondered what a thousand slices of bacon on a burger looks like. But don't watch if you're hungry — or if you've just eaten.