Though not generally considered to have a genius for invention, the Japanese do have a well-known talent for adapting something that already exists and improving it. We’re all familiar with the many examples in the consumer electronics and automobile industries, among others.
That hasn’t been the case with food, as their adaptations of such dishes as pizza have captured neither the hearts nor the palates of foreign gastronomes. But as Kyodo reported last week in this story on the Japan Today website, their modification of the American hamburger is surging in popularity, and even the foreigners in the country are beginning to take notice
This version of the hamburger was created in a Sasebo restaurant in 1950 to cater to Americans stationed at the naval base in the Nagasaki Prefecture. It’s made with fluffier buns, juicier meat, an omelet (?), bacon strips, and lettuce. The Sasebo burger comes in various sizes, with the largest being 30 centimeters in diameter.
The article says it’s making a “comeback”, but I’m not sure that it ever went away. It’s been regularly served in some Sasebo restaurants, but now it’s winning converts nationwide. A Sasebo native opened the Zats Burger Café in Tokyo two years ago, and he now runs three shops in the area that sell 450 burgers a day.
One of the diners quoted in the article, Miho Uchida, is reported as having driven from Fukuoka City to Sasebo to feast on a Sasebo burger. Either the burgers must be mighty good or Miho must really like them–the drive fom Fukuoka City to Sasebo is at least two hours.
This Japanese-language site has some photos of the Zaks shop in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. This English-language blogger seemed pleased with his burger. Local Sasebo shops offer variations on the theme of the Sasebo burger; this Japanese-language web site has photos of different house specialties. And believe it or not, the James Beard Foundation has a brief mention of the burger on its website here. Look in the Tokyo section; they say Zaks serves the burger with additive-free buns.
Can it be long before an enterprising Japanese opens a Sasebo burger joint somewhere in the U.S.?
Meh. We have a Sasebo burger (actually 2 now, come to think of it) in Kagoshima. It’s not bad, but would probably be better if there wasn’t a not fully cooked egg in the middle.
One think I never understood about the Japanese. Every day I see them eating in McDonald’s holding the lovely hamburger wrapped in paper covering, as if they are afraid to get their dainty fingers dirty or something. Didn’t anyone ever tell them that the way to eat a hamburger, at home, outdoors at a BBQ or in a Maku, is with your real fleshy hands and fingers holding the bread bun in your hands to feel it, to savor it, to touch it. Why on Earth do they insist on eating hamburgers without touching the bread? Who taught them that? Not me! Can you explain that, medea?
It’s called sanitation.
Speaking of which, was it really necessary to put this story adjacent to the one above?
(It put a damper on my appetite for a Sasebo Burger…)
Sanitation? Hamburgers were meant to be eaten with the hands holding the buns, for crying out loud! Wrapped in paper, that’s for department store gifts, not food!
I wouldn’t say sanitation, but cleanliness, which the Japanese are known for.
No beef grease, ketchup, or mustard dripping all over, both on oneself and the table. I can see the advantages, both for eating hamburgers and in general for the entire culture.
BTW, most Japanese women eat sushi with chopsticks, while most men pick it up in their fingers. I’m not sure if there’s a similar thing at work with hamburgers here.
As for how hamburgers are supposed to be eaten, there was a time in the US–pre McDonald’s saturation–in which, in certain situations, hamburgers (and fried chicken too) were “supposed” to be eaten with a knife and fork. I’ve done it, for both hamburgers and chicken, and they taste exactly the same.
[…]
1/2/2006
Dog burgers a bit hit in Sasebo
Sasebo, which already is famous in Japan for a cholesterol busting burgers for bipeds, now has a burger to suit the taste of […]
[…] Their bets on this particular nag are paying off handsomely, as the dish quickly became a hot item. Some shops report sales of 300 meals a month in April and May, which is impressive business for a small Japanese restaurant. Now, health- and trend-conscious young women are daytripping down from the Fukuoka City area on weekends to sample some for themselves. Business has been so brisk, in fact, the Chamber of Commerce has begun hatching plans to make Yamaga Horsemeat Curry a nationally known brand for fanciers of regional cuisine in the hope of imitating the success of Sasebo burgers. […]
oh i had a sasebo burger in sasebo before. it was freaking huge. daniel radcliff, emma watson, and rupert grint (harry potter cast) has been there too but i didn’t see them. they have a picture of them on their wall