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  • George: From calorie count to portion sizes,

  • we wanted to find out all the differences

  • between Kit Kats in Japan and the US.

  • This is "Food Wars."

  • In Japan, our Kit Kats come in four sizes,

  • big little pouch bite,

  • minis,

  • and bar,

  • and classy one, Sublime.

  • So, one thing to note here regarding mini sizes,

  • the regular Kit Kat is 11.6 grams,

  • but the flavored minis, such as matcha,

  • are said to be slightly smaller, 11.3 grams.

  • So I'm going to weigh them now to confirm.

  • So, let's weigh a regular-flavor Kit Kat first.

  • It weighs 11 grams.

  • But it doesn't show the decimal points,

  • it says just 11 grams.

  • Let's weigh matcha flavor.

  • 12.

  • It's actually heavier than regular flavor.

  • Interesting.

  • Japanese Kit Kats have become popular all around the world,

  • and the US, of course, is no exception.

  • I just want to mention at the top here,

  • we're going to be talking about Kit Kats

  • that are native to our countries.

  • I know you can get them online.

  • I think Walmart.com has some of them.

  • Fantastic. They're imported. We know. Thank you.

  • In the US, our Kit Kats come in nine sizes.

  • Starting from the smallest,

  • we have a Kit Kat minis unwrapped,

  • then the thins,

  • miniatures,

  • snack size,

  • standard four finger,

  • the Big Kat.

  • From there, we move up to king size, which is,

  • a piece accidentally broke off

  • and then I accidentally ate it.

  • The Big Kat king size.

  • So it looks like it's just two Big Kats.

  • And the biggest size, the XL.

  • A bag of Kit Kat bites should have 11 bites.

  • Let's count in Japanese.

  • Ichi, ni, san, shi, go,

  • roku, shichi, hachi, ku, juu,

  • juuichi.

  • 11 bites.

  • And according to the bag,

  • the combined weight should be 50 grams.

  • So let's weigh all 11 bites.

  • Ooh!

  • It weighs 52 grams.

  • Good deal.

  • All of our US sizes come in a variety of units,

  • depending on your Kit Kat needs.

  • So many varieties.

  • Here's a few worth mentioning.

  • The minis. The biggest bag of minis unwrapped

  • you can get is 419 grams.

  • As the title implies,

  • these things are unwrapped little bites.

  • It's sold like it's for sharing, but get real.

  • Whoever sticks their hand in here first, it's their bag.

  • For the miniatures, according to Amazon,

  • you can get up to 4-pound bags,

  • aka 1,814.37 grams.

  • And what it looks like, they just sent me

  • a bag that's loosely 4 pounds of Kit Kat minis.

  • All the bars have their various packs.

  • None of them seem unusual.

  • I will, however, mention that

  • the biggest single purchase of a Kit Kat item you can get

  • is the king-size 24-pack.

  • The total here is 2,040 grams,

  • about 4.5 pounds of Kit Kat.

  • Here's all the Kit Kats exclusive to the US.

  • And here is all the Kit Kats native to Japan.

  • Kit Kat in Japan is made by Nestlé

  • and is one of the best-selling candies in the country.

  • One of the reasons for its popularity

  • is that Kit Kat has a good-luck charm in Japan

  • because the name Kit Kat in Japanese is Kitto Katto.

  • And Kitto Katto sounds like "kitto katsu,"

  • which means "you will surely win."

  • So the Kit Kat brand became associated with good luck.

  • And these Kit Kats are often given to students

  • before their exams.

  • For the past 20 years,

  • Kit Kat has introduced more than 350 unique flavors.

  • Wow!

  • Some of them are discontinued, unfortunately,

  • and some of them are regional,

  • so we couldn't get them by the filming of this episode.

  • Gomen ne!

  • So here are a few standard Kit Kat flavors in Japan.

  • Coffee break.

  • But it doesn't taste like coffee,

  • but goes well with coffee.

  • So I brought my coffee with me today,

  • so let's see how it goes.

  • Itadakimasu.

  • It's actually pretty good,

  • much better than expected.

  • So, next we have

  • melon.

  • Mm!

  • It's so melon.

  • It has way too strong melon flavor.

  • Next, we have chocolate orange.

  • Overall, not bad.

  • Next, graham cracker.

  • This is fantastic.

  • Next, I'm gonna go

  • cheesecake.

  • This is marvelous.

  • If you're a cheesecake person like me,

  • you will definitely like this.

  • Next, strawberry cheesecake.

  • You get some decent strawberry flavor

  • and cheesecake flavor at the same time, which is amazing.

  • Next, apple cinnamon.

  • I'm not a big fan of this.

  • There is a lot of cinnamon in it,

  • which makes this horrible.

  • Pistachio.

  • Look at this cute squirrel!

  • Kawaii ne!

  • Kawaii!

  • It's not great, but not horrible either.

  • Next, pudding.

  • Mm!

  • Mm, it's disgusting.

  • It's way too sweet.

  • Let's go next one.

  • We have strawberry milk.

  • Ah!

  • Holy crap.

  • This is nasty.

  • This is the worst one.

  • So, this is the last one.

  • I've got cookies and cream.

  • This is the best thing I have ever had in my mouth.

  • Sorry to interrupt.

  • But believe it or not,

  • the US does have a few exclusive flavors

  • you can't get in Japan.

  • First up,

  • pumpkin pie.

  • Yo!

  • This tastes exactly like pumpkin pie.

  • Yeah, they hit it out of the park with that one, wow.

  • Key lime pie.

  • This one's so good.

  • It tastes just like key lime pie.

  • These are both fantastic.

  • Fruity cereal.

  • What cereal is this?

  • Is that Froot Loops?

  • Tastes exactly like Froot Loops.

  • Gingerbread.

  • Raspberry creme.

  • I love this one.

  • Yo, Joe,

  • Yuelei.

  • All right, try it, let's go.

  • What do you guys think?

  • Yeah, yeah, Starbursts, good call.

  • Witch's brew?

  • "Crispy wafers and marshmallow flavored cream."

  • These are great.

  • Yeah, it has, like, a frosting flavor to it.

  • Then we got glow in the dark.

  • Wait, what's supposed to glow in the dark?

  • The packaging or the ... ?

  • That's not fun!

  • I thought this was going to glow in the dark!

  • The packaging?

  • Let's see it, let's give it a shot.

  • Nothing's glowing.

  • All right. Lights back on.

  • It's a regular Kit Kat.

  • This is regular. How disappointing is that?

  • Thumbs down.

  • Birthday cake.

  • Close to a frosting and sprinkles flavor.

  • Man, these are all really good.

  • Also in the US, you can get a lemon crisp flavor.

  • Sold out everywhere.

  • It was like a Supreme drop.

  • The second those hit the shelves, they were are gone.

  • Also Kit Kat in the US has this line called Duos.

  • As you can see, three different flavors,

  • two flavors in one.

  • We got mint and dark chocolate.

  • Mocha and chocolate.

  • Eh, I'm already,

  • I'm not predicting this is going to be anything special.

  • It's just OK.

  • Strawberry and dark chocolate.

  • Is the way I'm eating these annoying?

  • I mean, it's not terrible, but.

  • Maybe strawberry and chocolate would've been too sweet,

  • but with the dark chocolate, I'm just not into it.

  • So these were fun, right? These were fun?

  • No?

  • All right, back to Japan.

  • Kit Kat has a collection of flavors

  • inspired by the many regions and prefectures of Japan.

  • So I'm going to start with this, Mount Fuji,

  • the highest mountain in Japan.

  • It's 3,776 meters high.

  • And the flavor is strawberry-cheesecake flavor.

  • How can I open this?

  • Here we go.

  • It looks great.

  • It's pretty good.

  • But it tastes exactly the same

  • as that one that I tasted 10 minutes ago.

  • All right, next one is this Shinshu apple.

  • Shinshu is kind of very old way

  • to call Nagano Prefecture.

  • And Nagano Prefecture is located in the center of Japan

  • and is famous for delicious apples.

  • And, finally, they turn into Kit Kat.

  • Ooh.

  • This is the nicest chocolate I've ever had.

  • Next, we have Amaou strawberry.

  • So it's basically from Kyushu.

  • Kyushu is Japan's third-largest island

  • and is located southwest of Japan.

  • And Amaou is the best brand of strawberries in Japan.

  • Marvelous, again.

  • Next, I'm going to go with this one.

  • Ito Kyuemon Uji matcha

  • and Ito Kyuemon Uji hojicha.

  • Uji matcha and Uji hojicha are named after Uji city,

  • where they're grown.

  • And the difference between matcha and hojicha is

  • matcha is matcha, right?

  • Matcha is a green tea.

  • But hojicha is a roasted green tea.

  • Let's go with Uji matcha first.

  • Whoo!

  • Matcha is always perfect.

  • How about hojicha?

  • It's as beautiful as my heart.

  • Let's move on to the next one.

  • We have beni imo.

  • Beni imo, which is purple sweet potato.

  • It's from Okinawa.

  • So, Okinawa is Japan's southernmost prefecture

  • and is famous for beni imo.

  • Okinawa is my favorite place in Japan.

  • I love this.

  • It has just right sweetness.

  • We've got azuki sandwich flavor from Nagoya.

  • So, Nagoya is located in between Tokyo and Osaka

  • and is famous for its azuki sandwich.

  • Azuki is sweet red bean paste.

  • So sweet red bean paste sandwich.

  • Oh.

  • It's not my taste at all.

  • Momiji manju flavor.

  • It's from Hiroshima.

  • So, Hiroshima is located in the southwest of Japan

  • and is famous for its momiji manju,

  • which is kind of maple-leaf-shaped cake

  • filled with sweet bean paste.

  • It tastes exactly the same as this one.

  • Sweet red bean paste.

  • Japanese people love sweet red bean paste.

  • Hokkaido azuki and strawberry flavor.

  • Hokkaido is the largest

  • and northernmost prefecture in Japan

  • and is famous for its azuki.

  • Much better than the other azuki flavors.

  • Why wasabi?

  • And it's from Shizuoka,

  • and Shizuoka is located along the Pacific coast

  • and is the top wasabi-producing region in Japan.

  • Believe it or not, it's actually pretty good.

  • Let's go! This one!

  • Strawberry cheesecake flavor again.

  • It's from Yokohama.

  • Yokohama is located next to Tokyo,

  • but Yokohama is not famous for strawberry cheesecake.

  • I don't know why they chose

  • strawberry-cheesecake flavor for this.

  • It tastes exactly the same.

  • Same!

  • Next we have Tokyo banana.

  • So, Tokyo banana is a banana-shaped

  • sponge cake with cream filling,

  • and it is very popular souvenir of Tokyo.

  • And they turn into Kit Kats.

  • Ta-da! Ooh!

  • It's gross.

  • When you come to Tokyo, you should try Tokyo bananas,

  • but you should not try Tokyo banana Kit Kats.

  • Rum raisin.

  • It's from Tokyo.

  • Tokyo is not famous for rum raisin.

  • But it says, "Rum raisin's gorgeousness

  • and fanciness matches the image of Tokyo."

  • There is a shot of rum.

  • I don't like it!

  • It contains a lot of alcohol.

  • Ooh.

  • Nande?

  • Last one!

  • Sake flavor,

  • which is a Japanese traditional alcohol made from rice.

  • This is a really interesting one.

  • Oh.

  • Personally, I like it.

  • And this is an acquired taste.

  • So, when it comes to sake flavor,

  • we were supposed to have yogurt sake, yuzu sake,

  • limited-edition Japan sake umeshu,

  • but these were not available at the time of filming this.

  • And we have Kit Kat desserts.

  • We have Kit Kat Colliders,

  • which I could not find at the filming of this,

  • but it looks to be almost like vanilla-flavored cups

  • with Kit Kat chunks broken up in it.

  • Oh, man, I ate too many Kit Kats.

  • And then we have these.

  • These Kit Kat ice cream cones.

  • Eh.

  • I hit a wall real hard.

  • I hit a giant Kit Kat XL wall,

  • and I officially do not want to do this anymore.

  • Better, but not by much more.

  • Yeah, so that's it for the US.

  • Sorry we have so few flavors.

  • Japan has a Kit Kat called Otona no Amasa,

  • which translates to "sweetness for adults."

  • Ow! R-rated!

  • Don't let your kids watch this part!

  • All right, so it's a line of Kit Kat flavors

  • that are a little more bitter

  • and less sweet than regular Kit Kats.

  • So, here we have Otona no Amasa strawberry,

  • white,

  • and dark matcha

  • and dark chocolate.

  • All right, so let's give it a try.

  • First.

  • This is just straight-up dark chocolate,

  • as you can imagine.

  • Strawberry.

  • Ooh, it's actually tart.

  • This is good.

  • All right, so let's move on to the next one.

  • We've got dark matcha.

  • Mm.

  • This is so deep.

  • Much deeper than the other matcha flavors.

  • So, last one, we've got Otona no Amasa white chocolate.

  • This is the best one

  • among these Otona no Amasa chocolates.

  • Just right sweetness.

  • All right, so let's do matcha taste test.

  • In Japan, matcha-flavored Kit Kats are so popular.

  • Over the years, we've introduced 13 different,

  • different, different, different matcha flavors.

  • But currently, we were only able to get these three.

  • So let's see how different they are.

  • First, dark matcha.

  • Deep matcha.

  • But it's also deep.

  • Ito Kyuemon Uji matcha.

  • So freaking hard to tell the difference.

  • But I'd say this one is the most delicious one.

  • Kyoto.

  • You can get it in Kyoto or order online.

  • So, here we have classy chocolates called Sublime.

  • So we have white Sublime

  • and raw milk Sublime

  • and a volcanic green Sublime

  • and orange volcanic Sublime,

  • yellow,

  • ruby Sublime.

  • All right, so let's try some out.

  • I'm getting sick of the sweetness.

  • Itadakimasu.

  • It doesn't taste anything!

  • I was thinking that it'd taste like strawberry

  • or raspberry or something, but.

  • Did I get COVID?

  • COVID-19?

  • OK, let's keep going.

  • All right, so I'm going to go yellow volcanic.

  • Volcano! Pew!

  • Ooh!

  • This is the bitterest.

  • I've got orange.

  • Bitter.

  • Now I'm so scared.

  • Green Sublime.

  • It tastes exactly same as these two. So bitter.

  • Next we have milk Sublime.

  • It tastes exactly the same as regular flavor.

  • I prefer this one.

  • Last one, I've got white Sublime.

  • Compared to the Otona no Amasa white chocolate,

  • it's much better.

  • I'm done.

  • Hey, guys, it's Harry.

  • I can't let you do a Kit Kat episode without me,

  • because Kit Kats were actually invented in the UK in 1935.

  • They would eventually be distributed by Nestlé

  • across the UK, the EU, and Japan.

  • But in the US, Kit Kats are made

  • and distributed by Hershey's.

  • If you watched our Snickers episode,

  • you'll know that there are some major taste differences

  • between the chocolate in the UK and the US.

  • Mostly that the UK's is way better.

  • I'm going to do a three-way taste test

  • between UK, US, and also a Japanese Kit Kat

  • to see if there's any major differences between the three.

  • And, Harry, thank you for sending me this

  • with your cute handwriting.

  • Thank you, Harry! Arigato.

  • Let's try UK Kit Kat first.

  • The UK one is obviously the one I'm used to.

  • The chocolate is very smooth,

  • not overwhelmingly sweet, and just very tasty.

  • The UK is already a lot richer.

  • OK, OK.

  • Can I try US Kit Kat?

  • I also couldn't find

  • just a standard American Kit Kat anywhere.

  • I guess we didn't bother importing the regular one.

  • The closest thing I could find

  • was this Kit Kat Duos mocha and chocolate one.

  • Something doesn't taste quite right about that.

  • Yep.

  • UK, US,

  • they suck.

  • They both have too much sugar.

  • Joe, Harry, try Japan's Kit Kat.

  • Mm.

  • Much smoother. Creamier.

  • In terms of picking a favorite,

  • I think the US one gets discounted immediately.

  • Then, between the UK and the Japan one,

  • it's kind of a different style of Kit Kat, I guess.

  • I would say Japan and UK are pretty neck and neck.

  • They seem very similar.

  • Japan's Kit Kat is the best in the world.

  • Ugh, I've eaten too much candy.

  • Ugh!

  • Perhaps we can pinpoint the taste difference

  • to the ingredients.

  • In the US, a Kit Kat is made up of

  • sugar, wheat flour --

  • [beep]

  • [beep]

  • Our Kit Kats have the following.

  • Looking over the ingredients,

  • I noticed our Kit Kats have cocoa butter and chocolate,

  • although it does not specify

  • what that chocolate is made up of.

  • Do we assume it is the same

  • as the Hershey's chocolate bar?

  • I don't know.

  • Whereas the Japan Kit Kat has cocoa mass,

  • cocoa butter, and cocoa powder.

  • Now, if we're to believe that Nestlé in Japan

  • holds their chocolate to the same standards

  • they do in the UK, it would mean

  • that it would have a higher fat and cocoa content.

  • According to the UK rules,

  • "a product must contain no less than 25% cocoa solids

  • to be considered 'milk chocolate.'"

  • The US definitely does not go by this rule.

  • Our Kit Kat is made up of palm oil,

  • where theirs is vegetable oil. Same in the UK.

  • It is cheaper, but it's also worse on the environment,

  • adding to deforestation,

  • increasing greenhouse [gas] emissions,

  • and water pollution.

  • So it is bad on the environment and tastes worse.

  • Fantastic.

  • But good news for all you vegans,

  • Nestlé has created a vegan Kit Kat,

  • with substituted milk with a rice-based alternative,

  • but availability is currently limited,

  • so they are not available in the US or Japan.

  • This is a US Kit Kat miniature,

  • and it is 8.5 grams.

  • It's the closest size we had to Japan's mini.

  • This is 42 calories,

  • 2.2 grams of fat,

  • 6 milligrams of sodium,

  • 5.8 grams of carbs,

  • 4 of those are sugar,

  • and 1 gram of protein.

  • In Japan, the mini is the most popular size.

  • It's 62 calories

  • and 3.5 grams of fat,

  • 3.5 to 11.4 milligrams of sodium,

  • 8.99 to 19.4 grams of total carbs,

  • and 0.9 grams of protein.

  • The most common Kit Kat size in the US

  • is the four-finger bar.

  • 210 calories,

  • 11 grams of fat,

  • 7 of those are saturated,

  • 20 milligrams of sodium,

  • 28 grams of carbs,

  • 23 of those are sugar,

  • and 2 grams of protein.

  • The closest size we have to that in Japan

  • is the Kit Kat bar.

  • It contains 224 calories.

  • The most caloried Kit Kat in the US we got

  • is the Kit Kat XL.

  • Now, I unwrapped it here so you could see

  • just how big it is.

  • It contains 640 calories.

  • The most calories you will get in a Kit Kat in Japan

  • is the big little pouch bite.

  • This bag is 275 calories.

  • George: From calorie count to portion sizes,

  • we wanted to find out all the differences

  • between Burger King in Japan and the US.

  • This is "Food Wars."

  • Here's everything you can find on the menu

  • at the Burger King in Japan but not in the US.

  • Here's everything you can find at a US Burger King

  • you cannot get in Japan.

  • All right, so let's start with exclusive burgers.

  • So, here we have teriyaki lettuce burger

  • and teriyaki Whopper.

  • Ooh!

  • Huge.

  • Next we have avocado salad burger

  • and avocado Whopper.

  • Aah, a little cute baby.

  • Look at this.

  • And Whopper.

  • It's totally different.

  • This one is so huge.

  • And avocados, tomato,

  • no tomatoes.

  • I don't know why.

  • Next we have quattro cheese Whopper.

  • Oh, big boy.

  • We've got smoky barbecue Whopper

  • and smoky barbecue Whopper junior.

  • And here is spicy Whopper.

  • Ooh!

  • It's hot sauce.

  • Next, we have tartar chicken burger.

  • Ooh, it's got

  • a lot of tartar sauce,

  • chicken, crispy.

  • Burger King in Japan just released a brand-new burger

  • called Guilty Burger.

  • It's basically butter burger.

  • Why?

  • What have you done?

  • Let's check out this Guilty butter beef burger first.

  • The bun is different.

  • Itadakimasu!

  • Just a little bit of butter flavor,

  • but I don't feel as guilty as it claims.

  • This one is Guilty butter croquette sandwich.

  • Ooh.

  • Guilty!

  • And here is Guilty butter chicken burger.

  • First one is something that BK has exclu --

  • oh, my God.

  • This is called the Texas Whopper.

  • Look at the size of this f---ing thing.

  • Two patties, cheese, bacon, bunch of veggies.

  • Wait for it!

  • The triple Whopper.

  • Look at the size of this thing.

  • The weight of it has completely flattened the bottom bun.

  • And there's nothing between the patties of meat!

  • What the hell are you guys doing over there?

  • Next.

  • Oh, the Bacon King.

  • Oh, my God.

  • Looks to be pretty bacon centric.

  • Looks like a double Whopper with cheese,

  • bacon, mayo, ketchup, mustard.

  • They didn't mess with the veggies. Thank you.

  • You're not fooling anyone

  • getting lettuce and onion on that one.

  • The rodeo burger is a little guy with onion rings.

  • The rodeo burger. Yeehaw.

  • On to the chicken.

  • I'll just put this over here.

  • Japan does not have

  • what we call the original chicken sandwich.

  • And I don't know why Burger King,

  • maybe just to set itself apart,

  • the chicken sandwich is this, like, sub shape.

  • It's like I'm holding the phone.

  • This is great.

  • Chicken junior, spicy chicken junior.

  • Let's go spicy.

  • Barely registers in the spice meter.

  • Wait!

  • Yeah.

  • BKs in the US have something called the Ch'King sandwich.

  • You can get the sandwich regular or deluxe.

  • You can also get the sandwich flavor regular or spicy.

  • So here is the regular regular.

  • And as you can see,

  • just comes with sauce and pickles and the chicken.

  • You can get it deluxe and spicy,

  • so we went with deluxe, comes with all these veggies

  • that you brush off right when you start eating it,

  • and it has got a spicy kind of hue to the chicken there.

  • Here's our side menu.

  • Let's start with this one.

  • We've got hot dog.

  • It's got such a big sausage.

  • This one is chili beans hot dog.

  • And next we have this little guy,

  • snack chicken.

  • And last we have this one,

  • chili cheese fries.

  • And if you want some veggies, you can order Caesar salad.

  • But my bad, I forgot to order.

  • Also exclusives to the US are these, chicken fries.

  • As you can tell, they look like fries,

  • but they're pieces of chicken.

  • Not bad.

  • You can get Mott's applesauce.

  • Jalapeño cheddar bites.

  • I've never heard of these.

  • And now I know why.

  • Burger King in the US has two iced-coffee flavors,

  • mocha and vanilla.

  • Assuming that's the mocha.

  • Tastes exactly like chocolate milk.

  • Blech! No.

  • Oh, the aftertaste is horrible.

  • What the hell?

  • That's ridiculous how bad that is.

  • And the vanilla.

  • That is so sweet.

  • I'm gonna keep this one.

  • So, here is our dessert menus.

  • Here we have coffee float.

  • A little bit melting, sorry.

  • And we have melon soda float.

  • Coke float and Coke Zero float.

  • And here we've got premium sundae chocolate and coffee.

  • And here is our chocolate sundae

  • and strawberry sundae.

  • And my favorite is this apple pie.

  • Desserts.

  • Here in the US you can get yourself a Hershey's sundae pie.

  • Ugh.

  • This one might have got a little roughed up in transit.

  • And in the US Burger King, you can also get various shakes.

  • Here we have Oreo shake, a chocolate Oreo shake,

  • a chocolate shake, and a vanilla shake.

  • All right.

  • God, that's so good.

  • The straight-up chocolate.

  • Oh, man, this is trouble.

  • Mm!

  • Wow, Burger King's shakes are really good.

  • I'm assuming this is just the straight Oreo one.

  • Oh, my God, this is fantastic.

  • Are we all curious what a chocolate Oreo shake tastes like?

  • Wonder no more.

  • Good. This one's the best.

  • Also at a US Burger King, you can get a soft-serve cone.

  • I didn't get it,

  • only because we have no refrigeration unit here

  • and it would just be a cone with a puddle of ice cream. So.

  • Victoria, please turn me into a giant soft-serve cone.

  • So, here are our drinks.

  • Let's start with this one.

  • This one is ginger ale;

  • and Fanta melon;

  • oolong tea,

  • which is Chinese tea;

  • and orange juice.

  • And this one is Earl Grey iced tea.

  • Next we have Darjeeling tea.

  • And here is Calpis,

  • which, you guys call it Calpico in your country.

  • But in Japan we say "ka-ru pi-su."

  • I know it sounds like "cow piss" in English,

  • but if you say Calpico to Japanese people,

  • they will never understand what you're talking about.

  • So in Japan, once again, we say "ka-ru pi-su."

  • Repeat after me. "Ka-ru pi-su."

  • Very good!

  • First things you can get,

  • you can get a little orange juice guy,

  • and you can also get Capri Sun apple juice.

  • Shout-out to the pouch.

  • Burger King in the US has Coke products as well,

  • but we have something called a Coke Freestyle machine.

  • If you haven't seen it, it's this big machine

  • that has a bunch of Coca-Cola-related beverages.

  • You can mix and match them.

  • Anyway, we can get Hi-C fruit punch,

  • Hi-C pink lemonade, Fanta orange, Mello Yello,

  • Powerade Zero, Dr Pepper, Barq's, diet Barq's.

  • You can also get yourself a fat-free milk.

  • There it is.

  • Sweetened or unsweetened tea.

  • I think I got the sweetened.

  • I don't want any tea. Tea sucks.

  • We also have something called frozen Cokes.

  • That is this right here.

  • As you can see, it's been sitting for a while,

  • it's starting to separate.

  • But we have frozen Coke,

  • we also have a frozen Fanta wild cherry,

  • a frozen Fanta blue raspberry,

  • and a frozen strawberry lemonade.

  • Mm.

  • Oh, yeah.

  • Japan has a few exclusives that are similar

  • but different to that in the US.

  • So, for example, this is our plant-based Whopper.

  • This burger is made from 100% soybeans.

  • Itadakimasu!

  • It's actually delicious.

  • I like it.

  • Mm.

  • When it comes to vegetarianism and veganism,

  • they are not that popular in Japan.

  • But gradually, especially the restaurants in Tokyo

  • are offering more vegan or vegetarian meals

  • because there is more Japanese people

  • and non-Japanese people who are vegan or vegetarian

  • compared to other places in Japan.

  • But overall, the vegan or vegetarian option

  • is still limited in Japan.

  • And in the US, we have the Impossible Whopper.

  • What's the difference?

  • Well, the Impossible burger has all these ingredients.

  • So as you can see, a lot more.

  • I am curious.

  • That looks like meat, right?

  • Tastes exactly like a Whopper.

  • I don't think I would notice the difference.

  • They're covering the lack of meat with, like,

  • with that char flavor that they have on there.

  • Oh, it's good.

  • In Japan, we call this burger

  • crispy chicken burger.

  • And in the US, we have the before-mentioned

  • Ch'King sandwich,

  • which comes in varieties of spicy and/or deluxe.

  • For breakfast, our hash brown comes in one big piece.

  • Whereas in the US,

  • our hash browns come in little bites.

  • And in Japan, we have this cheese bites.

  • Look at this.

  • And in the US, we have eight-piece cheesy tots.

  • And on to the US breakfast exclusives.

  • As you can see, we have a lot more going on

  • in our breakfast menu here in the US than Japan has.

  • Here in the US, you can get your breakfast sandwich

  • in biscuit or Croissan'wich options.

  • Croissan'wich is, of course, a croissant sandwich.

  • Took those two words, put them together. Croissan'wich.

  • So we have bacon, egg, and cheese;

  • ham, egg, and cheese;

  • and sausage, egg, and cheese.

  • We have two breakfast burritos.

  • The Egg-Normous breakfast burrito,

  • which I'm assuming is this one,

  • 'cause it is enormous.

  • The breakfast burrito junior.

  • Look at this little guy!

  • French toast sticks.

  • Who doesn't like French toast?

  • Finally, pancake platter with just three pancakes

  • or a pancake platter with three pancakes

  • and a side of sausage.

  • The fries at Burger King in Japan come in three sizes,

  • small,

  • medium,

  • and large.

  • Fries in the US at Burger King come in four sizes,

  • value, small, medium, or large.

  • Or maybe it's value, small, medium, large.

  • Does this look right?

  • Any of you "Food Wars" heads

  • would've seen the Burger King US vs UK episode

  • where we uncovered Frygate.

  • Two sizes had pretty much the exact same unit of fries.

  • Now, as you can see from these,

  • I can't tell which is the value and the small.

  • I'm assuming this is the medium.

  • Well, unfortunately, we cannot do that amazingly accurate

  • scientific test that we did in the last episode

  • because the fries have been compromised.

  • They all came in the same bag, and ...

  • I think they knew what we were up to

  • and they purposely dumped all the fries in the same bag

  • to contaminate the experiment.

  • You've outsmarted us this time.

  • George: Let's weigh the large fries

  • to see how much you actually get.

  • 151 grams.

  • What if we did a thing where, like,

  • whatever lands and stays on counts as it?

  • Does that seem like a fair thing to say?

  • That's really smart, what I just did there, I think.

  • It's 195 grams.

  • Let's weigh Japan's Whopper.

  • 250 grams.

  • Joe: And let us weigh our Whopper in the US.

  • Yo!

  • 270?

  • Yeah, 270 grams.

  • So pretty close. Surprisingly close.

  • If you're not feeling like having beef,

  • Burger King also has some chicken options.

  • You can order your chicken nuggets

  • in five pieces and eight pieces.

  • Here in the US, you can get your nuggets in sizes

  • of four pieces, eight pieces, or 16 pieces.

  • And it's worth noting that you can only get the 16-piece

  • online or through their app, and even if you do,

  • they still just give you two eight-pieces.

  • I don't know why either.

  • So, let's weigh eight-piece nuggets.

  • 130 grams.

  • Divide by eight equals

  • 16.25 grams per nugget.

  • I don't know if we can get as accurate of a measurement

  • for something so small.

  • So we will use this guy instead.

  • So I'll just do this and put this scale here.

  • Ah!

  • This is a bad idea.

  • Eight pieces is 104 grams,

  • divided by eight is 13 grams.

  • In Japan, we have three drink sizes,

  • small

  • and medium

  • and large.

  • In the US, we have four drink sizes.

  • Value, which only comes with a value meal;

  • small; medium; and large.

  • Now, I want to note that the US's largest drink size

  • is 112% larger than Japan's largest drink.

  • Now, what's the biggest meal

  • you can get in Japan's Burger King?

  • Over here, it's the King Meal.

  • [singing "Circle of Life"]

  • The King Meal ranges anywhere

  • from 790 to 990 yen

  • depending on the burger you choose.

  • It has your choice of an avocado Whopper,

  • double cheeseburger, or Whopper.

  • We chose the double cheeseburger,

  • which comes with small fries,

  • five-piece nuggets,

  • medium Coke, and apple pie.

  • And in the US, currently our single biggest menu item

  • at a Burger King is the $30 Ultimate Party Bundle.

  • Now, you could only order this party bundle

  • through the BK app, and it includes two Whoppers,

  • two double cheeseburgers,

  • two original chicken sandwiches,

  • two eight-piece chicken nuggets,

  • four small fries, and four small drinks.

  • And it costs:

  • $30.

  • In Japan, a Whopper cheese set,

  • it costs around 890 yen, or $7.80 US.

  • Whereas in the US, the same meal

  • with a small fry and drink is $9.29,

  • or 1,059.65 Japanese yen.

  • What about the medium?

  • You get that with the medium fry and medium drink,

  • it's $10.29,

  • or 1,173.71 Japanese yen.

  • What about the large?

  • Poof! Hey, there it is, right in front of me.

  • Large fries and drink, $11.29,

  • or 1,287.78 Japanese yen.

  • Let's look at calories.

  • In Japan, a Whopper is 676 calories.

  • The calories aren't too bad,

  • but watch out for the sodium levels.

  • One Japan Whopper is 113%

  • of your daily recommended amount of sodium.

  • Too much!

  • In the US, our Whopper is 667 calories.

  • Both Whoppers are pretty comparable

  • in most of the categories,

  • but there's one statistic that really stands out,

  • the salt content.

  • The sodium level in Japan's Whopper is 122% higher

  • than that in the US.

  • Let's make that a meal.

  • A Whopper with large fries and a large Coke

  • is 1,323 calories.

  • And the same meal in the US is 1,680 calories,

  • so a lot more.

  • Now, a big portion of the calories

  • actually come from the large Coke.

  • The US's is roughly 182% more calories

  • than that of Japan's.

  • Let's look at the highest-calorie sandwich

  • at Japan's Burger King.

  • The double Whopper cheese is here.

  • Eating one of these is already half of your daily calories

  • and a little over your daily recommended protein.

  • The main thing to watch out for here is the sodium,

  • which is 152% of your daily recommended value.

  • Whereas in the US, our highest-calorie sandwich

  • is the spicy chicken deluxe sandwich, seen here.

  • If you're worried about your health,

  • steer clear of this one.

  • The fat content is 190% your daily allowance,

  • and the sodium is over 200% of your daily allowance.

  • Yikes.

  • As I mentioned earlier,

  • the biggest menu item is the King Meal.

  • If you get it with a double bacon cheeseburger,

  • the total calories are 1,329.

  • That's 66% of your daily calories.

  • And, of course, the $30 Ultimate Party Bundle,

  • which is 8,903 calories,

  • or 445% your daily

  • caloric allowance.

  • Burger King in Japan doesn't disclose

  • the exact ingredients,

  • but it does disclose where the ingredients come from

  • and where they're finished processing.

  • For example, the Whopper beef patties

  • are sourced from Australia, New Zealand, and Europe,

  • but they are processed in Australia,

  • Japan, and Austria.

  • Burger King in the US is pretty vague

  • when it comes to its ingredients.

  • They don't disclose a comprehensive list anywhere.

  • At the end of 2020,

  • Burger King permanently banned 120 artificial flavors

  • from their menu, including aluminum,

  • yellows 1 through 5, BHA, and BHT.

  • Here's the complete list.

  • It was actually a lot of stuff.

  • Good for you guys.

  • George: From calorie count to portion sizes,

  • we wanted to find out all the differences

  • between Wendy's in Japan and the US.

  • This is "Food Wars."

  • In Japan, our Wendy's hamburgers

  • come in four sizes:

  • junior, single, double, and triple.

  • In the US, our burgers come in four sizes:

  • junior, Dave's single,

  • Dave's double, and the Dave's triple.

  • Look at the size of this thing.

  • In Japan, our nuggets come in orders of five and 10.

  • Our US nuggets come in four, six,

  • and 10-piece.

  • Our Wendy's drinks come in three sizes:

  • small, medium, and large.

  • And in the US we also have three drink sizes,

  • small, medium,

  • you've gotta be kidding me.

  • Look at the size of this thing.

  • This might be 40 ounces, Yuelei.

  • Only one way to find out.

  • Ho!

  • Oh, not quite 40.

  • About 36 or 37 fluid ounces of Coca-Cola.

  • And how big's a bladder?

  • This looks like more than I would normally pee

  • in the morning.

  • OK, let's measure our large drink.

  • It measures exactly 500 milliliters.

  • Our Wendy's fries come in two sizes.

  • Small and medium.

  • Our fries come in four sizes,

  • junior, small, medium,

  • pew, large.

  • Let's weigh our largest.

  • [laughs]

  • Roughly 180 grams.

  • It weighs 135 grams.

  • Japan's chili comes in two sizes,

  • medium and large.

  • And the US, our chili comes in two sizes,

  • small and large.

  • Let us weigh the largest now.

  • Including the paper cup, 430 grams.

  • George: Let's weigh our large chili.

  • 265 grams.

  • In Japan, a Wendy's burger USA double

  • is 730 yen, or $6.38.

  • Our US Dave's double goes for $5.99,

  • or around 685 Japanese yen.

  • That's a 6.16% decrease in price in the US.

  • Let's make it a meal.

  • In Japan, if you're getting your burger as a set,

  • it includes a small fries

  • and a three-piece nuggets and a drink.

  • It costs around 440 yen more.

  • Our meals only include fries and drink.

  • So a small Dave's double meal,

  • and I threw in a four-piece

  • because we don't have a three-piece,

  • works out to $10.98.

  • That's an 8.12% increased cost in the US.

  • Mind you, we did get an extra nugget.

  • Speaking of nuggets, in Japan,

  • 10-piece nugget is 510 yen,

  • which breaks down to 51 yen per nugget.

  • In the US, a 10-piece nugget is $4.29,

  • which makes it per nugget around 43 cents.

  • So per nugget average,

  • the US is paying 8.11% less.

  • A Baconator double in Japan

  • is 850 yen, or $7.43.

  • In the US, you get that same Baconator for $7.49,

  • or 857 Japanese yen.

  • So close. Only a 0.82% increase.

  • Here is everything you can get at the Wendy's in Japan

  • you cannot get in the US.

  • And here's everything at a US Wendy's

  • you can't get in Japan.

  • One thing I want to point out is that in Japan,

  • Wendy's is known as Wendy's First Kitchen.

  • First Kitchen is a Japanese fast-food chain,

  • and it was acquired by Wendy's in 2016

  • and became a hybrid of Wendy's and First Kitchen's menus.

  • And we call them Fakkin,

  • which is the abbreviation of First Kitchen

  • in a Japanese way.

  • It's like First Kitchen's "Fa"

  • and kitchen's "ki" and "n."

  • And say: Fakkin.

  • Repeat after me: Fakkin.

  • [beep]

  • Got it, buddy.

  • Very good!

  • So, here are our Japan's exclusive burgers.

  • So, this one is bacon mushroom melt,

  • and this one is just mushroom melt.

  • We have Wendy's bacon egg burger.

  • We also have Wendy's cheese bacon egg burger,

  • and this sauce,

  • tartar sauce. Umai.

  • Everybody's curious what this is.

  • This one is Wild Rock.

  • It's got no buns.

  • It's got two beef patties.

  • I think I should try this one.

  • Itadakimasu.

  • This meat itself has a good taste

  • and some kind of, like, peppery flavor,

  • but it's a little bit dry.

  • I wouldn't get this again.

  • And last things,

  • we have junior teriyaki burger,

  • and we have junior teriyaki cheeseburger.

  • The big bacon cheeseburger.

  • The big bacon double.

  • Look at this! Yep, one, two, three, the big bacon triple.

  • I mean, I don't know what angle is best to look at this at.

  • And then we got big bacons on the fancy bread.

  • This must be the big bacons classicses.

  • This looks like a big bacon --

  • look, it's got shredded cheese and stuff on this.

  • Everything's bacon something with these guys.

  • At this point, it's just like, how many slabs of meat

  • do you want on your bacon sandwich?

  • Two things you can get at a Wendy's

  • in the US you cannot get in Japan

  • or just the junior burger and the junior cheeseburger.

  • Look at this little guy. Look at this.

  • Literally every fast-food burger place

  • has a version of this.

  • Chicken!

  • [grunts]

  • The Asiago chicken sandwiches.

  • We got the Asiago chicken ranch classic club.

  • I said that in the wrong order, but you get what I mean.

  • Probably this one.

  • This is the fried Asiago club with bacon.

  • And then there is the spicy,

  • which I'm assuming is this one.

  • And then they got the grilled.

  • That's pretty good.

  • Don't like Asiago?

  • Wendy's got you covered.

  • So many chicken sandwiches at Wendy's

  • that of course are not Asiago'd.

  • This is the grilled chicken sandwich.

  • As you can see, it is grilled.

  • And then we have the grilled chicken big bacon.

  • Man, they must've gotten some deal on bacon for Wendy's.

  • Everything's got bacon on it!

  • I'm going to go ahead and assume this is the

  • big bacon fried chicken sandwich,

  • 'cause it has bacon on it.

  • So you have the spicy big bacon cheddar chicken.

  • In Japan, our Wendy's have pasta,

  • which were originally on the First Kitchen menu.

  • So here we have ramen-style soy cream pasta

  • with spinach and ham.

  • Expires 2023,

  • January 20.

  • Joe, I'll keep this for you.

  • Nah, my guy, you can go ahead and throw that out.

  • And next we have ramen-style dandan soup pasta

  • with spinach and ham.

  • So, dandan soup is kind of like a spicy chili-flavored soup

  • with miso and pork mince.

  • Dandan soup and dandan ramen are very popular in Japan.

  • Tomato sauce pasta

  • with mozzarella and bacon.

  • All right, next we have beef cheek meat cream spaghetti.

  • Plastic.

  • Mm.

  • Next we have carbonara spaghetti.

  • Naotomo: Carbon-AR-a.

  • Carbon-AAH-ra.

  • Carbona-rrra.

  • A-rrra? OK.

  • Carbra-rrra.

  • [crew laughing]

  • It's got bacon

  • and this creamy carbona-rrra sauce.

  • Molto bene!

  • Last thing I have is spicy cod roe spaghetti.

  • So, spicy cod roe in Japanese is mentaiko,

  • and mentaiko spaghetti is also very popular in Japan.

  • Unfortunately, some Americans I know

  • don't like mentaiko so much

  • because of the texture and smell.

  • But for me, mentaiko,

  • it's super Fakkin delicious.

  • Uh, it's been a while since I got this one.

  • It's been, like, three hours.

  • Itadakimasu.

  • Mm.

  • Joe, try it out.

  • I appreciate the offer, George,

  • but you can go ahead and finish that,

  • 'cause it looks Fakkin disgusting.

  • We got salads.

  • Over here on this end, the first one

  • looks like we got the Parmesan Caesar salad.

  • Comes with, of course, Caesar dressing

  • and what looks to be Parmesan crisps.

  • This next salad is ridiculous.

  • We're going to go ahead and put quotes around salad.

  • Wendy's has a taco "salad" that comes

  • with tortilla chips, sour cream, signature salsa,

  • and, if that wasn't enough, chili.

  • And before we continue,

  • you confirmed that the taco salad

  • is supposed to have chili on it?

  • They told you that.

  • Just gotta get the chips all around here.

  • I can't believe this.

  • This is so gross.

  • Signature salsa, then chili.

  • Oh, it smells so bad.

  • Oh, God.

  • Eh.

  • I'm just -- this is just like eating chili

  • with tortilla chips.

  • They said there was some salt --

  • I'm just pushing this s--- around.

  • On to the next salad,

  • the Southwest avocado salad.

  • Oh, my God, there's bacon on it!

  • That's weird.

  • That was in Dave Thomas' obituary.

  • "I want everything to be covered in bacon."

  • But yeah. Chicken, avocado, bacon, cheese, and some sauce.

  • This makes sense.

  • And the last salad,

  • apple pecan salad.

  • That smells.

  • Oh, 'cause it's got blue cheese on it.

  • Roasted pecan bits.

  • Pomegranate vinaigrette!

  • Mm. Apples are nice.

  • It's kind of nice to get a little bit of actual fruit,

  • something nutritious while doing this.

  • It's like my body's like, "What is this?!"

  • So, here are Japan's side menu.

  • We have a few flavor options for fries.

  • So we have happy butter flavor fries.

  • Happy butter flavor.

  • It has just subtle buttery flavor. Mm.

  • Burnt butter soy sauce flavor.

  • Rip it off. Bwah!

  • I don't know what's going on here, but it's pretty good.

  • Much better than this.

  • Savory steamed potato butter.

  • It gets quite strong buttery flavor.

  • Definitely I prefer this one

  • than the happy butter flavor.

  • This is not happy.

  • This one is chicken consommé flavor.

  • Mm.

  • This is the best fries I've ever had in my life.

  • Now I'm going to introduce you

  • this spicy chicken breast.

  • Wendy's in the US also has baked potatoes.

  • See what we got.

  • Of course, there's your regular.

  • And this one, oh, yeah.

  • This one's got, like, chives and stuff in it.

  • If I was to stop here, you would go,

  • "Wow, what a tasteful selection of healthy potatoes."

  • But of course we don't stop here.

  • We move on to absolute baked-potato madness.

  • Ah, No. 1, oof.

  • Cheese baked potato.

  • Drowned this thing in cheese.

  • It's like -- ooh!

  • It's, like, caked to the side. Blech.

  • Ugh. Ugh.

  • Oh, God! [laughs]

  • The chili and cheese baked potato.

  • Blech.

  • If you are like me, you're wondering to yourself,

  • something's missing.

  • Something is missing from this potato menu, Yuelei!

  • Can you guess what that is?

  • The bacon cheese baked potato!

  • Oh, they got big pieces of bacon on this one too.

  • Oof!

  • You can get spicy chicken nuggets.

  • Yessiree Bob.

  • Seasoned potatoes.

  • All right, so fruit finally made the menu.

  • Apple slices.

  • It wouldn't be a Wendy's category

  • without the Baconator fries.

  • We need the bacon meter in this episode.

  • Last of the sides.

  • Oh, yeah.

  • Oatmeal bar.

  • Looks like a Clif bar.

  • Whoa, that's actually pretty good.

  • So, here are our Japan's exclusive drinks.

  • We have tapioca royal milk tea with brown sugar

  • and tapioca milk with brown sugar.

  • Tornado.

  • Mm!

  • This is amazing.

  • Simply amazing.

  • I love this.

  • So, here are our other drinks.

  • We have Pepsi, orange juice,

  • and ginger ale,

  • lemonade and melon soda,

  • peach tea and iced tea,

  • iced matcha, and this one is iced cocoa.

  • So, here we have our hot drinks.

  • We have Darjeeling tea,

  • and we have café mocha,

  • and we have peach tea.

  • Mm.

  • I like this.

  • And we have café latte

  • and cocoa

  • and matcha.

  • This is matcha, but it looks like

  • water from 100 years ago.

  • Our Wendy's has Frosty-ccinos,

  • which I'm assuming are Frostys meet Frappuccinos?

  • Frosty-ccinos?

  • But it does not appear that there's Frostys in this.

  • They have two flavors, vanilla and chocolate.

  • I'm assuming this is the vanilla.

  • Wendy's did smart on this one. It isn't that sweet.

  • I was expecting it to be, like, undrinkable,

  • but it's actually kind of nice.

  • All right, this one is the chocolate.

  • Yeah.

  • Also, it's a nice flavor.

  • 'Cause of the Frosty-ccinos,

  • you know what that means.

  • At Wendy's you can also get:

  • booyah, Frostys.

  • They don't have these in Japan?

  • I feel like this is the staple menu item.

  • [laughs]

  • I love these so much.

  • Fantastic. That's fantastic.

  • Gotta go for the chocolate.

  • Don't bother finding me a spoon.

  • I'm just gonna do a little taste here.

  • That's great.

  • The Frostys are great.

  • It's like a milkshake, but it's super thick and delicious.

  • Japan, you want this.

  • Thick.

  • It is thick!

  • In Japan, we have floats instead of Frostys.

  • We have Coke float

  • and melon soda float.

  • Japan has an exclusive breakfast sandwich.

  • It's called the breakfast sandwich.

  • It's got tomato, lettuce,

  • and I believe this is beef or pork patties.

  • OK, whereas Japan has one exclusive breakfast sandwich,

  • we have way more.

  • Like all the fast food here in America,

  • we take our breakfast very seriously.

  • You can get yourself a maple bacon croissant.

  • It looks like it's a chicken sandwich

  • that of course has bacon and maple syrup on the croissant.

  • We have what just appears to be the bacon biscuit.

  • Bacon, egg, cheese

  • in the incredibly dry biscuit.

  • Bacon croissant.

  • I don't know about this one.

  • Moving on to the sausage zone of the Wendy's breakfast.

  • This is the special sausage biscuit.

  • No, no, no, no, no.

  • Here's what I hate about this.

  • Pick a drier thing to have for breakfast.

  • I feel like it'd be impossible to swallow a bite of this.

  • You're going to choke on it.

  • Here we go. See, this is what I'm talking about.

  • They might have gotten this backwards.

  • This is actually the better sausage one.

  • This at least has a better chance

  • of not getting stuck in your throat.

  • The sausage croissant also has egg. Thank you.

  • They have a few things that are honey-butter-based.

  • I am so glad that fast-food places

  • are introducing honey to their breakfast menu.

  • I think maybe it has to do with the fact

  • that chicken sandwiches have become so popular.

  • First one we got here is the honey butter biscuit.

  • [laughs]

  • Hey, it's just a biscuit with honey butter.

  • I mean, yeah, I'll have this anytime.

  • I'll have this anytime.

  • This one has some heft to it.

  • It's the hot honey biscuit.

  • Yeah!

  • A little chicken on there.

  • Yep.

  • I really like that.

  • This is the special chicken croissant.

  • So, here are our desserts.

  • So here we have Melotozzo.

  • So, Melotozzo are maritozzo-style pastries,

  • which are popular in Rome and Japan as well,

  • made with melon bread.

  • So melon bread is a type of sweet Japanese bread

  • which has a sugar cookie crust on the surface.

  • But what's funny is that

  • it doesn't have a melon flavor at all.

  • At all.

  • The reason it's called melon bread

  • is that it just looks like melon.

  • Does it look like melon?

  • It does in Japan.

  • Oh!

  • And this time,

  • First Kitchen made a maritozzo using melon bread

  • and mascarpone cheese whipped cream,

  • and it's called Melotozzo.

  • So here we have Melotozzo tiramisu

  • and Melotozzo matcha and Melotozzo plain.

  • So, actually, yesterday was my birthday, February 18.

  • Hey, it's your birthday! Happy birthday, George!

  • Thank you for your message! Thank you! Arigatou gozaimasu!

  • So this is my birthday present.

  • All right, so let's give it a shot.

  • Best birthday present ever.

  • Itadakimasu.

  • This is so good.

  • I can't stop eating this.

  • Mm.

  • So, Wendy's in Japan has a Japanese traditional sweet

  • since it has been a collaboration with First Kitchen.

  • So we have shiratama cream zenzai.

  • Ooh.

  • So it has three main ingredients, ice cream,

  • and sweet red beans, and the shiratama,

  • which is kind of like a mochi rice cake.

  • And my grandma likes this type of zenzai.

  • This is for you, my grandma.

  • And also we have mini pancakes.

  • In the US, we only have two exclusive desserts,

  • and they're both cookies.

  • And that's no disrespect to cookies,

  • cookies are great, but I want one of those

  • fun Italian ice cream sandwiches they had.

  • Anyway, you can get two cookies here in the US,

  • a chocolate chunk cookie and a sugar cookie.

  • Our Wendy's double burger is 578 calories

  • and 29% of your daily recommended amount

  • and 60% of the recommended daily sodium.

  • Our double burger, the Dave's double, isn't much better.

  • Ours is 850 calories

  • and way more fat. Over 70%!

  • But less sodium,

  • just a bit over half of the daily amount.

  • Still, not great.

  • Make it a meal in Japan,

  • and that increases the calories to 1,089.

  • That's 55% of your daily recommended calorie intake.

  • And if you make it a combo here, we chose the small

  • and took a few sips,

  • that's 440 more calories,

  • bringing the total to 1,290,

  • or 64.5% of your daily allowance.

  • In Japan, the single menu item with the most calories

  • is the eight-piece fried-chicken pack,

  • which contains [gasps] 4,018 calories,

  • 201% of your daily calories.

  • In the US, our single biggest-calorie menu item

  • is the Feed the Fam deal.

  • A fam, yeah, right! This is all for you.

  • It is two spicy chicken sandwiches,

  • two junior bacon cheeseburgers,

  • and four small fries.

  • Total 2,780 calories,

  • which is 139% of your daily intake.

  • Japan's Wendy's doesn't disclose their ingredients list.

  • Why, Japan?

  • The US sure does.

  • Now, is there anything we should be looking out for?

  • Of course there is.

  • Let's start with sodium nitrate,

  • which is found in the Baconator's applewood-smoked bacon.

  • Sodium nitrate is a chemical that is used to cure meats

  • and gives meat that appealing pink color.

  • Perfect for bacon.

  • Also, get this,

  • it's super toxic.

  • It is restricted for purchase online.

  • People have accidentally eaten too much of it and died.

  • It's also been used in homicides. Yikes!

  • Sodium nitrate is on a list

  • of Japan's designated food additives,

  • but our Wendy's gets its bacon imported from Denmark,

  • where it isn't banned, but being reduced in use.

  • Our American cheese contains lecithin,

  • a common emulsifier that, according to one academic,

  • a worrisome number of scientific studies have suggested

  • that too much of it can promote depression.

  • [sighs]

  • The pickles contain polysorbate 80.

  • This is commonly used as an emulsifier in foods,

  • but in pickles, it tends to be used as a solubilizer.

  • Not how that's pronounced, sorry.

  • Which helps other ingredients in the brine fully dissolve.

  • Studies have suggested it can cause colon cancer in mice.

  • Not fantastic.

  • There is no info on Wendy's website

  • of where the pickles come from,

  • but we want to point out that polysorbate 80

  • is on Japan's list of designated additives.

  • And therefore, it's permitted to be used in Japan.

  • George: From calorie count to portion sizes,

  • we wanted to find out all the differences

  • between Domino's in Japan and the US.

  • This is "Food Wars."

  • In Japan, Domino's pizzas come in three sizes.

  • Our Domino's pizza comes in four sizes.

  • George: So, this one is medium, which is cut into 8 slices.

  • Joe: Over here on this end, you got the small.

  • That's 10-inch pizza.

  • And here's regular, which is also cut into eight slices.

  • Joe: Next up is our medium.

  • That's a 12-inch pizza.

  • And this one is large.

  • This one is cut into 12 slices.

  • Joe: Then we move to our large, 14 inches.

  • And finally, the extra large, which is 16 inches.

  • Look at all that grease.

  • A Domino's large plain pizza has a 33-centimeters diameter

  • or an 855.3-square-centimeters area

  • and costs 2,000 yen.

  • So breaking that down,

  • our pizza is 2.33 yen per square inch,

  • or about 2 cents.

  • Now take our large. This is a 14-inch pizza,

  • also a 35.56-centimeter pizza.

  • And it has a surface area

  • of 993.1 square centimeters.

  • That's 1.4 cents per square inch,

  • or 1.62 Japanese yen.

  • But what gives you the most food for your money?

  • So, here's a large plain slice with a pan crust.

  • And here's another with hand-tossed crust.

  • Let's weigh both right now and see which is more.

  • So, first let's weigh pan crust.

  • 51 grams.

  • And hand-tossed crust.

  • It weighs 49 grams.

  • And we will do the same.

  • I want to note that right now in America,

  • you can only get the pan Domino's in the medium size.

  • Same exact experiment, only I'm doing two medium pizzas.

  • Medium pan slice, medium hand-tossed slice.

  • So, this is the hand-tossed slice,

  • and it weighs

  • a smidge over 75.

  • We'll go 76.

  • The pan.

  • That goes in there too.

  • 110 grams.

  • Making the difference this amount.

  • I'm not doing math.

  • In Japan, we have seven different crust options.

  • No. 1, we have pan.

  • And No. 2 we have hand-tossed.

  • And No. 3, we have ultra-crispy.

  • Ooh.

  • It's like a cracker.

  • No. 4, we have cheese burst,

  • where a string cheese is placed around the edge of the crust

  • and sprinkled with consommé Parmesan seasoning.

  • Ooh.

  • No. 5, we have the cheese 'n' roll.

  • It's got mozzarella cheese in the crust.

  • And No. 6, we have mille-filet.

  • Or mill-foy.

  • Mille-fail.

  • In Japanese we say mi-ru fi-yu.

  • So this one is mi-ru-fi-yu pizza,

  • which has two layers of crust

  • with Camembert mixed cheese in between.

  • Mille-fail.

  • Mille-fee-yuh.

  • French people, please correct my pronunciation.

  • No. 7, the last one we have,

  • the triple mille-feuille.

  • It's got three layers of crust with cheese in between.

  • Wow.

  • In the US, we have only five crust options.

  • I realize there's four pizzas in front of me.

  • Let me explain.

  • One crust option you can get here,

  • and it's a small only, is the gluten-free crust.

  • I don't know how bread is gluten-free,

  • but we figured it out.

  • Ta-da.

  • We also have the hand-tossed,

  • which is more of a standard pillowy,

  • I mean, right, this is like standard dough,

  • this is what we think a pizza looks like.

  • This is the pan.

  • Look how thick that is, man.

  • That's, like, triple the dough thickness.

  • Good on you for the pan.

  • Now, you can get this in the medium only.

  • We also have a crunchy thin crust.

  • And we have so many pizzas here, to be honest,

  • I don't know which one it is.

  • So when it just comes up in the video, I'll show it off.

  • But imagine a crunchy thin pizza.

  • Oddly enough, we also have something called

  • the Brooklyn-style pizza.

  • This is reserved for large and extra-large pizzas only.

  • And this is a Brooklyn-style right here, extra large.

  • Obviously it isn't crispy, because it's sagging.

  • This is really thin.

  • Here's everything you can get at the Japanese Domino's

  • that you cannot get in the US.

  • Here's everything you can get at a US Domino's

  • you cannot get in Japan.

  • Everyone, look at this.

  • This is a limited-time-offer pizza.

  • It's called the Best 34.

  • Look at this lid.

  • It's disgusting!

  • Don't look at me! Don't look at me!

  • So, this one has all 34 Domino's toppings,

  • like teriyaki chicken, mayo, spinach, tomato, shrimp.

  • This is huge.

  • It's like my baby.

  • [sings lullaby]

  • The New Yorker-style pizza is similar

  • to the Brooklyn XL option you can get in America.

  • But only in Japan you can get the Quattro New Yorker.

  • It's a 16-inch pizza with each New Yorker topping style

  • covering a quarter of the pizza.

  • So one quarter is pepperoni, and one is cheese,

  • and one is pepperoni and sausage,

  • and one is ham and mushroom.

  • So, here we have Nippon favorites series.

  • Nippon, or Nihon, means Japan in Japanese.

  • So these pizzas feature Japanese ingredients.

  • This one charcoal-grilled teriyaki chicken.

  • It's got teriyaki chicken, teriyaki sauce,

  • spinach, mayonnaise, and corn.

  • Next we have Hokkaido three cheeses.

  • So, Hokkaido is the northern island prefecture in Japan,

  • and it's famous for its cheese.

  • It's got Hokkaido Gouda cheese,

  • Hokkaido cheddar cheese,

  • and Hokkaido Camembert and sliced asparagus.

  • We have spicy mayo and mochi.

  • It's got mochi rice cake and corn,

  • pork sausage and sliced asparagus,

  • and Korean seaweed flakes.

  • And last one, we've got charcoal-grilled beef

  • and spinach and mushrooms.

  • Mm!

  • Oh!

  • Umai!

  • Umai!

  • This beef is so tender,

  • and it's got so much, like, charcoal flavor,

  • which makes this amazing.

  • I love this.

  • So many exclusive pizzas here at the US Domino's.

  • I don't know where to begin,

  • so I'll just start with this one that I'm holding.

  • This is the Cali chicken bacon ranch.

  • I don't know what makes it California-in-y or Cali-y,

  • but it definitely has chicken, and bacon, and ranch,

  • and it's big.

  • Thank you very much.

  • All right.

  • Chicken taco pizza.

  • Oh, yeah.

  • Got taco spices to it.

  • Good job on this one.

  • Next one, the cheeseburger pizza.

  • Um ...

  • Yeah. Oh, my God.

  • I'm going to say something crazy.

  • This tastes exactly like a McDonald's cheeseburger.

  • Even has the oniony and the ketchupy taste.

  • Wow.

  • That is a surprise.

  • I thought this one was going to be bad,

  • but it's actually pretty good.

  • The extravaganZZa.

  • This has pepperoni, sausage, ham,

  • mushrooms, black olives, green peppers.

  • This is the meatZZa,

  • which I'm assuming is just a lot of meat.

  • I'm seeing sausage, I'm seeing pepperoni,

  • and maybe hamburger.

  • Yeah, I'll put this in the good pile.

  • I f--- with this one.

  • Philly cheesesteak.

  • Oh, no.

  • In some weird way, I'm blaming you for this.

  • Since you handed this to me, this is your fault.

  • Look at this nightmare.

  • Meat somewhere on here.

  • I'm also seeing green peppers.

  • Oh. Look, look, it's like,

  • look at that, it's, like, stuck to the box.

  • No.

  • Buffalo chicken.

  • OK, OK.

  • This is more my speed.

  • Chicken.

  • No, not tomato sauce, like a white sauce.

  • Good call.

  • Mm!

  • This isn't Buffalo enough.

  • The capital of the great state of New York

  • needs to be better represented in this pizza.

  • The capital of New York is Buffalo, correct?

  • No?

  • We got the Memphis barbecue chicken.

  • Love Memphis.

  • Love barbecue.

  • Love chicken.

  • Yeah.

  • The key thing here is the barbecue sauce.

  • I don't know what is in it, but, man, that's really good.

  • Memphis,

  • capital of the great state of Tennessee.

  • Everyone, here is the ultra cheese New Yorker.

  • It's got 1 kilogram of cheese,

  • or 2.2 pounds.

  • OMG.

  • Ooh!

  • Look how thick this cheese is!

  • Go!

  • Go home.

  • It weighs 180 grams,

  • 180 times eight equals

  • 1,440 grams in total.

  • So, here are other Japanese specialty pizzas.

  • So, here we have quattro meat max.

  • So it's got charcoal-grilled teriyaki chicken

  • and charcoal-grilled beef

  • and giga meat and Goryeo galbi.

  • It's Korean-style beef pizza.

  • And next we have seafood special.

  • This part and this part is shrimp mayonnaise.

  • So this part, it's got shrimp, octopus,

  • mussels, littleneck clams,

  • Mactra clams, green peppers,

  • and cherry tomatoes.

  • Next we've got garlic master.

  • Looks so spicy.

  • Garlic and pork sausage and pancetta.

  • And this part has got jalapeño, obviously.

  • It's picante.

  • Pepperoni and Italian sausage and onions.

  • And look at this huge thing.

  • Mayo jaga.

  • So, jaga, or jagaimo, means potato in Japanese.

  • It's got potato and pork sausage

  • and a lot of mayo.

  • Joe: Our US Domino's has sandwiches and pasta.

  • I was not a fan of the Philly cheesesteak pizza,

  • but let's see what the Philly cheesesteak tastes like

  • in its native form of sandwich.

  • Better than the pizza.

  • Also at the US Domino's,

  • you can get a Buffalo chicken sandwich,

  • a chicken habanero sandwich,

  • the Mediterranean veggie,

  • no, thanks,

  • a chicken bacon ranch,

  • an Italian sandwich,

  • and, of course, the chicken Parm sandwich.

  • Our Domino's has four pastas to choose from.

  • I only got two, the chicken Alfredo

  • and the Italian sausage marinara.

  • You can also get a chicken carbonara and a pasta primavera.

  • I've just been informed I have to eat this.

  • Strong flavor on this.

  • I would skip the pasta at Domino's, personally.

  • This thing is, like, baked on.

  • See how baked this is?

  • Like, come on.

  • I feel like chef Ramsay here.

  • Just, "Oh, come on. Oh, this baked on here!"

  • In the US, we have a few chicken options

  • you can't get in Japan.

  • Yes, Japan has wings,

  • but they don't have these flavors.

  • Visually, I can see why.

  • First flavor we got here is the garlic Parmesan.

  • Hey, Domino's, what are you doing?

  • Next one, we got,

  • I'm assuming this is the honey barbecue.

  • These drizzles! What are you guys doing drizzling, man?

  • Just toss it!

  • Toss it in the sauce!

  • Nobody wants a drizzle.

  • Oh, wait a second.

  • This is the sweet mango habanero.

  • I wasn't expecting that heat.

  • Oh, man.

  • Very good.

  • These are --

  • why did you do this?

  • Why did you do this?

  • Toss it in the sauce.

  • Why'd you just squirt it on here, like, as an afterthought?

  • Honey barbecue.

  • Right? Is this not nuts?

  • This is nuts, right, that they did it like this.

  • I like the sauce.

  • So, Domino's also does their wings in boneless flavors.

  • They have obviously those three,

  • and you can also get these two other ones.

  • And I see we have the crispy bacon and tomato,

  • and this one must be the spicy jalapeño pineapple.

  • Whoa, what?

  • Hell yeah.

  • All right.

  • Get that B-roll fast.

  • There it goes!

  • I know.

  • Your audible gasps are warranted.

  • I don't know what this --

  • what am I supposed to do with this?

  • Ooh, this one I'm looking forward to, Yuelei.

  • We got the food less than an hour ago.

  • I don't think an hour is unrealistic for food to sit.

  • I think you guys gotta put some more chemicals

  • in your cheese to keep it goopier longer.

  • Ooh, I got some pineapple, and I got some jalapeño,

  • and I got some chicken.

  • Let's check it out.

  • Yeah.

  • Overall, everything here tastes pretty good.

  • Presentation, you gotta work on that.

  • In Japan, we don't have boneless wings,

  • but we have Japanese fried chicken,

  • which is called karaage.

  • It kind of looks like American boneless wings.

  • Ah.

  • I love karaage.

  • And also we have chicken nuggets.

  • Both come in four, eight, and 12 pieces.

  • Our Domino's has breads and oven-baked dips.

  • Let's review the breads first.

  • Shall we?

  • Over here,

  • we have Parmesan bread twists and garlic bread twists.

  • I know that because of their totally twisted shapes.

  • They also have Parmesan bread bites

  • that were currently unavailable.

  • Whoa.

  • Uh-oh.

  • These are very good.

  • To Parmesan we go.

  • Not as good.

  • But still pretty good.

  • I mean, it's bread and cheese and oil, right?

  • US Domino's also has something called stuffed cheesy bread.

  • You can get your stuffed cheesy bread with either

  • spinach and feta or bacon and jalapeños.

  • Take a wild guess which one I chose.

  • [beep] Just ripping this whole [beep] thing apart.

  • Oh, God!

  • This thing is especially greasy.

  • For whatever reason, Domino's didn't stop there.

  • Domino's has something called dips.

  • [sighs]

  • What it appears to be

  • is a giant dish of melted cheese.

  • And you can get it in cheesy marinara or five cheese.

  • What are we doing, Domino's?

  • [laughs]

  • What is this?

  • Come on, guys.

  • So, this is the marinara one, I'm assuming.

  • A pizza without the bread, right?

  • These dips are literally zapping my will to live.

  • Please don't ever get ...

  • It's a whole bowl of cheese, Yuelei!

  • Why would -- oh, look at the oil in this too!

  • Everyone in here just gagged.

  • Can I even dip it?

  • Oh, whoa.

  • I don't know what of the five cheeses is in here,

  • like, which five.

  • Why am I eating this?!

  • Ugh!

  • So, here are our Japanese exclusive side-menu items.

  • Let's start with this one.

  • We've got oven-baked potato wedges.

  • This one is plain.

  • Consommé.

  • Chili garlic.

  • And this one is butter.

  • And next we have cheese sticks.

  • Shrimp popcorn.

  • It comes with this tartar sauce.

  • Here we have choregi salad.

  • We've got Korean-style seaweed flakes

  • and choregi dressing.

  • So, choregi is, like, Korean-style sesame-oil dressing.

  • And fresh salad in the package.

  • So, here we have corn potage.

  • Clam chowder.

  • Minestrone.

  • Black chili.

  • You've seen these before.

  • It is the Domino's marbled cookie brownies.

  • Liquid sugar

  • Oh, yeah.

  • You can also get these cinnamon bread twists.

  • Lastly, another dip.

  • I swear to God, if there's cheese in this,

  • I'm walking out of here and I'm never coming back.

  • Baked apple dips.

  • And I'm assuming you dip these into this.

  • I'm not gonna.

  • So, here are our other desserts.

  • We have mini pancakes,

  • heart-shaped fondant chocolate,

  • and here we have egg custard tart.

  • I have never tried this one before.

  • Itadakimasu.

  • Mm.

  • Mm!

  • This is so good.

  • So flaky.

  • Mm.

  • This one is apple pie.

  • And next we have custard pie.

  • Lastly, of the sodas you can get in the US,

  • can't get in Japan,

  • get yourself Fanta orange and Sprite.

  • We have Coke Zero.

  • It's supposed to be Zero,

  • but they gave us just normal Coke.

  • Next, we have ginger ale.

  • Canada Dry.

  • Canada is an amazing country, eh?

  • Qoo orange juice.

  • And here is Sokenbicha.

  • It's Japanese blended tea.

  • And last one, we've got Georgia Japan

  • Craftsman café latte.

  • Georgia Japan.

  • Sounds like George Japan.

  • I'd like to be sponsored by you.

  • Let me try this.

  • It's got a lot of milk and sugar in it.

  • I gotta be honest.

  • It's not my taste.

  • Take two.

  • I really love this.

  • Please give me a sponsorship.

  • A Japan large hand-tossed pizza

  • is 130 calories per slice,

  • or 1,560 calories for the full pizza.

  • In the US, a large hand-tossed pizza slice is 280 calories,

  • which makes the entire pizza 2,240 calories.

  • A large big-pepperoni hand-tossed slice

  • is 335 calories per slice,

  • or 4,020 calories for the entire pizza.

  • Our large pepperoni is 370 calories per slice,

  • which makes the entire pie 2,960 calories.

  • Japan's most calorific pizza is

  • the ultra cheese New Yorker size.

  • One slice is 478 calories.

  • That's 3,827 for the full pizza.

  • Ah.

  • Our US Domino's pizza with the most calories

  • is the Cali chicken bacon ranch.

  • This is an XL of said pizza.

  • One slice is 560 calories,

  • and that makes the full pie 3,360 calories.

  • Our large plain pizza has 1,620 calories total.

  • Our large cheese is 2,240 calories.

  • That's a 38.2% increase.

  • Our large big pepperoni is 2,680 calories,

  • over 34% of your daily recommended calorie intake.

  • 333% of your daily sodium.

  • Ah!

  • Too many tasty calories!

  • Ours is 2,960 calories,

  • 48% over your daily recommended amount,

  • but somehow ours has less sodium,

  • only 299% of your daily sodium.

  • In October of last year,

  • a study found detectable amounts of phthalate,

  • a plastic softener, in common menu items

  • from large fast-food chains, including Domino's.

  • The study analyzed 64 food samples

  • from several popular fast-food chains

  • and found phthalates DnBP and DEHP

  • in a majority of the items.

  • USA Today reported that, "Food containing meat,

  • such as chicken burritos and cheeseburgers,

  • had higher levels of the chemicals studied,

  • while cheese pizza had the lowest levels."

  • OK, so that's good news for Domino's, I guess.

  • The study goes on to say that "food handling gloves

  • contain replacement plasticizers,

  • which may be [a] source of food contamination."

  • Sounds to me like an easy fix.

  • Just prepare the food without gloves.

  • Japan has a ban on DEHP in food-handling gloves.

  • Good-er news, if you're a fan of "Food Wars"

  • and saw the US versus UK Domino's episode,

  • we highlighted BHA and BHT in the US pepperoni.

  • Well, on the stewardship page on Domino's website,

  • they have stated, ahem,

  • "We have eliminated a long list

  • of ingredients from all of our core products

  • including BHA and BHT and PHOs,

  • as well as trans-fat from core pizza products,"

  • which is fantastic news.

  • I clearly was going to eat it anyway,

  • but thank you regardless.

  • From calorie count to portion sizes,

  • we wanted to find out all the differences

  • between Pocky in Japan and the US.

  • This is "Food Wars."

  • In Japan, our Pocky comes in a 72-gram box

  • which contains two packets and a nine-pack.

  • (Pocky wrapper crinkles)

  • - Our Pocky's come in basically three sizes.

  • The one 1.14-ounce box, the 2.47-ounce box,

  • and the 4.13-ounce boxy bag.

  • But our strawberry-flavored box is smaller

  • than this chocolate box.

  • This is a 3.81-ounce box,

  • which is 0.32 ounces smaller than this one.

  • Largest box bag is this, the Cookies & Cream flavor,

  • which is 4.57 ounces

  • or 0.44 grams larger than the chocolate box.

  • One theory, my theory,

  • is that the Pocky boxes contain a specific number

  • of Pocky sticks

  • and each Pocky is a different weight

  • based on the flavor coating.

  • So we're gonna weigh each Pocky individually

  • to see if this is true.

  • All right, chocolate first.

  • So seven of these are 13 grams. Can someone write that down?

  • Strawberry, seven is 13 grams.

  • Was that what the first one was? Okay.

  • Cookies & Cream!

  • Cookies & Cream, seven of them are 18 grams.

  • Well, the Cookies & Cream ones are definitely a lot heavier.

  • A lot heavier.

  • (Joe chomping)

  • Mm!

  • - So let's see how many Pocky are in a box.

  • (George counting in Japanese)

  • (audio chirping)

  • 32, 33, 34.

  • Thirty-four Pocky in total.

  • So one packet has 17 Pocky

  • and another one also has 17 Pocky.

  • - Let's see how many Pocky's are in this box.

  • (Pocky wrapper crinkles)

  • (exhales) Oh, man.

  • Is this normal?

  • I think I can kind of like,

  • do you wanna get a close-up on there before?

  • So one, two, three, those are the broken ones.

  • (audio chirping)

  • 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36.

  • You know how everyone was complaining about

  • how I eat Kit-Kats in the Kit-Kat episode?

  • (suspenseful music)

  • (Joe chomps)

  • (Joe chewing)

  • Mm!

  • (upbeat music)

  • Here's all the Pocky's that are native to the US

  • that are not in Japan.

  • - And here are all the Pocky's native to Japan.

  • - Cookies & Cream, Cookies & Cream.

  • Not a solid block, so that's good.

  • (Pocky wrapper crinkles)

  • (Joe chomping)

  • Yeah, yeah, yeah.

  • Mm!

  • I like those.

  • This looks like fun, Yuelei.

  • Chocolate Banana, have you had these before?

  • You have?

  • No, mm-mm.

  • That banana flavor hits right away.

  • Oh, no.

  • Matcha green tea.

  • Any "Food Wars" heads watching know,

  • Joe does not like matcha.

  • Mm, smells like a freshly-cut lawn.

  • (lawnmower rumbles)

  • (Joe chomps)

  • Yeah, nah.

  • There's also a Crunchy Strawberry flavor you can get here

  • in the US,

  • but I was not able to get my hands on it

  • by the time of filming this episode.

  • So here's just regular strawberry.

  • Uh-oh.

  • Oh, another solid block.

  • Yeah.

  • (Joe chomps) (audience gasps)

  • Mm, yeah, dude.

  • Put me in jail for crimes against Pocky's.

  • - George's energy.

  • Bong, let's go!

  • All right, let's start with this one.

  • We have Pocky Luxury Milk Chocolate.

  • (laughs) Is it Pocky?

  • You look like corn dog.

  • What happened to you?

  • Hmm.

  • It's got milk and fermented butter flavor.

  • And we have another corn dog.

  • It's a Almond Milk flavor.

  • (George speaks in Japanese)

  • Mm.

  • It has strong almond milk flavor.

  • I prefer this one, the milk chocolate,

  • but both are so short.

  • You should be longer.

  • (whistle screeches)

  • You too!

  • We have this ultra-thin Pocky.

  • Oh. (laughs)

  • You are so thin this time.

  • This one is short.

  • This one is so thin.

  • We have Tasty.

  • Why is it Tasty?

  • Oh, fermented butter is used for this stick.

  • Ooh.

  • (George chomps)

  • It's got just a little bit of butter flavor.

  • I still prefer this one, this corn dog.

  • Almond Crush.

  • It's a little different. Look at the packets.

  • Yeah, obviously, it's got almonds.

  • Okey-dokey, Pocky.

  • (George speaks in Japanese)

  • I love this.

  • I love this.

  • Mm.

  • We've got Pocky Chocolate Coconut.

  • Oh, this one is also this style of packets.

  • Oh.

  • It's pretty similar with this one, Almond Crush.

  • (George chomps)

  • Hmm?

  • Yeah, obviously, it's got coconut flavor,

  • and also, it's got a little bit of saltiness.

  • It's not my taste.

  • Strawberry chocolate Pocky.

  • (George chomps)

  • Oh.

  • Ah.

  • Right after you bite this, you get some sweetness.

  • But after that, you get sourness.

  • It smells so strong.

  • I can smell it from here.

  • Cocoa powder Pocky,

  • And it says you can only get this in winter season.

  • Oh yeah, look at this. It's got cocoa powder.

  • (George speaks in Japanese)

  • (George's lips smack)

  • We've got the cutest Pocky ever.

  • Cherry heart-shaped Pocky.

  • Aha.

  • Oh, look at this!

  • Heart! It's in there.

  • How cute.

  • And this part, cherry chocolate is so awesome.

  • You get strong cherry flavor.

  • We've also got blueberry heart-shaped chocolate Pocky.

  • (Pocky wrapper crinkles)

  • Ooh, look at this.

  • So blue.

  • This color doesn't make me want to eat this, but let's try.

  • (George speaks in Japanese)

  • Ooh!

  • Mm.

  • So sour.

  • But look at this heart-shaped Pocky.

  • Not for me.

  • This is what I've been waiting for, sakura matcha.

  • So "sakura" means cherry blossom.

  • Cherry blossom matcha taste.

  • Ooh.

  • Look at this!

  • So it's got matcha chocolate

  • and this stick is pink.

  • (George chomps)

  • Mm, this is so Japanese-y Pocky.

  • Just sweet matcha.

  • The feeling of spring has come to my life.

  • (bird chirping)

  • Spring days here in my body.

  • (George sings in Japanese)

  • Everybody's curious what these are.

  • Megami no Ruby.

  • Otona no Kohaku.

  • What does it mean?

  • I don't even know. (laughs)

  • Anyway, so it says Megami no Ruby.

  • It means like, "Goddess Ruby".

  • Otona no Kohaku, in English, it says, "amber."

  • Kind of like stone, fossil, jewel.

  • It says it goes well with red wine.

  • Interesting.

  • Ta-da!

  • It looks like regular chocolate Pocky.

  • (George chomps)

  • Oh?

  • What is this?

  • This taste itself is like berries.

  • This one goes well with whiskey.

  • (George chomps)

  • Huh?

  • It's pretty close to dark chocolate, it's bitter.

  • In Japan, we have this Gokuboso extra-fine Pocky,

  • which are roughly half the thickness

  • of a regular chocolate Pocky.

  • - In the US, ours are called the Ultra Slim.

  • - I got a new digital scale.

  • What I'm gonna do is weigh a regular chocolate Pocky.

  • 2.13 grams.

  • So ultra thin Pocky.

  • So it weighs 1.52 grams.

  • - Thinner, that's it?

  • Here's a big boy.

  • Here's the thin.

  • Is it able to do this?

  • Can I get out of the way so it's just the white background?

  • 23, 24, 25, and there's another bag in here, so 50 per box.

  • Okay, so 50 instead of 36.

  • Seven regular Pocky's are 13 grams.

  • Let's see how many slim ones we needed to get to 13 grams.

  • 5, 6, 7, 8 1/2.

  • Eight and a half slim ones are the same

  • as seven regular ones.

  • Is that that much slimmer?

  • I guess that's slimmer.

  • Does anyone think that's not significant enough

  • to be a selling point?

  • Pocky adjusts its sweetness for different countries.

  • Not surprisingly, the US ones are meant to be sweeter.

  • I'm gonna do a taste test side by side.

  • We got the American ones and the Japanese one,

  • and we're gonna see just how different they taste.

  • I'm worried that these are also gonna be a Pocky popsicle.

  • Oh no, okay.

  • Japanese.

  • These are only Japanese ones I can find.

  • Obviously, they're bigger. I don't know if this is the norm.

  • (Joe chomps)

  • Mm-hm, in the baseline sweetness.

  • Yeah.

  • Mm.

  • (Joe chomps)

  • Yeah, it's noticeably different.

  • They taste identical, but ours has a sweet aftertaste.

  • I like the Japanese ones much better.

  • - So Pocky is in the Guinness World Records three times.

  • It's the largest chocolate-coated biscuits brand,

  • has the most mentions of a brand name

  • on Twitter in 24 hours,

  • which was 3,710,044 times.

  • And finally, it was part

  • of the most people opening packaged food online

  • simultaneously with 143 people.

  • - 143 people, that's it?

  • That doesn't seem like that many.

  • I feel like I've been on Zoom work calls

  • with 143 people in it, right?

  • It would've been literally one email to set that up.

  • - I can do (George speaks in Japanese).

  • Pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom.

  • Now I got more than 200 George's clones right here.

  • Simultaneously, three, two, one.

  • Boom.

  • Now I broke the Guinness World Records.

  • So November 11th is known as a Pocky (speaks in Japanese)

  • or Pocky Day in Japan.

  • This date was chosen because a Pocky is shaped like a one.

  • At November 11th, visually, it looks like four Pocky.

  • And also, Pretz are included in this day, November 11th,

  • which is the pretzel version of Pocky.

  • And in Japan, you can get them in flavors like Salad,

  • Ripe Tomato, Sweet Potato, and Roasted Bread flavor.

  • In the US, we also have Pretz,

  • and we get these fun flavors like Sweet Corn, fun,

  • and Pizza.

  • Oh, God.

  • It has nothing on it.

  • (Joe chomps)

  • Nope.

  • I mean, yeah, it tastes like corn.

  • Why though?

  • What is the demand for corn-flavored sticks?

  • (Joe sighs)

  • Besides pizza, anything flavored like pizza is terrible.

  • Even pizza combos aren't very good.

  • (Pretz wrapper crinkles)

  • No.

  • (Joe chomps)

  • I mean, it's up there with croutons.

  • Does anyone grab a handful of croutons on-the-go?

  • And would just eating a box of croutons.

  • These probably would be good on something.

  • (catchy music)

  • - In Japan, our chocolate Pocky box,

  • per 100 grams, has 506 calories.

  • Adjusted for the box size, 72 grams,

  • the package contains 364.3 calories.

  • And let's break it down even further to per Pocky.

  • One Pocky contains, on average, 11.38 calories.

  • - A US chocolate Pocky box contains 340 calories.

  • Just a little bit less than a Japanese box,

  • but note, there is a two-gram difference.

  • Now here at "Food Wars", we thrive on scientific accuracy.

  • So let's break it down per Pocky.

  • One US Pocky is 9.44444444444444444...

  • calories.

  • - The highest-calorie Pocky in Japan is to be determined.

  • We emailed the customer service,

  • but we didn't get their response.

  • What are you doing? Hurry up!

  • But I guess this Pocky is the most calorific Pocky.

  • It's 196 calories.

  • So it should be 'cause it's got a lot of butter in it.

  • - The US Pocky

  • with the most calories is the Cookies & Cream.

  • It contains total 630 calories.

  • There's no question I can murder this whole box

  • in one sitting.

  • 630 calories? That's nothing.

  • That's kind of reassuring like, "Wow, only 630?

  • Found my breakfast!"

  • (steady music)

  • - Japa-Pocky contains these ingredients.

  • Wheat flour, sugar, cacao mass, vegetable oils,

  • whole-milk powder, shortening, malt extract,

  • starch, salt, yeast, cocoa powder, butter,

  • emulsifier, flavoring, leavening agent, annatto coloring,

  • and mineral salt.

  • - Any US Pocky contains wheat flour, sugar,

  • chocolate liquor, blend of vegetable oils,

  • that blend being sunflower oil, palm oil,

  • whole-milk powder, vegetable oil shortening,

  • which is palm oil, hydrogenated palm oil, and cocoa butter,

  • salt, artificial flavors, yeast, soy lecithin,

  • leavening, sodium bicarbonate,

  • mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids.

  • Wink.

  • - In Japan, our Pocky contains malt extract,

  • which is sometimes used as a replacement

  • for sugar in baking.

  • It contains lots of maltose,

  • a type of sugar

  • which actually has a higher glycemic index value

  • than normal sucrose.

  • So it's a surprise that American Pocky are supposed

  • to be sweeter.

  • - There are actually differences in the types of cocoa used.

  • If you've watched the "US versus UK Snickers" episode,

  • you know that American chocolate is not so great.

  • In the US, our Pockys are made with chocolate liquor

  • and cocoa butter.

  • Chocolate liquor is just cocoa that's been processed

  • into semisolid form,

  • and it's actually around 50% cocoa butter itself.

  • The trouble is for an American product

  • to be classified as milk chocolate,

  • it only needs to contain around 10% of chocolate liquor,

  • and the rest can be made up of sugars

  • and various ingredients.

  • - In Japan, the rules are different,

  • depending on the type of product.

  • Milk chocolate material must contain

  • at least 21% cocoa content,

  • double the required amount in America.

  • So our chocolate has more chocolate.

  • Are you jealous of us?

  • Come to Japan.

  • George: From calorie count to portion sizes,

  • we wanted to find out all the differences

  • between 7-Eleven in Japan and the US.

  • This is "Food Wars."

  • In Japan, our coffees come in regular --

  • Joe: In small, medium,

  • large, George: And large.

  • and extra large.

  • If you're getting coffee,

  • why not grab a chocolate doughnut?

  • Our 7-Eleven drinks come in sizes of 200 milliliters,

  • 450 milliliters,

  • and 1 liter,

  • and 1.5 liters.

  • I'm sorry, I couldn't get it.

  • [laughing maniacally]

  • In the US, we have Big Gulps,

  • self-service fountain drink for sodas,

  • and they come in these four sizes:

  • medium, large, extra large,

  • double extra large. [air horn rings]

  • So, I want to see how much the biggest-size cup

  • I could get at the 7-Eleven is.

  • And to do that, I will need, hang on ...

  • It's just past 40.

  • It's exactly 48 ounces.

  • That's hardly double extra.

  • I'll round it up, 'cause of this section here.

  • I'll round it up to 50.

  • 7-Eleven also at one point offered a size

  • that was even bigger, called the Team Gulp,

  • which, again, according to them,

  • was 128 fluid ounces

  • for your team,

  • 'cause who doesn't like to, after a softball game,

  • go to 7-Eleven, get a Team Gulp and 10 straws?

  • You know, just kick it with the boys, right?

  • Come on, team.

  • Yeah, right. That's for one person, don't be ridiculous.

  • Here are many, many, many 7-Eleven items

  • you can get in the US you can't get in Japan.

  • And here are many of the 7-Eleven items

  • exclusive to Japan.

  • Japan puts the "convenience" in the convenience store.

  • We call it konbini,

  • which is the abbreviation of the convenience store,

  • and it makes our life a lot easier.

  • For example, office workers rely on stores like 7-Eleven

  • for food and drink to keep them happy

  • so that they can be productive at work.

  • And for students, they tend to buy juices and snacks

  • and hot foods, instant noodles, you know.

  • And when I was a kid, I would often eat

  • hot foods and instant noodles

  • with my friends and with my ex-girlfriends.

  • 7-Eleven memories.

  • And for families, there is pretty much

  • every daily essential they may need.

  • And also you can pay your bills,

  • get ticket reservations for music and sports,

  • 7-Eleven even has its own bank and ATMs.

  • No matter where you go, especially in big cities like Tokyo,

  • you can find more than one konbini on every block.

  • Yeah, it's a bit different here in the US.

  • I do frequent 7-Eleven, and it's not bad,

  • but the vibe is more kind of like

  • get the thing you need and go.

  • The food is usually pretty hit or miss,

  • usually miss in my experience.

  • The hot food looks like it's been sitting out for a while,

  • so I usually don't get it.

  • Since there are way too many items exclusive to Japan

  • for us to buy for one episode,

  • so I've curated some of my favorites for you guys.

  • This is still a ton of food.

  • So, here we have Japanese onigiris.

  • This one is plum,

  • tuna mayonnaise,

  • shrimp and mayonnaise,

  • mentaiko, which is spicy cod roe.

  • I picked these onigiris from the back,

  • because onigiri in the back are fresh of all time.

  • And let me show you how to open this one.

  • Just pull this over till here ...

  • Like this, so that you can have

  • the dried seaweed.

  • Itadakimasu.

  • Mm, a little bit sweet, a little bit of sour.

  • So, here is our sushi.

  • Look at this huge salmon sushi.

  • Ah!

  • Gorgeous. Gorgeous sushi.

  • Itadakimasu.

  • Oh, my God, this is so delicious.

  • Mm.

  • Osushi!

  • We've got this long natto roll.

  • Personally, I love natto.

  • But even Japanese people,

  • 50% of them like it, 50% of them don't like it.

  • This is an acquired taste.

  • So, after this sticky and smelly natto roll,

  • I've got sushi roll special package.

  • So when it comes to this one, it's called oinarisan.

  • It has rice inside,

  • and the skin is a sweet tofu skin.

  • Mm!

  • I'll admit, oinarisan umai wa.

  • This is so good.

  • So, my grandma always cooked this for me.

  • And this makes me happy all the time.

  • And next to oinarisan, this gorgeous sushi roll,

  • it's like Japanese version of California roll.

  • Itadakimasu.

  • Wah!

  • 1,000% better than California roll.

  • Kanpyo maki.

  • In English it's, like, dried-gourd roll.

  • Itadakimasu.

  • Perfect sushi roll.

  • And last one, we have pickles, radish pickles.

  • It's quite yellow.

  • It definitely has yellow No. 5.

  • Itadakimasu.

  • I'm gonna give them Grammy award.

  • And standing ovation.

  • Ah, the hot food at a 7-Eleven in the US.

  • We got a lot of options, not as many as Japan.

  • I'm not quite sure what some of this stuff is

  • just by looking at it, so let me go down the list.

  • Nachos. They're the self-service nachos,

  • so they have the chips ready to go,

  • and then you just open them up

  • and add cheese and chili onto them.

  • Ugh. No, thank you.

  • Over here, these mini tacos.

  • Man, these look really, like ...

  • I bit my face.

  • Oh, man. They've been sitting for a while,

  • so I'll forgive them.

  • We also have wings, crispy and not so crispy.

  • Pocket bean burrito guy. Look at that.

  • Over here in the roller-taquito section,

  • you can get a barbecue bacon cheeseburger roller,

  • spicy garlic roller,

  • regular taquito,

  • Korean barbecue taquito.

  • Also, we have chicken sandwiches,

  • a black bean burger,

  • glazed cheesy barbecue meatballs.

  • Also at our 7-Elevens, you can get a pepperoni pizza,

  • cheese, or seven-meat.

  • And also for hot dogs, we got an exclusive hot picante dog.

  • No.

  • So, here are our hot food sections.

  • We've got steamed buns.

  • It's got pork and bamboo shoots.

  • And this is really standard nikuman.

  • So, next size up, we have the doubled nikuman.

  • And next one, this little guy.

  • What is this?

  • Sweet beans steamed bun.

  • And last steamed bun is pizza bun.

  • You really are the pizza!

  • Delicious.

  • So, all these things, like,

  • around 100 yen to 200 yen or so.

  • So if you're broke, you should definitely try this.

  • We've got these ones.

  • This one is called curry pan.

  • So deep-fried curry bread.

  • I wanna eat it. I wanna eat this!

  • I wanna eat this right now!

  • Itadakimasu!

  • Holy moly.

  • Um, it's freaking delicious.

  • And next one, croquette.

  • So it's basically got potato and pork mince.

  • And last hot food we've got is corn dog.

  • So, this one right here is a pretty Japanese-y one.

  • It's got ketchup and mustard,

  • and you just squeeze this one onto this one.

  • All right, let's go, let's go,

  • let's go, let's go, let's go!

  • In Japan, we have these chicken options.

  • First, I'm going to start with this one, karaage-bo.

  • So, in Japan, when you make Japanese fried chicken,

  • you put some soy sauce on it.

  • So it has soy-sauce flavor and also garlic flavor.

  • It's so freaking delicious.

  • So, this karaage-bo,

  • it's got one, two, three,

  • and four karaages.

  • We have fried chicken,

  • spicy fried chicken,

  • chicken nuggets.

  • Hot sandwich,

  • the Buffalo-style chicken slider.

  • The cheeseburger

  • and the bacon cheeseburger.

  • Look, I mean, can you even tell which one's,

  • right, which one?

  • Huh?

  • I'm assuming, obviously, this burger's been cooked.

  • More on this in the ingredients section.

  • 7-Eleven in the US, and I think probably

  • here in Southern California,

  • has tacos and burritos.

  • Get yourself a chicken fajita taco,

  • al pastor taco.

  • Bet this one's good.

  • And a chorizo breakfast taco.

  • The spicy beef, bean, and cheese burrito.

  • This ain't any burrito, baby.

  • It's The Bomb.

  • Bombing out the toilet, good God.

  • You're getting this and you're microwaving it there.

  • So if you're, like, walking out the 7-Eleven

  • chomping on The Bomb,

  • like, better make it home in time.

  • 'Cause oh, man, it's coming.

  • Empanadas, right? Yuelei: Yeah.

  • I don't want this.

  • I'm gonna go ahead and put this in here

  • and then close the lid

  • like it's a coffin.

  • Go away forever.

  • All right, so here are my favorite bentos.

  • Let's take a look at this one.

  • It's called nori bento.

  • This one is a pretty popular one in Japan.

  • So it's got croquette, a deep-fried fish cake,

  • fried fish with tartar sauce.

  • Kinpira gobo.

  • It's like Japanese traditional salad.

  • Pickles.

  • And as you can see right here,

  • it's got spicy cod roe.

  • Under this seaweed, it's got rice and fish flakes.

  • I love this bento.

  • Like, when I was a student,

  • I think I would eat this every single day.

  • So, after my favorite one, this one. Look at this!

  • So this one is a Korean-style beef bento.

  • Oh, man, smells so good.

  • Whoo!

  • Everything right here is so amazing.

  • Fantastic.

  • This is so mashisoyo.

  • Tonkatsu bento,

  • and it comes with this sauce for this tonkatsu.

  • Look how thick it is.

  • So, outside from bentos, we have soba, soba noodle.

  • Put this sauce first.

  • Put wasabi and dried seaweed.

  • And then you put water onto soba noodle.

  • It's getting moist.

  • And don't forget to put green onions right here.

  • Itadakimasu.

  • So you put soba noodle in this box.

  • [slurping]

  • Umai!

  • I guarantee you can't stop eating this,

  • 'cause it's so delicious.

  • Sorry I slurped the noodles.

  • Because Japanese people or Asian people

  • do make noises when you eat noodles.

  • We slurp.

  • Slurp!

  • Slurp right now!

  • They got the meals over there in Japan.

  • We got meals too,

  • like this ready-made ricotta-, Romano-,

  • and Parmesan-cheese-stuffed ravioli

  • topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella.

  • Ugh.

  • Just stop, stop doing this.

  • Stop, please.

  • Stop.

  • Oden.

  • So, oden is like Japanese traditional hot pot.

  • It's got fish cake, fried tofu, noodle thing.

  • This is made from potato.

  • Egg, radish.

  • In winter, when you eat this,

  • this warms you up, from your heart.

  • To your body.

  • And next, gratin doria.

  • So, obviously it's got meat sauce and a lot of cheese.

  • Under this cheese, it's got a lot of rice in there.

  • It's like Japanese Western food.

  • We have 7-Premium main dishes.

  • Naan and butter chicken curry.

  • And next we have 7-Premium side dishes.

  • Mackerel, grilled mackerel.

  • We also have mackerel in miso.

  • Saba miso is [chef's kiss].

  • Smoked tongue.

  • In Japan, it's a pretty popular item,

  • especially when you go to a Japanese barbecue restaurant,

  • we order the beef tongue or pig tongue.

  • So this one used to be like this.

  • Smells so good.

  • So fancy.

  • It's marvelous.

  • So, after this sexy tongue,

  • we have sexy fish cake.

  • And look at this bar.

  • It's a chicken bar,

  • so it's like a chicken nugget before it's fried.

  • Octopus and wasabi.

  • This is just raw octopus.

  • Kinpira gobo. It's sautéed burdock.

  • Hijikini, stewed hijiki seaweed.

  • And potato salad.

  • So, when I go home, my mom always cooks

  • this one, this one, this one.

  • I love you, Mom.

  • I miss Mom's cooking.

  • And next we have Premium Gold main dishes.

  • Shrimp with chili sauce.

  • Beef stew.

  • Hamburg steak.

  • Sandwiches, 7-Eleven.

  • Egg salad.

  • Peanut butter and jelly.

  • Turkey and cheddar cheese on a kaiser roll.

  • So, we have the Italian-style sub,

  • but then we also got The Italian Job.

  • Turkey and ham with, is that cheese in the picture there?

  • We got the smoked turkey and Monterey Jack cheese sandwich,

  • and they separated the lettuce,

  • so you add it right before you're ready to eat,

  • so it's still nice and crisp.

  • Salads, chicken Caesar salad.

  • We also have a pepperoni pasta salad.

  • So, here are my favorite sandwiches.

  • It's got tuna right here and cheese and lettuce.

  • And the rest of these are ham and egg.

  • I thought this is normal, but you don't have this one,

  • fruit sandwich.

  • So it's got a whole bunch of fruits.

  • It's got peach, pineapples, and oranges on whipped cream.

  • So it's like cake.

  • So, here is 7-Premium drip coffee.

  • So I'm going to make myself a cup of coffee.

  • Heyo!

  • And he just sits on here.

  • Ah! Ah ah ah!

  • Ah!

  • Mm.

  • All right.

  • Itadakimasu.

  • It tastes like shit.

  • So, for breakfast sandwiches at 7-Eleven,

  • you can get yourself a croissant with ham, egg, and cheese.

  • Ooh, an English muffin with bacon, egg, and cheese.

  • We also have English muffins with sausage, egg, and cheese,

  • sausage biscuits,

  • and sausage, egg, and cheese croissants.

  • The 7-Eleven signature brand also has

  • mini doughnuts, chocolate, cinnamon, crunch,

  • and, of course, powdered.

  • Madeleines.

  • 7-Eleven has cookies right at the register for a dollar.

  • You can get yourself some macadamia nut cookies,

  • oatmeal raisin, sugar,

  • but there's also a chocolate chip cookie one.

  • Baked goods, you get yourself some muffins.

  • This is a blueberry muffin.

  • Coffee cake.

  • Crispy rice treat bar.

  • Notice it doesn't say Rice Krispie,

  • 'cause you know that's copywritten.

  • Walnut fudge brownie,

  • bear claw Danish,

  • iced honey bun,

  • cheese Danish,

  • mixed berry Danish,

  • glazed honey bun.

  • I got these prepackaged, it says "flavored snack pie."

  • That's a weird way of putting it.

  • Lemon, key lime, banana cream.

  • I feel like they used the same -- that's the same.

  • That's Photoshop right there, buddy.

  • Boston cream, apple,

  • and the last one, strawberry cheesecake.

  • Key lime.

  • Look at all that cream in there.

  • It's key limey.

  • Oh, yeah.

  • Oatmeal!

  • That's obviously maple syrup right there.

  • But the first thing I did when I looked at it,

  • I was like, "Wait, does this have brandy in it?"

  • Boozy oatmeal.

  • You can put hot water in here, Joe.

  • Or hot milk, Yuelei.

  • Or hot whiskey.

  • Your boss won't notice the difference.

  • Well, at first.

  • Here we have Japanese type of bread.

  • Stir-fried-noodles-and-sauce bread.

  • We call it yakisoba pan.

  • Now, you may be thinking what the [dolphin chirps] is this?

  • So, it's like hot dog, but instead of sausage,

  • we've got stir-fried noodle inside.

  • Carb, carb.

  • It makes you fat.

  • Bread makes you fat?!

  • So, kids love this noodle and bread.

  • Itadakimasu.

  • Mm!

  • This one reminds me of my childhood,

  • me playing tags in the mountain and chasing the girls.

  • Now a lot of girls chasing me.

  • This is a crab bread.

  • It's got two crab-shaped bread.

  • Now, the question is, does it taste like crab?

  • It doesn't taste like crab.

  • Taste like just bread.

  • Pink bread.

  • It's a cherry-blossom-flavored-coating bread.

  • This pink stuff is,

  • it's pretty sour.

  • It tastes like cherry blossom

  • and like my first kiss.

  • This is the salty, savory snack zone.

  • Ah, so much stuff.

  • And I've hit the "Food Wars" wall.

  • Hot and spicy cracklin curls, the original,

  • and the fried pork rinds, chili lime.

  • I'm not tasting anything pork-related to it.

  • Little pig guy there.

  • Little piggy guy.

  • You're on the menu, buddy.

  • Next, 7-Selects has their own veggie straws.

  • This will be the trail mix and mix-like section.

  • We got these cheese-pizza-flavored snack mix.

  • You're gonna be a stinky boy if you have a bunch of these.

  • Now they got the spicy ranch flavor mix.

  • And this last one, just sesame sticks.

  • For those of you who like to get your trail mix

  • or your Chex Mix and then unmix them

  • and organize them and eat them like that,

  • 7-Eleven has got the snack for you.

  • Oh, this is kind of a party snack mix.

  • Eh.

  • This is what I would totally get, yogurt pretzels.

  • They put yogurt on there, and, like, you're thinking,

  • "Oh, yogurt, that's healthy, right?"

  • I mean, it's just, it's the same as icing.

  • Now, you're looking at this going,

  • "Jack Link's beef jerky? That's not a 7-Eleven brand."

  • No, it's not.

  • But as you can see, exclusive 7-Eleven flavors.

  • See, this was like, "Hey, Jack Link's, guess what?

  • We're about to push you out of our shelf space.

  • So do a deal with us, or you're gone completely."

  • And Jack Link's was like,

  • "No, I've got kids to feed, please!"

  • Brown sugar bourbon,

  • original recipe,

  • original.

  • Hickory-smoked bacon.

  • Like snacking on cheese and nothing else?

  • Full house, baby.

  • This one is mozzarella cheese wrapped in hard salami.

  • Pepper Jack stick,

  • Gouda cheese to go.

  • Oh, the big one, the big cheese, the white cheddar.

  • This ain't your grandma's cheese.

  • It's the big one.

  • Just two.

  • Cheddar cheese.

  • Colby-Jack, which is like camouflage cheese.

  • Ugh!

  • Pretzels. Mini twists, non yogurted.

  • Pretzel nuggets. Ooh, gross.

  • These ones have peanut butter inside of them.

  • Pretzel sticks. I feel like there was a while there

  • in the early '90s when they were like,

  • "Chips are bad for you. Eat pretzels instead."

  • And these are really salty, too.

  • A serving size of these is three.

  • I would get this assuming I'm gonna sit

  • and eat this whole bag in one sitting.

  • I'm not gonna do three at a time.

  • The whole bag is 1,160 milligrams,

  • 50% of your sodium intake.

  • Mini rice cakes.

  • Chips.

  • 7-Eleven has a bunch of their own potato chips,

  • including the original, fiery hot.

  • Kettle chips, which are way better

  • than regular chips, again.

  • Spicy jalapeño, smoked Gouda.

  • Ooh, Gouda.

  • Barbecue, salt and pepper.

  • Ruffles rip-offs. We got cheddar and sour cream.

  • Prime rib, I'm trying these.

  • And Buffalo chicken dip.

  • Prime rib?

  • Woof, smells terrible.

  • Oh, my God, that was so bad!

  • It's definitely not this.

  • Yeah, more like ground beef.

  • And instead of one of these fancy forks,

  • there'd be the plastic spork that they have at 7-Eleven.

  • They're opening the bag with the spork,

  • meat's pouring out of it,

  • it's on the floor of a 7-Eleven,

  • with a guy mopping around it.

  • Nuts, baby. Nuts.

  • The rise and shine fiber blend of a trail mix, whatever.

  • Antioxidant. Yeah, right.

  • Revive and thrive, another antioxidant mix.

  • Should've just handed these out during COVID,

  • would've bounced back in a week.

  • Cashew halves.

  • You like your nuts halved? Booyah.

  • You like your nuts wholed? Booyah.

  • Does it matter if they're whole or not?

  • Would that affect the flavor at all? Who cares?

  • Spicy ranch pistachios.

  • And, of course, jumbo flavored

  • wasabi and soy nuts. Nope.

  • Wasabi will never touch my lips again after that video.

  • So, here are my favorite instant noodles.

  • Let's start.

  • Ippudo ramen.

  • Man, I love this.

  • So, it's got some packets.

  • Dried pork.

  • It's a miso for the ramen soup.

  • Dried veggies.

  • And it's got noodles.

  • All right.

  • And you've got to wait for three minutes.

  • So while I'm waiting for this, I'm gonna go this one.

  • So it's called Ippei-chan.

  • So it basically is a yakisoba.

  • Yakisoba is like Japanese stir-fried noodles.

  • So, you put some hot water until this line.

  • All right, so it's been three minutes.

  • Put this soup into this bowl.

  • Mix it.

  • Smells so good!

  • Bravo.

  • So, Ippudo has a lot of locations in Japan,

  • including Tokyo, but this taste,

  • this flavor is totally the same

  • as the restaurant's serving.

  • So just get it at 7-Eleven.

  • Oh, shit, I totally forgot the, oh.

  • So, I put some hot water, but --

  • oh, shit!

  • I should have thrown the water away into the toilet.

  • Gomen ne, noodles.

  • Let's make yakisoba.

  • [laughs] The volume of these noodles

  • gets a lot bigger.

  • OK, so put yakisoba sauce.

  • And flakes.

  • And most importantly, mayo.

  • Mayo beam!

  • Oh!

  • And mix it up.

  • Ta-da!

  • So, this is yakisoba.

  • We usually eat this, like, at summer festival.

  • Pretty good, as always.

  • Next, we have tako-meshi.

  • Look at this. So, it's got green onions,

  • and I believe this is tako.

  • So, three minutes again.

  • Look at this final noodle.

  • It says ultra-spicy final.

  • You're going to be crying because of the spiciness.

  • It's too spicy.

  • But I'm going to try this,

  • only for shooting purpose.

  • This is for you guys!

  • We can do it. Clip: Never give up!

  • Oh, man, I'm so scared.

  • All right, so I think it's time to eat this one.

  • So, I'm going to throw the water away in the toilet again.

  • Let's go to the toilet.

  • And put yakisoba sauce.

  • All righty.

  • And the taste itself is lighter than this one.

  • I prefer this one, but,

  • but,

  • this is the king ramen.

  • All right, so finally let's make

  • the freaking spicy noodle.

  • I call it death sauce.

  • In case I'm dead,

  • please find another Japanese host.

  • It was nice to meet you, Food Insider.

  • Go!

  • Oh, man, look at this.

  • It's not red, it's blood.

  • I don't want to eat this.

  • [coughing]

  • Ah!

  • Oh.

  • Ah!

  • I'm not joking, I'm not joking.

  • Ah, ah.

  • It hurts!

  • Am I alive?

  • Am I not dead?

  • Am I in heaven?

  • Hell?

  • I feel like I'm in hell.

  • It's not all junk food at the 7-Eleven, Joe and Yuelei.

  • They also have delicious freshly sliced fruit.

  • Prepackaged and everything,

  • came straight from the ground,

  • and it comes in a container that will be here

  • until the sun explodes.

  • This, I mean, this has to be an LA thing.

  • You can get mango with

  • tajin seasoning. Automated voice: Tajin.

  • Fantastic combination.

  • Finally, grape cup.

  • 7-Eleven also has its own brand of packaged candies.

  • Sour gummy bears,

  • sour neon gummy worms,

  • sour watermelon wedges,

  • green apple rings,

  • gummy worms for catching gummy fish.

  • Heh-heh. You like that?

  • Fruit leather, whatever we call this.

  • Chili mango. Hell yeah, I'm trying these.

  • Sweetened mango,

  • and a sweetened fruit medley.

  • Not bad. Oh, a little spicier that I thought, whoa.

  • There's also gummy bears and gummy sharks.

  • There's also gummy peach rings.

  • They got jelly beans,

  • and they got sour cherries.

  • 7-Eleven Selects in the US also has

  • their own line of sandwich cookies.

  • Vanilla, pumpkin spice,

  • double chocolate, peppermint,

  • s'mores, the duplexes,

  • lemon crème.

  • Mm-mm-mm.

  • So, here are Japanese sweets.

  • Pink rice cake with red bean paste.

  • So basically it's like cherry blossom mochi.

  • Itadakimasu.

  • Mm, mm.

  • I want to eat this under the tree of cherry blossom.

  • Cherry blossom, pew.

  • Next, we have ninja gummy.

  • He's like ninja salaryman.

  • So, it's a hard gummy.

  • It's really tough, like stones.

  • [crunching]

  • Toppo.

  • It's like Pocky, but the chocolate is inside.

  • I'm loving it.

  • Look at this cute guy!

  • Koala no Machi.

  • Koala's March Chocolate.

  • My favorite would be this one.

  • When I was a kid, I would eat this every single day.

  • And this taste is so nostalgic.

  • Oh, little George is calling me like,

  • "Hey, I wanna eat this! I wanna eat -- "

  • Hey! We are filming right now.

  • Later, after shooting, OK?

  • "OK."

  • OK. We're good.

  • Pudding.

  • Please prepare the plate.

  • And you just do like this.

  • One, two, three, go.

  • The shape is like cherry blossom.

  • Look how jelly it is.

  • Mm!

  • This is the best pudding ever.

  • We had to go on a run to get more stuff.

  • That's why visually this all doesn't connect.

  • 7-Eleven's got macarons, French macarons.

  • Ooh, mini cheesecakes,

  • New York style and strawberry swirl.

  • These I can get behind.

  • Our 7-Eleven in the US has ice cream,

  • such as banana cream pie, caramel butter pecan,

  • chocolate-covered strawberry, double cookie dough,

  • cookies 'n' cream, sea-salt caramel,

  • strawberry-banana shortcake.

  • So, let's start with cold stuff.

  • We've got fried dumplings. It's frozen.

  • Frozen takoyaki,

  • frozen fried rice.

  • So, after these frozen meals, I got ice cream.

  • Choco Monaka Jumbo.

  • So, Choco Monaka Jumbo

  • is like Japanese ice cream sandwich.

  • Ah!

  • Let me bite. Itadakimasu.

  • Sorry, it looks gross. [laughs]

  • So it's got ice cream,

  • and it's got chocolate in the middle,

  • and this crunchy on the outside.

  • Every Japanese people get this one

  • at least once in their life.

  • And last ice cream, I got this one.

  • Gorilla chocolate ice cream. [laughs]

  • I don't know what this is.

  • Ah.

  • Ah! Ch-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t!

  • Ah, sorry! Itadakimasu!

  • This is delicious.

  • Not only me, but Gorilla would love this.

  • Lot of exclusive drinks.

  • I don't know really where to begin,

  • so I kind of lined them up by perception of healthiness.

  • So, all the way down on this end, we've got

  • 7-Eleven Select Go Smart

  • cold organic pressed juices.

  • This one's the tropical glow.

  • And this gross-looking one is, of course,

  • clean and green.

  • After that, we got these prepackaged juices.

  • These are the 7-Select Farmer's Grove.

  • Cranberry cocktail, raspberry lemonade,

  • orange juice, of course, regular lemonade.

  • Then next up in the bigger ones

  • we have the 7-Eleven teas.

  • Peach black tea, sweet tea.

  • They weren't kidding, man, look at that.

  • Lemon sweet tea

  • and green tea.

  • Fruit punch, mango, guava.

  • Energy, come on, herbal tonic.

  • Herbal? This is herbal, guys? Yeah?

  • 7-Eleven also their own brand of ...

  • are these considered energy drinks?

  • The Gatorades and Powerades and the like.

  • So Replenish, and of course Replenish zero.

  • I'm assuming zero added sugar.

  • Orange mango, fruit punch, lemonade.

  • The cherry is clear.

  • What? Why is cherry clear?

  • Guava splash, orange mango.

  • These are bad

  • 7-Eleven energy.

  • "Strawberry lemonade energy shot,

  • one and half times the caffeine of a cup of coffee."

  • Oh, good God.

  • Undrinkable.

  • How bad does it have to taste where this is too --

  • I couldn't get to this?

  • You've seen this show, right?

  • You'll see what I'll tolerate.

  • This, I can barely tolerate this.

  • Here's something that they don't have in Japan.

  • They don't have Slurpees.

  • That's nuts, right?

  • Slurpees are -- how do you describe a Slurpee?

  • It's like a flavored slush.

  • We have endless Slurpee flavors.

  • The ones currently you can get here in America are

  • blue rocketberry,

  • blood orange,

  • Vitaminwater XXX,

  • blue raspberry,

  • blueberry lemonade bliss,

  • cherry, Coca-Cola,

  • Mountain Dew citrus, peach perfect,

  • piña colada, and pineapple whip.

  • So, here are Japanese exclusive drinks.

  • We have vegetable juice, of course.

  • Mm! Oishii.

  • A lot of Japanese salarymen drink this one every morning

  • to get their day started.

  • So this one is for Joe.

  • Joe, you're missing a lot of veggies,

  • so you should drink this one.

  • Oi Ocha, my favorite green tea.

  • And these two are hot drinks,

  • black coffee and café latte.

  • And this is our first time filming this.

  • We have alcohol.

  • We have 7-Premium beer.

  • And this one is not beer.

  • It's like Sprite with alcohol.

  • It contains 9% of alcohol.

  • It's pretty delicious,

  • but at the same time, it's pretty dangerous.

  • Japanese sake.

  • When you come to Japan, you can see

  • a lot of people drinking alcohol outside.

  • They're like [groans].

  • They are not dead, they're just sleeping.

  • They're drunk.

  • Whisky.

  • 7-Eleven in the US has its own

  • private brand wines,

  • Yosemite Road, Trojan Horse,

  • Plot and Point, and Voyager Point.

  • It also has its own canned wine brand, called Roamer.

  • Perhaps the reason 7-Eleven has such a wide variety

  • of products in Japan is that it's everywhere in Japan.

  • There are 21,215 stores in Japan.

  • That's crazy!

  • Which is nearly 30% of all the 7-Elevens in the world.

  • Of course, all 37 prefectures have a 7-Eleven.

  • And out of all of them,

  • the city of Tokyo has the most locations,

  • with 2,850.

  • To put that in perspective,

  • the US has 9,417 7-Elevens,

  • and there's no 7-Elevens in 18 states.

  • As far as states, California has the most,

  • 1,823.

  • But as far as denseness in area,

  • Las Vegas, Nevada, has the most, with 158.

  • In Japan, our hot dog is 290 calories

  • and 720 milligrams of sodium,

  • which is 31.3% of your daily allowance.

  • Our hot dog is 180 calories.

  • Ooh. How about this?

  • Our hot dog is 180 calories, but for the frank only.

  • The stats, for some reason,

  • don't say anything about the bun.

  • But this isn't much better for you.

  • It's 570 milligrams of sodium,

  • so around 24.8% of your daily allowance.

  • Japan's hand-rolled tuna and mayo onigiri

  • has 258 calories and is very filling.

  • Remember this guy? The tuna sandwich.

  • Here in the US, ours is 420 calories

  • and lots of sodium, over 800 milligrams.

  • Fuck!

  • And in the US, a Super Big Gulp of Coca-Cola,

  • this isn't Coca-Cola, is 44 fluid ounces.

  • It's 513 calories and 143 grams of carbs.

  • That's over half your daily intake.

  • In Japan, 7-Eleven does not disclose

  • the ingredients list of its freshly made food items.

  • It does, however, tell us the country of origin

  • for the raw materials for certain items,

  • like the fried food, yakitori, oden,

  • and Chinese steamed buns.

  • The chicken for our fried chicken is from Thailand.

  • The pork for our sausages and hot dogs

  • comes from USA, Canada, and Japan.

  • The wheat for the buns comes from Canada,

  • the USA, and Japan.

  • And adzuki beans come from Canada,

  • cheese comes from New Zealand,

  • and the shrimp for the shrimp chili buns is from Vietnam.

  • This is the pepperoni pizza in the US.

  • And it contains all this junk.

  • I mean, what's this thing?

  • Never heard of that.

  • What about chicken strips?

  • It's got all this stuff!

  • Just like mom used to make.

  • And, of course, the 7-Eleven Select cheeseburger,

  • which contains ... [sighs]

  • sesame seed bun has enriched flour,

  • excuse me, enriched wheat flour,

  • wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron,

  • monoserititate, serotitititate,

  • calcium propionate as a preservative, calcium sulfate,

  • royal beef patty got smoke flavor added,

  • and it's beef, encapsulated salt, potassium ...

  • Is anything else after that?

  • Salt, spice, pasteurized process American cheese.

  • Ah, cheese -- they're sitting down.

  • That's how long this is going.

  • My cameraperson just sat down.

  • A preservative, paprika, and annatto color.

  • So I guess the last takeaway

  • from this video is that in the US,

  • some of our 7-Eleven items can be

  • a little bit of a gamble with your health.

  • Speaking of gambling, you know your boy

  • got some scratchers when he was over at 7-Eleven.

  • Mm-hmm, OK. So there's the winning numbers.

  • OK, so we didn't win anything on that one.

  • I have no clue how to do this.

  • Did I win?

  • If you haven't subscribed yet, subscribe now!

  • 'Cause we were filming this for six hours.

George: From calorie count to portion sizes,

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