Kitchen Origin’s “Meat Castle” is not something that can be easily conquered–but by Jove, he’ll try.
Japan loves meat, and a good pun, so much so that there are two punny holidays to celebrate meat: February 9 (“ni [2] ku [9]”, or “Meat” Day) and November 29 (“Ii [11] ni [2] ku [9]”, or “Good Meat” Day). The former happens to have been just this past Tuesday, so of course, we had to honor the holiday in the only appropriate way possible: by eating lots of meat.
Our own Japanese-language reporter Mr. Sato, being a huge fan of meat, was, of course, excited to celebrate one of his favorite holidays, but he had a hard time deciding which meat to eat…at least until he saw on TV that bento and fresh food takeout restaurant Kitchen Origin was releasing a special “Meat Castle” for the day.
Yeah, Mr. Sato had to eat that.
He immediately made a reservation for one at the Shinjuku Yasukuni Road branch of Kitchen Origin, since the restaurant requires two days’ notice to get this baby together. He wasn’t sure if his order went through, however, and as the days progressed he began to get worried, until the morning of his pick-up date, when the staff so very politely called to confirm his order.
He’d booked his pickup for one o’clock in the afternoon, but that was during the lunch rush, so he had to wait a bit for his turn when he arrived. 15 minutes later, he had finished checkout and was ready to take his meaty bento home. Altogether he paid 6,290 yen (US$60.05), which is definitely the most he has ever spent, and probably the most he will ever spend, on a Kitchen Origin bento.
But that was the least of his problems….The thing was massive!!
It serves 10 people and weighs five kilograms (11 pounds)!
Mr. Sato had walked to the shop from the office, which is ordinarily a brisk ten minutes away. But upon making his way back, that turned out to be a grave mistake. With 11 pounds of bento in his arms, those ten minutes felt much longer.
Even waiting at the traffic lights was excruciating.
▼ “So heavy,” he muttered. “My arms…”
But Mr. Sato was hungry, and it was Meat Day, and he would sacrifice all his limbs if it meant that he could try the Meat Castle. So he picked up the pace…
And finally made it back to the office.
▼ This isn’t just a bento; it’s also a workout.
Inside the treasured tub of treats was a veritable pile of meat. Fried meat…grilled meat…every kind of meat you could want was piled in huge quantities on top of an expansive bed of rice.
When he lifted the lid, the scent of delicious calories wafted up from the plate and drifted through the room. Rather than the tall and stately walls of a castle, this meaty bento looked more like a squat and sturdy fort, but that was fine with Mr. Sato. The only questions was, could he breach the walls of this flavorful paradise?
There were three servings of beef yakiniku…
…10 pieces of fried chicken karaage…
…three fried chicken fillets…
…three menchi-katsu (deep fried mincemeat cutlets)…
…five pieces of fried shrimp, three Salisbury steaks…
…three fried chicken fillets with vinegar and tartar sauce…
…and three cheesy chicken fillets.
In total, this hefty meal consisted of 12,000 calories of greasy, deep fried, meaty heaven. To Mr. Sato, it gave off the same amount of energy as a volcano about to erupt.
With anticipation rising like the lava of such a volcano, Mr. Sato began the not-so-hard work of digging in. He figured the best way to enjoy it was to scoop some of the rice into a bowl and just pick whatever he wanted from the meat volcano and plop it on top. Naturally, Mr. Sato chose one of just about everything, and that alone turned out to be a huge serving.
▼ Note Mr. Sato’s gleeful grin as he holds up his bowl for this photo.
▼ “Ahhhh….I’m so happy. The sinful taste of high-calorie foods!”
But wait a minute…isn’t there a bit too much chicken? And weren’t there supposed to be deep fried pork fillets too? Hold on…what’s that underneath all the rice there??
There they are!! Three whole tonkatsu pork cutlets, sliced into bite-sized pieces, hiding under the rice!
Kitchen Origin, you sly dogs, you. Tonkatsu are meant to be on top of rice. What sneaky trickery was it to hide them underneath?!
Well, Mr. Sato wasn’t that mad. He got to eat them in the end.
So that’s Kitchen Origin’s Meat Castle. It’s not for the faint of heart, or the dieter, but it’s definitely for anyone who wants to celebrate Meat Day in style, even belatedly. Mr. Sato had no complaints about it whatsoever, and only one word of caution: make sure you remember that it must be ordered two days in advance, or you won’t be able to get it at all.
Oh, and try not to eat too much. We want you to make it to Good Meat Day, after all.
Photos © SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
[ Read in Japanese ]