And here’s how you can create one too.
It’s that time of year again when companies share crazy ideas in the spirit of April Fools’ Day pranks, and one of the first to get in this year was McDonald’s, who shared this image on its official Twitter account in Japan.
The image came with the caption, “The best lunch ‘Makunouchi Bento’ will be on sale!“, alongside the hashtag “#April Fool”, to let us down easily, as the awesome-looking lunchbox wasn’t really for sale.
However, though the lunchbox wasn’t officially on the menu, the contents certainly were, so our reporter P.K. Sanjun decided to make his dreams of enjoying the dream lunchbox a reality, by heading out to his nearest McDonald’s to recreate it.
People in Japan love a good pun, and the tweet contains a clever one, referring to the lunch box as the Makunouchi Bento. This name draws on the “Makku” abbreviation that McDonald’s colloquially goes by in the east part of Japan in and around Tokyo, but also refers to a Makunouchi Bento, an actual type of Japanese bento that typically contains rice, fish, meat, pickles, eggs, vegetables, and an umeboshi pickled plum.
▼ Makunouchi Bento, as sold by Japanese convenience stores Family Mart, Lawson, 7-Eleven and Seico Mart (left to right, top to bottom).
While the tweet gives the contents of the bento suitably fancy names like “Ground Beef and Vegetable Bread Sandwich” and “Warm Apple Fried Wrap”, this is what you’ll really need to make your McDonald’s bento lunch box dreams come true:
- Big Mac
- French fries (Medium size)
- Chicken McNuggets (5 pieces) x 2
- Mustard sauce
- Edamame and corn
- Apple Pie × 2
Once you have all your ingredients, all you have to do is grab a tray to put them all in, and P.K. got his from a 100-yen store.
▼ Dream achieved!
It looked so good that even P.K. was impressed by the display in front of him, and he chose to forget about the fact that it was packed with calories, and cost him a whopping 1,800 yen (US$11.89), even after purchasing the burger as part of a set to save money.
▼ “Have you ever seen a Makunouchi bento this beautiful?!”
This was an expensive bento, but hey, dreams don’t always come cheap, especially when they’re this self-indulgent. P.K. loved every single bite of it, and even as his stomach swelled afterwards, he was happy to have made his dreams come true.
What started out as an April Fools’ Day prank turned out to be a clever way to get customers hungry for Makku — or Makudo, as it’s known down Osaka way — and now P.K. can’t wait to see what challenge the chain might present for him next year!
Related: McDonald’s
Photos ©SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]