Not every box contains one, though, so how many will we find in four boxes?

Everyone knows about McDonald’s nuggets, or “McNuggets”, but did you know there are heart-shaped shrimp nuggets on the menu in Japan?

The new menu item goes by the name Puripuri Ebi Purio, with “puripuri” meaning “plump and jiggly”, and “ebi” meaning “shrimp”. The “purio” at the end adds to the lyrical nature of the name while also mimicking the sound of Ebi Filet-O, Japan’s hugely popular shrimp version of the Filet-O-Fish burger, and it’s been a hit with shrimp lovers since it was first released in 2023.

This year, the Puripuri Ebi Purio is back for another limited-edition run, but this time, there are lucky heart-shaped nuggets scattered randomly amongst the boxes. 

▼ “ハートが出たら超ラッキー” (“If a heart appears, it’s super lucky”)

The lure of finding a lucky heart-shaped shrimp nugget was way too appealing for us to resist, so we picked up four boxes to give ourselves a good chance of encountering the heart.

▼ Each pack of five nuggets costs 290 yen (US$1.97).

Curious to see how many hearts we might find, if any, we ripped into the first pack, where we discovered…

▼ …is that a heart?

Pulling out what looked to be a heart revealed it was just a regular nugget, but then we saw another nugget in the box.

▼ Could it be?

▼ Yes, indeed — it was a heart!

▼ It looked as pretty as it did in the promo picture for it.

Image: Press release

The shape turned out to be surprisingly well defined, and we could almost feel the luck emanating from it. Keeping it in the box for the time being, like a precious lucky charm, we plucked out a regular nugget and sliced it in half, where we found that the shrimp filling did look plump and jiggly. Combined with a fantastic crunch from the fried exterior, the plump texture translated beautifully on the taste buds, delivering a satisfying dose of fried shrimp throughout the palate.

Resisting the urge to gobble up the entire pack, we decided to go ahead and open the three other boxes.

▼ Out of a total of 20 pieces, how many would turn out to be hearts?

▼ The result was…not a single one!

After getting lucky on our first try, we couldn’t quite believe that the other three boxes came up totally dry, with no other heart-shaped nuggets to be found.

▼ That makes this nugget extra lucky.

With so many nuggets to eat, we decided to get creative by turning them into “Kanshao Sharen”, an Ebi Chilli-style dish, using a handy CookDo sauce pack.

▼ The prep was simple — first, heat up the Ebi Purio in a frying pan…

▼ …then add the contents of the sauce packet.

Toss in some chopped green onion and stir until everything is well coated and it’s done!

It certainly looked fantastic, and when we tasted it we were honestly shocked at how good it was. The nuggets tasted great on their own but the sauce took them to a whole new realm of deliciousness, giving them a junky, addictive edge.

The combination was so good we can’t help but wonder if  McDonald’s will team up with CookDo for a special sauce version next year. For now, though, the Puripuri Ebi Purio will be available at branches across the country for a limited time while supplies last.

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