The treasures of Dragon Ball come to one of Japan’s favorite noodle restaurant chains.
Marugame Seimen is a chain of udon noodle restaurants, and the “Marugame” part of their name translates literally to “circle turtle.” Someone apparently realized that the Japanerse kanji character for turtle, 亀, surrounded by a circle just so happens to be the emblem on Dragon Ball hero Son Goku’s outfit, and so as of this month Marugame Seimen and Dragon Ball are collaborating to bring the mythical foods and treasures of the anime franchise to Marugame’s real-world menu.
The team-up got started on March 3 with two new arrivals to the restaurant, one of which is tempura Senzu Beans!
Each 290-yen (US$1.90) order of Dragon Ball’s magical healing beans comes in a bag with an illustration of Yajirobe, the underling of Senzu Bean maker Korin, on one side, and Goku with son Gohan on the other.
Peeking inside, we saw a huge supply of Senzu Beans. If Goku and his pals had been carrying around such a big bag of them on their adventures, it’s safe to say that even their toughest battles would have been pretty easy victories.
However, we should note that the real-world Senzu Beans are, in fact, deep-fried edamame. This means that they won’t really heal injuries or boost ki levels. Also, unlike in the anime, eating a single Marugame Senzu Bean won’t be enough to instantly fill you up. This last divergence from the source material is a plus, though, since they taste so good that you’ll definitely want to eat more than one. While boiled edamame have been a popular snack in Japan for generations, combining their familiar flavor with the crunch of tempura is a new sensation, and one that’s very enjoyable.
Ah, but Senzu Beans aren’t the only Dragon Ball item Marugame is serving up these days, as you can also order the Dragon Balls themselves.
These are actually Udonuts, donut hole-style treats made from the same type of flour used to make udon noodles. The 590-yen Dragon Ball Udonuts are covered in orange-colored chocolate and come as a set of seven, with 28 little star-shaped candies served on the side so that you can attach them yourself for maximum photogenic quality right before snapping your pictures. They’re also just really, really tasty.
The tempura Senzu Beans will only be available until March 16, after which they’ll be replaced by a Spirit Bomb Rice Ball, but the Dragon Ball Udonuts will be on sale until April 6.
Related: Marugame Seimen location finder
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[ Read in Japanese ]