Getting more convenience store food for our yen is always a fun time, but this campaign is bordering on ridiculous.

On 12 May, 7-Eleven Japan kicked off its its “Founding Anniversary Sale” by giving us over 50 percent more of some of our favourite products in the first phase of its so-called “Thank You Extra Large” series.

▼ We immediately visited our nearby 7-Eleven and managed to get our hands on four of the upsized products.

The products we procured were:

  • Corn & Mayonnaise (170.64 yen [US$1.08])
  • Egg Salad Sandwich (291.60 yen)
  • Radish, Cucumber, Carrot, Rice Malt, Miso & Mayonnaise  (280.80 yen)
  • Mega Pork Ramen with Extra Fat (734.40 yen )

There are actually six products in the range, but despite visiting several stores to purchase the complete set, we were unable to find the following two items:

  • Flame-Grilled Pork Fried Rice (496.80 yen)
  • Fluffy Dorayaki with Red Bean Paste & Whipped Cream (213.84 yen)

This was probably a blessing in disguise, as the size of the four we had already looked like a lot of food. The ramen, in particular, produced under the supervision of award-wining Chiba-based ramen restaurant Chuka Soba Tomita., looked especially ginormous.

We decided to test this hefty beast first, popping it on the scales to reveal its true weight, which turned out to be…

▼… an astonishing 1,084 grams (2.4 pounds)!

As the container weighs about 23 grams, what we have here is more than a kilo of food, which is a great deal given that the price remains unchanged despite the 50-percent upsize. Although the pork fat is highlighted as an increased ingredient, it’s also said to have more vegetables, noodles, soup, and garlic, so we were curious to know how these extra ingredients would affect the taste.

▼ We popped it into the microwave, for 10 minutes at 500 watts, which is quite a long time for microwaveable food.

As it was heating, we felt slightly intimidated by the intense garlic smell that filled the room, and when we opened the lid we couldn’t quite believe the amount of food that lay before us.

The ingredients were so huge they made the container look tiny, and we began to wonder how we could eat our noodles without them spilling out everywhere.

Carefully lifting the char siu, we could see a huge pile of bean sprouts and cabbage beneath it, with the rest of the meal consisting of garlic, noodles, and pork fat.

With big noodle meals like this, locals make use of a special move called “tenchi gaeshi“, which literally translates as “heaven-and-earth flip“. This involves lifting the noodles from the bottom of the bowl and “flipping” them over the vegetables on top, to prevent them from getting soggy and to mix the broth, noodles, fat, sauce, and vegetables more evenly.

▼ Performing the “tenchi-gaeshi” mixing maneuver requires extra skill with this huge meal.

After carefully flipping heaven and earth, we were even more impressed at how much food was in the bowl, and when we took a sip of the broth, we were hit by the intensely powerful flavour of garlic and pork fat, which was absolutely delicious.

This was a high-quality meal, and the noodles were equally fantastic, providing just the right amount of chewiness to help round out the bold flavours.

The sheer volume was truly unbelievable, and nothing like what you’d normally see at a convenience store. It was so filling that by the end of the meal, we didn’t have any belly room for the other items we’d picked up.

▼ The vegetable sticks, with rice malt, miso and mayonnaise dip, would’ve been a nice way to cut through all the fat, but we just couldn’t fit them in.

The Egg Salad sandwich, or “THE Tamago” (“THE Egg”) as it’s called in Japanese, now contains three cut sandwiches instead of two, making it a great deal.

▼ And finally, the Corn & Mayonnaise bread has also been upsized, so it’s now almost twice as large as a smartphone.

The first phase of the campaign is scheduled to run from 12 May to 25 May, with the second phase bringing us a new line of upsized items from 19 May to 1 June. After receiving flack from customers who claimed that some convenience stores have been skimping on their offerings recently, there’s certainly no skimping with these campaign products, so hop in and try them while you can!

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