Fans say the new creation looks surprisingly similar to the famous Gyoza Dog at DisneySea.

Competition is strong at the top of the convenience store food chain, where Lawson, 7-Eleven and Family Mart constantly compete for customers’ affections. That means we get to enjoy all the spoils of this competitive spirit, and right now there’s one product at Family Mart that has everyone’s attention.

Called “Gyoza Dog”, this chilled food item has developed a cult following, for a rather unusual reason – it’s said to taste incredibly similar to the version sold at DisneySea. The new release means fans don’t have to travel to the theme park to get a taste of the dog, but for our reporter Mr Sato, who’s yet to taste the DisneySea version, he was curious to try it purely as a lover of hot dogs, gyoza, and convenience store food in general.

▼ Family Mart’s Gyoza Dog was released exclusively in the Kanto region on 9 June, but availability may vary by region and store, so it’s not always possible to find.

Mr Sato was lucky enough to find one at the store he visited, where it was hiding out in the refrigerated foods section, near the cheese. He purchased it for 320 yen (US$2.01) and took it back to the office for a taste test.

Inspecting the pack, he found that the dog needs to be heated before eating, but unlike many microwaveable products these days, you can’t just put the whole thing in the microwave with the packaging as is. You need to make a small slit in one end before heating it, and failing to do so runs the risk of the bag bursting in the microwave so it’s important not to forget this step.

The recommended heating time is 20 seconds in a 1,600-watt microwave. For a standard household 500-watt microwave, it should be heated for 60 seconds.

▼ Since the microwave in our office is a 500-watt model, Mr Sato set the timer for 60 seconds and hit start.

A moment later, the microwave dinged and the heating was complete. The warmed Gyoza Dog had puffed up nicely and looked absolutely delicious.

▼ On the outside, it looked delectable.

On the inside was a filling made with familiar gyoza ingredients like pork, cabbage, and onions, all surrounded by a doughy encasing that was surprisingly thick.

▼ To Mr Sato, it looked like a Chinese-style steamed bun in the shape of a hot dog.

The filling was fantastic, with the crisp texture of the cabbage doing a great job of recreating that unmistakable gyoza-like taste. Juicy, moreish and delicious, it was a perfect match for the chewy dough, delivering bagfuls of flavour in every mouthful.

As for whether this Gyoza Dog tastes like the one at DisneySea, well, Mr Sato will have to book a ticket to the amusement park to get an answer to that one. Either way, it’s a great dog that Mr Sato would definitely purchase again, and while it’s currently only available in the Kanto region, he has high hopes that it will be released nationwide in future, so gyoza lovers around the nation can enjoy its delicious charms.

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