McD's Japan's Take on a Taste of America

I've mentioned that Japan is the home of limited-time offers. Seasonal drinks show up, special editions of candies can be found in different regions across Japan, and one-time-only creations are always highlighted on the menus at fast food restaurants.

In the winter, McDonalds always does American-themed burgers. The prior two years, I enjoyed "regional" flavors like a western burger with fried onions and barbecue sauce.

This year, the American theme was decades. Two sandwiches, one beef and one chicken, were always on sale.

 They started with the Diner menu. As you can see, it has steak sauce, cheddar cheese, an egg, and mashed potato sauce.

 I didn't care much for the mashed potato sauce, but this was a fairly tasty burger. I really like an egg on my burger, though.

 Soon after the Diner burgers made their debut, bacon cheese fries arrived as well. As you can see, they came with imitation bacon bits and cheese sauce.

Does this look appetizing? Nope. Was it delicious? Nope. The cheese from the nachos machine at convenience stores in America is better than this.

With each meal or sandwich purchase from the Diner menu you got a sticker. The backs had codes to win prizes.

I didn't chase the Diner '50s stickers, although I had a few burgers.

 Skipping the '60s, the next style was 1970s-based Hot n' Groovy. This replaced with mashed potatoes and egg with more vegetables and a spicy salsa.

It doesn't look that appetizing here but it was pretty tasty.

 The hot n' groovy chicken was also decent.

I bought enough of these to collect the entire set of stickers, I think. That's 4 or 5 stickers. I haven't found out if I won the prize associated with these, though.

I'm not sure why I don't have any pictures of the 1980s burgers. Barbecue flavor returned in the chicken and beef sandwiches, although they were almost the same as the hot and groovy otherwise.

Which is the best? It's a tough call; they all had good points. But the hot n' groovy chicken was the sandwich I probably had the most, due to the spicy salsa and crunchy fried chicken piece. Not that any of them were healthy.

The promotion is gone, now. McDonalds is celebrating spring with a sakura (cherry) burger. They seem to offer a burger with a pink sauce of some kind every spring, but this year, the bun is pink as well. I'm not sure if I'll give that one a try. KFC has some decent fish and chips right now anyway...