00:00:09 John Daub: Welcome to Tsukishima here in Tokyo. This is a McDonald's in central Tokyo, not too far from Ginza. I've come at lunchtime and the line was way bigger about 10 minutes ago. It took me a while to get what I wanted, which was not a Big Mac here. They do an amazing business on Uber Eats. I was pretty surprised about that. It's a neighborhood and I'm here to try and experiment. This is the first time.

00:00:45 John Daub: They just released a few days ago a beef stew pie at McDonald's and I'm always really curious about some of the unique menu items that they have here at McDonald's Japan. I was surprised. I didn't think the Japanese ate McDonald's as much as they do. You can see that he's doing another order. It's crazy the business that they do. There's so many choices in Japan. Why would anybody pick McDonald's? I guess it's good, but they're always innovating here. The system that they have in here is really interesting.

00:01:23 John Daub: Before I get to the beef pie, check it out. So I buy the goods. They give me a number and they call the number and I go and pick it up. The beef stew pie here. I bought two of them. They were 180 yen or about $1.80. And then I got another sandwich as an experiment, which is $3.90. I thought I'd have to wait for 20 minutes, but it was actually only about a five-minute wait. They move pretty quickly in here.

00:01:56 John Daub: I'm just going to pop in for a second and show you inside the McDonald's here, the system that they have. They take the order here. It's kind of like Starbucks. And then on the right here, there's another guy prepping the orders. And then there's a list up there so you can go pick up your order when the number is called. And you can see above that, the beef pie. It works pretty well. This also works with the Uber Eats guys. They can just come pick up and they're on the road. It's pretty incredible.

00:02:33 John Daub: I found this area right here on the corner. I can eat and not be bothered by a lot of people. All right, let's try this here. So I've eaten here before. This is the exit of Tsukishima Station, entrance number 7. This is Monja Street. You can see leading down in this direction. And then after this live stream, I'm going to take you to get a drink at a vending machine. So there's a couple of good ones just down the street.

00:03:13 John Daub: So what's inside the bag here? It smells a lot better than I guess it's because I'm hungry. So this is it. This is the beef stew pie. And you can see it looks just like an apple pie, right? This is the same kind of box that they would have for the apple pies. They have this kind of perforated system here. This makes it easier to eat the pie without getting it oily on your hands.

00:04:15 John Daub: Oh, here we go. Look at that. So you can really see the stew. There's the oil in there. Is that a piece of beef that broke out there? They did not skimp on the beef, did they? Wow. I don't know the sauce that they use here. Even the bread around the pie looks kind of yellow. I guess they have some kind of stew powder in there. It does look like demi-glace sauce.

00:04:59 John Daub: All right, let's just give it a bite here. It passes the smell test. It's deep fried, that's for sure. That's good. It works. Now, I just had a bite of just a demi-glace sauce or whatever the stew sauce is, which is pretty good. Salty, savory. The pastry around it is okay. But it's a little bit too oily, I think. But, I mean, it's deep fried, so how can you complain?

00:05:55 John Daub: Not bad. There's a carrot in that one. A little piece of beef. Savory. I've never had anything like this from McDonald's. It doesn't really fit like a beef stew in McDonald's. It doesn't sound like it would go together, but it works out okay. It's not spicy at all. It's just more salty than anything else. It does look very much like the apple pie that we've been eating for decades. But just different, you know? Very savory. It's not a lot of beef. For $1.80, I guess you're not going to get a lot of beef. Beef sauce pie, maybe.

00:07:37 John Daub: I'm going to take you a little bit around this neighborhood. I do have one more thing to try out. And as soon as I find a mailbox, this is this month's postcard club selection. It's going out to four people here. That's Kanai, Leo, and Leo's 100-day shrine visit. You can get one, too, on Patreon. I do have a New Year's stamp to celebrate the Year of the Tiger that's coming in there. This is going to Tomi in Finland, Scott in Columbus, Ohio. Go Bucks. Jefferson in Alaska. And Michael in Arizona.

00:08:27 John Daub: All right, let's check out the last item. This is interesting. I just saw this when I went up to order, and they upsold me. Angus beef Bolognese croquette burger. So like a croquette burger with Bolognese sauce. I guess it's meat sauce with Angus beef, which is a different kind of beef than what they normally sell. Check it out. Is this even a burger? Look, it's got that sauce on there. It looks like it's kind of soaked into that croquette, which is a deep-fried... Is that macaroni? We're going to find out.

00:10:34 John Daub: Here we go. Whoa. There's the mashed potato. It tastes like mashed potato. This goes great with the beef stew pie. Oh, man. This is awesome. The bun is unusual. It has like a mochi-mochi kind of springy consistency to it. That's an unusual bun. It's got some volume to it.

00:11:12 John Daub: Wow. So it looks like it's like mashed potatoes. That's perfect. No beef, though the beef is in the sauce. The mashed potatoes in this croquette burger are really good. This is a really good croquette burger. This is perfect with that beef stew pie. So this was about $3.50 or so. This Thousand Island sauce here is not too bad. I might actually finish this. It's so smooth. Because the potato in there, it's like a really smooth, cheesy potato. Very creamy. But the croquette, the crust around it gives it some crunch and bite to it. It's not a bad burger. And because the bread is good, I don't mind eating the whole thing. Very surprising. I did like it. I didn't think I would like it, but I am so surprised that I did.

00:13:25 John Daub: There's still a line out the door. That's it right in the center of your screen. The Bolognese sauce croquette burger. So I went up there just to get beef stew pie and ended up with one of those too. Pretty good McDonald's Japan. Alright, let's go find a vending machine everybody. And maybe a mailbox. I'll put the postcards in the mail. We have Patreon supporters. We have viewers from all over the world. I think there isn't a country where we don't have a viewer. Even Antarctica. Only in Antarctica is here sometimes. Greenland. I send a postcard to Greenland every month. As well as Finland and Lapland up there where the reindeer are.

00:14:44 John Daub: They've done something good with the bun. For a very long time McDonald's Japan didn't do a lot with the bun. They put in some vegetables, some lettuce and tomatoes every now and then. A little bit to try to appease the people that said these burgers aren't healthy. But they always neglected the bun. And now it's really interesting to see they have recently more different kinds of breads, different kinds of buns that they use. Kind of matches the contents of the burger better. Thus giving a much better experience. I guess competition does that. Because in Japan you have to compete. You have to be creative. You have to be inventive. And they do a really good job.

00:15:30 John Daub: Around the corner here, so I come here quite often because there's a supermarket down there and they often have the Mexican salad wrap sandwiches from Costco. You have to pay a little bit more. But it's easier to go there than it is to go all the way to Costco. Because it's quite a hike. Let's see if we can find a vending machine here. Despite the fact that over 80% of the people are fully vaccinated with two shots. Despite the fact that there's less than 20 people getting sick from this every day in Tokyo, a major city. Everybody's still wearing masks outside. Oh, there's a vending machine on the corner there.

00:16:49 John Daub: Vending machines. Let's get a drink. There's a Tully's coffee back there too. They have some nice like gingerbread latte and kind of Christmas. After we get a vending machine drink, I'll head back there and see what we can find. In the corner of this building, there's a little shrine. Did you see that? Locals that know that it's there will stop and bow. I saw three or four people doing that. Drinkable curry. Okay. So this is up to you, community. I had no idea that this was here and I'm not really curious to drink curry. But if we can get to 300 likes in the next minute, I will try it. I promise.

00:18:13 John Daub: This Demon Slayer is everywhere. This is a Daido machine. It's not one of the more popular drink makers, but Poca Sapporo. They do have onion soup here and corn soup, but I've never seen curry. Drinkable curry. This is weird. All right, let's do it.

00:19:21 John Daub: Here we go. Three, two, one. Whoa. Look at how wide the opening is to it. I guess you could put a spoon in there. You can see down into the can of curry. You ready for this? Oh, man. Oh, you can smell it. It's not bad.

00:21:25 John Daub: It's not bad. It's gooey and it is like a gel. Curry is supposed to have a certain consistency. Curry soup is watery, okay? This is between like curry soup and curry. It's like this gel. You don't want to drink gel unless it's like for sports reasons or something. This is curry gel. A salty, slightly spicy, maybe good for winter concoction. Shake it up to make it thicker. Lid on shake. I've shaken it up. It's the same. You know what? I'm just going to recycle it.

00:23:32 John Daub: Let's get some water. Oh, my God. It's got curry inside the mask. Let's get some Mount Fuji. Nice and natural. You know what? It's just the consistency of the curry. It's not a soup. It's a gel. That's the problem. The corn soup is good, though. I'm going to wash it down. That's better. How could you not love Japan? Never mind the fact that it's kind of gross. Well, some people might like it, but this is so inventive, is it not? This whole stream is about food experimentation, so take the good with the bad.

00:25:28 John Daub: Where's the mailbox? Anybody see one walking here? Oh, there's a mailbox. There's a post office over there. Let's go across the street. The pie was good, but there wasn't a lot of beef pieces in it, so they call it beef stew. It's the essence of beef in the pie. Very savory. The crust was better than the apple pie, I think. It was still oily, though. If you eat it with the croquette burger that I had with it, was pretty good. But the curry messed everything up. Now, despite washing it out, I still smell curry in my mask, and it's hard to wear it, actually.

00:26:41 John Daub: Let's cross the street. I think there's a post office around here. Oh, there's one right there. All right, follow this lady with the pink bags. So, Michael, Scott, Tomi, and Jefferson. This one's postcard is coming out to you from this mailbox here. All right, there you go, everybody.

00:28:17 John Daub: Tomorrow, I'll do another livestream. I'm working on the fireworks video, a documentary that I made last year. I'm going to be putting it up on the main channel so you can get a look inside of the fireworks factory and see how they make some of the biggest fireworks. It's pretty amazing, the process that they do. It's about a 30-minute Only in Japan main channel episode. You're gonna be able to enjoy this over the holiday. I'm working on a couple of episodes since my trip to the United States was cancelled. Some holiday themed episodes. I'm gonna really work hard to try to get this out before Christmas. I like stories that inspire. Finishing that up and then I'll be starting to travel again in January. But now that we're in Japan instead of the US, I'm sort of making things up as we go along. So the next two weeks are gonna be pretty interesting and experimental. I'm just basically gonna try to have fun. We got to go to Costco so Peter von Gomm might come with us to go to Costco. That's gonna be a lot of fun. You'll be coming with me to Costco Japan too. We don't have enough stuff in our refrigerator, thus it's time for a Costco run. Take care everybody. If you have any questions leave them in the comments below. Don't forget to click that like button. If this was interesting share the video. Next stop supermarket. See if they have any Costco stuff. But even though I'm going to Costco, I really like those Mexican wrap sandwiches. It's all about the food. Have a good day everyone.