America is full of beans... 'edamame'

[Taro Toporific]

[floatl][[/floatl]After being blasted 24/7 with the above print and television advertisements for McDonald's "Asian Salad" here in the States, I started to wonder... Does any American even know what a, "a blend of crisp greens, orange glazed chicken, snow peas, edamame" is?

I googled around and found out there's a kind of wierd mini-boom in edamame going on in the States. Anyway, the Asian chicken salad costs was $4.69--- about the same as the cost of one of their Big Macs--- but it has only 290 calories. Now I have something I can order in McDs without feeling defiled.

[omae mona]

On a recent trip to New York I attended a screening of a Japanese film. It was a humorous film, but never once did it get as many laughs as the commercial for the McDonald's Asian Salad that preceded it. I think I saw somebody fall off their chair. I think McDonald's may have forgotten to do a few focus groups.

But anyway, Taro, edamame has enjoyed quite a rapid rise to fame in the U.S.

Flavors Fresher Than Sushi
...
Two other top Japanese chefs, Noriyuki Sugie (Asiate) and Masa Takayama (Asayoshi), are just opening splashy New York restaurants. Koji Imai, Japan's answer to Drew Nieporent (spiked with Alice Waters's ingredient obsession), is expanding his empire to TriBeCa with the 285-seat Megu, having taught a community of Amish farmers in Ohio to grow edamame to his exact specifications.

That edamame is also rumored to cost $25 for a serving.

[Taro Toporific]

On a recent trip to New York I attended a screening of a Japanese film. It was a humorous film, but never once did it get as many laughs as the commercial for the McDonald's Asian Salad that preceded it. I think I saw somebody fall off their chair. I think McDonald's may have forgotten to do a few focus groups...

That commercial for the McDonald's Asian Salad is LAME. I wish I could post a YouTube video of it. Check out the YouTube of Margaret Cho - Asian Chicken Salad.

[Kuang_Grade]

McDs ran into trouble a few years back in the US with declining sales and various overt problems...They took a hard look at their customer base and realized that most women hated eating there and they were even losing the kid market (something they had a lock on for quite a while) due to concerns about healthy eating. So they revamped the menu, started to run ads that targeted women...They soon realized that women would actually pay relatively high prices for salads and the such and revamped their strategy to be no longer the cheapest fast food place and they have been introducing new higher quality/higher priced items over time.

Interestingly enough, Burger King has opted to go the other direction and is frequently targeting men with oversized and premium priced products like the Texas Double Whopper and over the top marketing (the TV ads for the Texas double whopper are set to a reworked version of "I am woman, hear me roar" set to "I am man, hear me roar" which actively attacks salads as chick food and basically implies one is a pussy if you don't eat this). On similar note, last year BK pushed their chicken fries with a Slipknot-like rooster metal band called, I kid not, coq roq http://www.coqroq.com/ that was so Slipknot-like that Slipknot hired lawyers to go after BK. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0817052slipknot1.html

[Charles]

Interestingly enough, Burger King has opted to go the other direction and is frequently targeting men with oversized and premium priced products like the Texas Double Whopper and over the top marketing (the TV ads for the Texas double whopper are set to a reworked version of "I am woman, hear me roar" set to "I am man, hear me roar" which actively attacks salads as chick food and basically implies one is a pussy if you don't eat this).

Whoppers are for pussies. A real man would eat beer battered deep fried bacon double quarter pounders and beer battered deep fried bratwurst.

[Greji]

Whoppers are for pussies. A real man would eat beer battered deep fried bacon double quarter pounders and beer battered deep fried bratwurst.

Damn, we gotta get BB invoved! This is better farting material than daikon, or kimchi could ever hope to be!

[maraboutslim]

FWIW, edamame has been available (frozen) in Safeway/Vons supermarkets in the states for years. They even have the safeway store brand and they only have safeway brand stuff for items that are staples.

[otakuden]

edamane is the new asian craze in america at the moment. it's not just asian shops u can find it at, but grocery stores and some restaurants now, too. it's alright, but there are other asian foods i'd rather eat

[otakuden]

McDs ran into trouble a few years back in the US with declining sales and various overt problems...They took a hard look at their customer base and realized that most women hated eating there and they were even losing the kid market (something they had a lock on for quite a while) due to concerns about healthy eating. So they revamped the menu, started to run ads that targeted women...They soon realized that women would actually pay relatively high prices for salads and the such and revamped their strategy to be no longer the cheapest fast food place and they have been introducing new higher quality/higher priced items over time.

Interestingly enough, Burger King has opted to go the other direction and is frequently targeting men with oversized and premium priced products like the Texas Double Whopper and over the top marketing (the TV ads for the Texas double whopper are set to a reworked version of "I am woman, hear me roar" set to "I am man, hear me roar" which actively attacks salads as chick food and basically implies one is a pussy if you don't eat this). On similar note, last year BK pushed their chicken fries with a Slipknot-like rooster metal band called, I kid not, coq roq http://www.coqroq.com/ that was so Slipknot-like that Slipknot hired lawyers to go after BK. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0817052slipknot1.html

pft. while they're at it, may as well sell a defribulater as a "side dish"