Moon-inspired fast-food shines during Japan’s Tsukimi season

In Japan, fall festival season starts with Tsukimi (月見), celebrating and honoring the autumn moon.

Like most festivals, food is a big component with some long-held, traditional dishes, including Dango rice balls, Kenchin-jiru (a fall-vegetable soup) and virtually any dish modified with an ironically sunny-side-up egg meant to symbolize the full moon.

The buzz around the holiday’s culinary offerings of late, however, has been largely around Japan’s fast-food franchises. Every year ahead of the festival — this year starting on September 29 under the full moon, with celebrations continuing until October 3 — a flood of food industry press releases touting a growing number of modern Tsukimi meals begins.

Most menu items are based around the egg-as-moon concept, and introducing new additions each year has become a bit of a competition in the on-the-go market. The likes of McDonalds, KFC, and Wendy’s getting into the action with celestially themed breakfast items, drinks, desserts, and more.

The stars of the show are Tsukimi burgers; they enter the market mid-September and flavor the fall with ovum-augmented sandwiches with a range of patty possibilities (beef, pork, fish, shrimp, and Vegan options among them), and the occasional link of sausage thrown in.

Beyond the egg and patty-of-choice, the field seems pretty open from there. Some burgers come complete with multiple cheeses; others are slathered with multi-ingredient, newly invented sauces. Bread options are expanding, too: traditional steamed buns are now joined by oven-baked breads, tortillas, and sesame-seed rolls.

And while the galaxy of Tsukimi burgers is vast, there are a few that seem to eclipse the others based on early fan reviews, recipe reveals, and sheer amount of ingredients alone.

Moon Over McDonalds

McD’s has gone so far as to create a whole line of moon-viewing foodstuffs dubbed the Tsukimi Family. Added to the brood this year is the Shichimi Kaoru Gyusuki Tsukimi burger, which includes a steamed egg, beef patty, cheese, bacon, and sukiyaki-style simmered beef topped with shichimi — a spicy Japanese condiment — as well as a tomato cream sauce that sounds more intriguing than ketchup.

Mission MOS Burger

MOS Burger is a chain exclusive to Asia, and often brings a slightly higher-brow entree to the Tsukimi table.

From September through November, MOS (which stands for Moon, Ocean, Sky) is selling a limited range of burgers including the Tsukimi Focaccia.

It’s a notable addition to 2023’s options for a few reasons; first, it features an entire, hickory-smoked sausage smashed inside focaccia bread that’s made with yogurt and koji, a controlled mold that makes for a more pliable dough, better browning, and enhanced flavors.

Plus, in addition to barbecue sauce, lettuce, and cabbage, this year’s half-boiled egg is said to be extra-special: fortified with both vitamin E and calcium derived from discarded eggshells.

The Lunar Lotteria

Lotteria, another Asian exclusive, has created a range of four Tsukimi-style burgers: hamburger, cheeseburger, shrimp, and pork rib. They include a Japanese-style sauce with ginger, two types of soy sauce, brown sugar, and oyster sauce (except for one that went with sriracha sauce) along with Gouda and cheddar cheese and a seasoning blend of salt, pepper, and oregano. Reportedly, the egg has a runny yolk, seen as a plus by many.

Cosmic KFC

KFC put a twist on its limited-edition 2023 chicken sandwich with the Tsukimi Twister. This McDonald’s Snack Wrap-reminiscent roll-up includes parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese, and bacon, in addition to a fried chicken cutlet (katsu). The requisite egg is soft-boiled.

Waxing Wendy’s

Wendy’s also owns a franchise called First Kitchen, often shortened — hilariously, for a New Englander — as fakkin.

This season, Wendy’s / First Kitchen have introduced both independent and shared items, and are mixing things up by adding unconventional ingredients to the stack such as fried mochi patties and hash browns.

Some of the fakkin sandwiches are further flavored with katsuo and kombu (fish shavings and kelp), soy sauce, and, finally, a sweet sauce for which ingredients are still under wraps.

Indeed, the moon has always been mysterious.