Mos Burger’s new release takes raw onions to the extreme

Celebrating local produce with some very Japanese condiments.

Japanese fast food chain Mos Burger is famous for using locally sourced ingredients grown by local farmers, and ever since 2016, they’ve been supporting onion growers from Awaji Island with their “Awaji Island Onion Festival” campaign.

▼ Awaji Island (“Awajishima” in Japanese) is one of the country’s premier onion-producing regions

In celebration of the island onions, Mos Burger released a special burger called the Awajishima Onion Burger Tailored with Japanese-style Soy Sauce last year. It proved to be so popular with customers that the chain was inundated with requests to re-release the burger, and so the fast food chain is adding it to the menu again for a limited time this year.

With freshness in mind, the burger is only available for a limited time and will only be sold in the Kansai and Chu-Shikoku regions in and around Awaji Island.

▼ “Limited Time / Limited Regions”

Our reporter K. Masami is based in Osaka, which is located in the Kansai region, and so she was able to pick up one of the limited-edition burgers when they were released on 26 April.

As soon as Masami lifted the top bun on her burger, she was immediately impressed by the simplicity of what lay beneath. There were rings and rings of fresh onions, topped with a dollop of sauce and a serving of shaved bonito flakes.

It was hard to see beneath the massive mound of onion rings, so she turned the burger upside down and lifted the bottom bun to find a green lettuce leaf and a meat patty hiding underneath it all.

Masami had never seen so many onions in a burger before, and was worried they might destroy her taste buds with their spicy bite. However, after her first mouthful, she was pleased to find that the onions weren’t hot but actually sweet, due to the fact that they were freshly picked. Had they been dried onions like the ones you usually find at the supermarket, the flavour would’ve been far more intense, but as they were new onions, Masami was able to enjoy their pleasant savoury sweetness.

The subtle flavour of soy sauce and the smoky notes from the shaved bonito flakes complemented the onions perfectly, and even the meat patty took second place behind the onion rings, which clearly stole the show.

Masami gives this unusual burger a big thumbs-up, and says her only criticism is that it should be on the menu for longer and expanded nationwide so that more people around the country can fall in love with Awajishima’s onions.

Priced at 420 yen (US$3.85), or 450 yen with cheese, the burger will be available until mid-May.

Photos © SoraNews24
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