McDonald’s Japan goes beyond chicken by adding shrimp nuggets to menu

Puripuri Ebi Purio combines strange-sounding name and delicious-sounding concept.

At some point, we all just sort of stopped saying the “chicken” part when talking about McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets. Even with other fast food brands, “nuggets” has largely come to be understood to mean that you’re referring to breaded bite-sized chicken morsels.

But if you can make nuggets with chicken, surely you can make them with other things too, right? As proof, McDonald’s Japan has just unveiled the newest planned addition to its menu: shrimp nuggets.

待望のえびサイドメニュー
9/20(水)ついに発売！#プリプリエビプリオ

— マクドナルド (@McDonaldsJapan) September 14, 2023

Technically, McDonald’s Japan isn’t trotting out the “McNugget” name for these, as their official name is Puripuri Ebi Purio, which…kind of makes sense. Puripuri is a unique Japanese word that describes a plump and firm-giving-way-to-tender consistency, pretty much the ideal mouthfeel for cooked shrimp, and ebi is “shrimp” in Japanese. “Purio” is the headscratcher here, but it seems to be a play on words from fireo, the Japanese pronunciation of the “Filet-O” part of McDonald’s flagship fish sandwich, the Filet-O-Fish, perhaps with a substitute P to emphasize the shrimp’s puripuri property.

Linguistic vagaries aside, it seems pretty certain that these are going to be delicious. Shrimp cutlet sandwiches have long been a favorite among in-the-know Japanese fast food foodies, and with five shrimp nuggets to an order, the Puripuri Ebi Purio looks poised to steal the show of customers’ McDonald’s meals even as the company itself is pitching them as a side order.

▼ McDonald’s is also promoting the Puripuri Ebi Purio with a commercial featuring actress Sairi Ito, a werewolf, a mummy, and Frankenstein’s monster, because Japanese advertising is never afraid of getting a little weird.

In addition to the five-piece Puripuri Ebi Purio side order (which is priced starting from 260 yen [US$1.80]), as part of its after-5 p.m. Yoru Mac menu McDonald’s will be offering the shrimp nuggets as part of a Tabekurabe (“eating comparison”) Set with five Puripuri Ebi Purio, five Chicken McNuggets, and an order of French fries for 620 yen.

▼ French fries are sort of a separate thing from nuggets, so they don’t really fit with the “comparison” aspect, but hey, it’s always important to eat your vegetables.

The Puripuri Ebi Purio go on sale September 20 and will be available for a limited time.

Source: McDonald’s Japan via IT Media
Top image: McDonald’s Japan
Insert images: McDonald’s Japan
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