Tokyo, Sept. 24 (Jiji Press)–Many restaurant chains, food makers and convenience store operators in Japan are offering new seasonal food products featuring eggs made to resemble a full moon ahead of the “tsukimi” mid-autumn moon-viewing season. This year’s mid-autumn moon, which takes place on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, falls on Friday. Drawing on the traditional Japanese custom of giving thanks for the autumn harvest while admiring the full moon, companies are rolling out a variety of sales campaigns as well as holding themed events. Family restaurant operator Denny’s Japan Co. launched its first tsukimi-themed fair on Sept. 3, offering eight related menu items, including black Chinese noodles over garlic rice with an egg yolk and its mainstay rice gratin topped with hamburger steak and curry sauce and served with a sunny-side-up egg. Confectionery maker Lotte Co. released in early September a limited-time variety of “Yukimi Daifuku” ice cream wrapped in mochi rice cake, with the mochi colored in yellow to resemble a full moon. The company will hold an event from Friday to Sunday in which visitors can enjoy ice cream tasting and mochi pounding while viewing a giant moon recreated indoors in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward. The event is expected to draw about 5,000 people over the three days, according to a public relations official of parent company Lotte Holdings Co. Convenience store operator Lawson Inc. expanded its tsukimi-themed lineup to 19 items this year, compared with three to four in previous years, releasing them in stages from late August. They include a “tsukune” chicken meatball over rice and topped with a soft-boiled egg, prepared in its Machikado Chubo in-store kitchens, as well as limited-time pudding topped with yellow sweet potato cream. Lawson estimates the market for tsukimi-related goods to be around 50 billion yen to 100 billion yen. A company official said that the tsukimi-linked market has grown rapidly to a scale comparable with that for grilled eels eaten on the Day of the Ox as a midsummer tradition. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
