Because of ongoing nastiness related to the expired meat scandal, McDonald’s stores in Japan have mostly stopped serving chicken altogether, and to get customers through the doors, it’s now offering four-piece packs of what it calls Tofu Shinjo Nuggets, vegetable-studded patties concocted from a mix of soybeans, onions, carrots, and shinjo, a sort of starch–fish paste concoction. The nuggets are produced in Japanese factories and come with a subtle ginger-flavored dipping sauce. “Because it isn’t meat, it tastes a bit different. It’s a bit softer,” a spokesperson says. The Shinjo Nuggets were in the works, the company adds, long before allegations that a major fast-food supplier mixed expired meat with fresher meat, plus other unsavory things. This presumably just sped things up a bit. [WSJ, Related]
