Ryuji Compares Two "Controversial" Lawson Bento Boxes and Makes "Generic Bodakko" with Lightly Salted Salmon

The two purchased were "Way Too All-In on One Thing: Rice-Boosting Bodakko" (297 yen) and "Way Too All-In on One Thing: Rice Covered in Grilled Sausage" (397 yen). Bodakko is heavily salt-cured salmon and is said to be extremely salty. Ryuji explains that the idea behind the product is that a small amount of salmon goes a long way with rice. Visually, however, the sausage bento clearly looked more appetizing, and the bodakko bento appeared to contain almost no salmon.

Ryuji couldn't understand at all why the two products were lumped together and criticized as "an affront to human dignity." Ryuji sees the bodakko bento as something like a salmon onigiri without the seaweed. As for the sausage bento, Ryuji's view is that getting that much sausage for 397 yen is actually cheap.

Ryuji believes rising prices are unavoidable because of the weak yen. As for the background of the criticism, Ryuji said it feels as though the bentos have been taken as a symbol of Japan's poverty and are being discussed in political terms. In other words, the tone is: "If people are grateful to eat something like this, Japan has become poor." Ryuji counters that bentos like these have existed for a long time and that this case is nothing special.

When a staff member asked whether the bentos would have escaped criticism if the portions were bigger, Ryuji replied, "Wouldn't it happen even if they were bigger?" Many people have a preconceived image that "a bento is a single box with a full set of side dishes that fills you up." Ryuji speculates that the gap between that image and these products is what triggered the backlash, but adds, "Maybe that's a bit too much of a stretch."

Ryuji had posted on social media, "If this causes an uproar, people would lose their minds seeing plain salt onigiri with no filling sold for around 140 yen." Ryuji says the response was, "That's not the point." Ryuji says they would understand criticism that prices have gone up and things are expensive, but doesn't think human dignity is being harmed. If these are meals that harm dignity, then Ryuji, who has introduced things like butter-soy sauce rice as "delicious," would also be harming dignity. That's why Ryuji says they couldn't stay silent. Ryuji also said that if you want vegetables, you can just buy a salad separately, and suggested people might want to be a bit more flexible in their thinking. At the same time, Ryuji acknowledged that it's understandable for people to feel, amid high prices, that "if bentos like this are coming out, Japan is finished." With that said, Ryuji moved on to the taste test, treating whether the food is good as a separate question.

The sausage bento is heated for 1 minute 30 seconds in a 500W microwave. When it was released, many people said, "That's just one of Ryuji's 'void meals,'" so Ryuji felt it couldn't be ignored. It's seasoned teriyaki-style with a soy sauce glaze. The label listed 725 kcal and 3.49 g of salt equivalent. Ryuji guesses there's about 200 g of rice, considerably more than an onigiri, so the price is reasonable, and considering the amount of sausage, it's actually cheap.

Upon tasting it, Ryuji's verdict was "really good." The sweet-savory sausages go well with the rice, and Ryuji also liked that the sauce soaks a little way down into the rice. Ryuji said adding mayonnaise and black pepper for a "teri-mayo pepper" would definitely work, actually added them, and raved, "Damn good." Since the flavor is sweet and savory, Ryuji said sansho pepper, like on eel, would probably work too, and praised how much room there is for changing up the flavor. Ryuji had expected the sausages to be cheap and not very good, but they turned out better than expected.

The staff also tried it, said it was perfectly good, and agreed that mayo-pepper was a good addition. The conversation turned to how it resembles a mayonnaise-and-black-pepper onigiri with a whole sausage inside sold at another convenience store. Ryuji said they probably would have bought it back in their office-worker days. Ryuji also said, "Whoever came up with this is an idiot, but sometimes people need to be idiots."

The bodakko bento, on the other hand, got a harsh assessment. Before tasting it, Ryuji thought that if it were truly salty, it might work even with only a little salmon. In the past, supermarkets sold many kinds of salted salmon—lightly salted, medium salted, heavily salted, and so on—but in Tokyo today you mostly only see lightly salted, Ryuji says. Heavily salted salmon is so salty that salt bubbles up on the surface as it grills on the stove, and Ryuji had imagined bodakko would be like that.

Checking the container, Ryuji found the salmon went a little deeper than it looked. Even so, after tasting it, the verdict was "no good at all." According to Ryuji, this isn't bodakko; it's just unsalty salmon flakes on top of rice. The bento contains 1.14 g of salt equivalent, and Ryuji said, "You can't eat rice with 1.14 g," estimating that you'd need at least 2–3 g of salt to get through it. Ryuji called 297 yen way too expensive to even consider, and criticized Lawson by name: "I do collaborations with them, but I'm going to say it straight. This is unacceptable." The staff also rated it as mediocre even as an onigiri, pointing out that there isn't even any seaweed.

Ryuji says the bentos had been drawing fire even before release, but what really deserves the backlash is the actual taste. After finishing the salmon, half the rice was left over, and it couldn't be eaten without something like furikake.

The final ratings were S for the sausage bento and C-minus for the bodakko bento. As for the sausage bento, Ryuji says they don't understand why it was put in the same series as the bodakko. It lets you change up the flavor, and the price is reasonable given the amount of sausage, so Ryuji rated it a good product. Teriyaki sausage onigiri cost over 200 yen, so buying this instead would be more satisfying, Ryuji says.

As for the bodakko bento, Ryuji lamented that the rice doesn't go down and ends up left over. Ryuji even said Lawson should apologize to bodakko and that there's no need to buy it. Ryuji's conclusion was that the reason it deserves backlash isn't its meager appearance, but the lack of salmon and salt.

Ryuji then used lightly salted salmon from the fridge to make "bodakko-style" salmon flakes that make rice go down with just a small amount. Ryuji clearly states that this isn't bodakko, since real bodakko is preserved by curing in a large amount of salt. Ryuji couldn't accept Lawson calling its salmon flakes "bodakko," so they wanted to recreate bodakko-like saltiness.

The ingredient is one fillet of lightly salted salmon (about 120 g), which Ryuji estimates is about four servings' worth by Lawson bento standards, with half being enough. Explaining the principle of salt curing, Ryuji says the saltier you make it, the longer it keeps—the same as umeboshi. People in the past would eat heavily salted, long-keeping salmon a little at a time on rice, like umeboshi.

To cook it, Ryuji adds just a little rice bran oil to a frying pan and grills the salmon skin-side down. Using a little oil makes the skin crispy, and the skin is delicious too. Bodakko comes with the skin on and salt on it, so Ryuji keeps the skin. The bones are hard to remove when raw, but once grilled the flesh becomes tender and the bones come out easily. Ryuji said this is overwhelmingly cheaper than the store-bought version and, in their opinion, overwhelmingly tastier.

The salt is added after grilling. Ryuji explained the reason in detail. If you sprinkle it on beforehand, the salt dissolves into the salmon, and even using coarse salt becomes pointless. Salt tastes good because it keeps its form; once absorbed into the salmon, it just becomes saltiness. It's the same as how you can't tell the difference if you dissolve coarse salt into soup. When adding salt afterward, as in this case, regular salt is fine, according to Ryuji. Ryuji notes that salmon that was salt-cured from the start can simply be grilled and put on rice as is.

The salt was added a little at a time while tasting. The maximum amount Ryuji can pinch between their fingers is about 1 g per pinch, and Ryuji first added two pinches (2 g). After tasting, Ryuji said, "It's salty, but it needs more," and kept adding. The staff said they'd never eaten bodakko so they didn't know the benchmark, but Ryuji said, "Bodakko is that salty" and "This is still on the mild side," and added more, reaching about 2/3 teaspoon. On its own, it was about as salty as shiokara, so you could only eat a little at a time. Ryuji estimates the finished product's salt content at about 8%. Ryuji added that real bodakko is 10–15%, so it's supposed to be even saltier. The recipe in the description calls for five pinches of salt.

The flaked salmon was placed in one corner of 200 g of rice packed into the empty Lawson bento container, finishing it off as a "Generic Bodakko Bento." Even so, plenty of flakes were left over.

Ryuji tasted it, said "Delicious," and addressed Lawson: "The salmon is good, so all you need to do is add more salt." It's too salty to eat on its own, but just right with rice—the idea is that it should be salty like umeboshi. The staff also said, "It's completely different," and that they'd want it in a jar. Someone also noted that it's cheaper than regular salmon flakes and has firmer flesh. It paired with rice without feeling off, and the staff said, "It could even be a bit saltier," which Ryuji agreed with, reflecting that a little more salt would have been fine.

The leftover flakes can also be used for ochazuke. Because of the high salt content, they keep well too. By Ryuji's estimate, salted salmon costs about 300 yen per fillet, and only half was used this time, so if you cook your own rice, it comes out cheaper than the bodakko bento.

Ryuji says using salmon flakes in convenience-store bentos is unavoidable in itself. Ryuji suggested, however, that developing saltier salmon flakes would have made a huge difference. Ryuji's view is that you can't eat rice with today's lightly salted salmon. Finally, Ryuji said they'd like the people in charge at Lawson to try this too, and to understand that it needs to be this salty to make rice go down. Stressing that this was purely a personal opinion, Ryuji wrapped up the video by recommending that viewers make their own Generic Bodakko by adding salt.