In Japan, the difference between the syllables gu and ga are incredibly important in the culinary world, specifically when they follow the word hanba. If you were to request a hanbagu, for instance, you would receive a hamburg, which is a patty of ground beef, usually slathered in sauce and served with a side of rice. Ask for a hanbaga, however, and you’ll get a hamburger, which, like pretty much anywhere else in the world, is a patty of meat in between two buns.
▼ Right now, at FamilyMart, however, you can get a fusion of the two, in the limited-time Uma Toma Hamburger.
This new product has already attracted attention online, as it’s been produced in collaboration with Japanese beef bowl chain Matsuya. The hamburger takes Matsuya’s Uma Toma Hamburg – uma is short for umai (delicious), while “Toma” is short for “tomato” – and sticks it in between two buns, giving us a hamburg in a hamburger.
The Uma Toma Hamburg bowl became a hit when it was released at Matsuya last year, and this new burger version aims to increase its popularity even further, delivering the same delicious flavours in a more convenient, handheld form.
▼ At about 10 centimeters across, the burger easily fits in the palm of your hand.
As soon as you take it out of the packaging, the delicious scent of garlic wafts into the air, and when you heat it in the microwave, at 500 watts for 20 to 30 seconds as recommended, the aromas intensify, making your stomach rumble in anticipation.
Cutting into the hamburger reveals its delicious cross-section, with a generous amount of sauce on either side.
With the resemblance to the hamburg at Matsuya now confirmed, the only thing left to do was to see if the taste was on par as well. Cutting it into quarters gave us bite-sized mouthfuls of flavour, with a dizzying punch of garlic being the first thing to hit the taste buds. This was quickly followed by the rich umami of tomato, which exploded on the tongue, bathing everything in a saucy deliciousness.
It really was an “uma tomato”, and it was so good we almost forgot for a second that this was a cheap convenience store burger. The soft dough of the buns, the meltingly good hamburger steak patty, and the generous amount of “Umatoma” sauce came together so perfectly it blew us away.
The Umatoma Hamburger exceeded all our expectations – not only did it replicate the popular dish at Matsuya, it also displayed an inherent uniqueness that made us enjoy the meal in an entirely different type of way.
Then there’s the value for money, because at 200 yen, it’s cheaper than other convenience store burgers, which are usually priced around 300 yen. From that point of view, the burger ticks all our boxes for a viral-worthy convenience store find, but it’ll only be in stores around Japan (excluding Okinawa) for a limited time.
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