asian food: Japan Fast Food Chains Feeding Global Appetite for Asian Fare 2006-06-26 09:37:58 Shanghai Daily If Morio Sase has his way, hungry teenagers around the world will soon be snacking on something more exotic than McDonald's hamburgers: takoyaki, or octopus dumplings. With over 350 takeout stores in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Sase's Gindaco chain is one of a barrage of fast-food companies bringing lowbrow Japanese chow to overseas markets. Its first US store is scheduled to open in Los Angeles in 2007, with dozens more in California by 2010. "When I was a small boy, it was street food that made me feel good and warm inside," Sase said in an interview at the Tokyo headquarters of HotLand Corp, which runs Gindaco. Hand-grilled in iron molds by cooks behind a large display window, the octopus dumplings are made from wheat flour paste mixed with fish stock, spring onions and boiled octopus chunks, and drizzled with a sweet sauce, dried bonito flakes and seaweed. "Foods like takoyaki are closer to Japanese hearts than sushi or sashimi," Sase said. Faced with uncertain demand for fast food as Japan's population ages, an increasing number of the nation's chains are looking overseas for new markets. The domestic food restaurant market has declined for seven straight years since 1998, according to the Food Service Industry Research Center. One of the first Japanese fast food chains to head overseas was the beef bowl chain Yoshinoya D&C Co. Since its first US store in Denver in 1975, Yoshinoya's American network has grown to 82 eateries in California and New York. Last year, those eateries generated US$77.3 million in sales for a profit of US$2.5 million. "We initially had to tackle a preconception of Japanese food as haute cuisine, especially in America," said Yasunori Yoshimura, a spokesman for Yoshinoya in Tokyo. A far cry from pricey, elegant sushi, a regular bowl of the grilled beef over rice sells for US$3.18 at US stores. "We're convinced whatever people find tasty in Japan, people anywhere would find tasty," he said. Both Gindako and Yoshinoya hope to emulate the success of other Asian fast food chains like Panda Restaurant Group Inc's Panda Express chain, which serves Chinese food at over 800 eateries in the US, Puerto Rico and Japan. And they have a good chance, analysts say. "There's definitely an Asian food boom in the US at the moment" which Gindako could use to its advantage, said Maria Caranfa, a food industry analyst at the Chicago-based consumer research company, Mintel Group. A study by research company MarketResearch.com found that total Asian and Indian food retail sales across all sectors -from ethnic markets to convenience stores - jumped 27.3 percent between 2000-2004 to US$3.3 billion. Other Japanese chains going global include Shigemitsu Industry Co.'s noodles-in-soup restaurant, Ajisen Ramen - whose network now includes stores in China, Southeast Asia and the US - and beef-and-vegetable dumplings Osho Food Service Corp.