Curious motorway service station foods

With Golden Week upon us, and with it also being the last holiday for toll road discounts, there will be a lot of people out and about in their cars, and many will be stopping at a service station to eat, where they might have their last chance for a while to try out curious local foods at motorway service stations. I’m on holiday, so you’ll have to make do with silliness for the time being!

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of March 2011 1,070 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-base questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were female, 10.2% in their teens, 13.1% in their twenties, 24.7% in their thirties, 23.7% in their forties, 13.3% in their fifties, and 15.0% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

All the foods link to images or videos of the food.

Can’t say there’s anything there I’ll be rushing out to eat, and number 18 looks a bit suspicious…

Ranking result

Q: What curious service station local delicacies are you curious about? (Sample size=1,070)

Rank	Food	Location	Score
1	Octopus cabbage burger	Akashi Service Area	100
2	Cream stew-filled steamed bun	Hirugano Kogen Service Area	81.9
3	Cactus ice cream	Moriyama Parking Area	79.6
4	Maiko han burger	Katsuragawa Parking Area	76.5
5	Unshu mikan (mandarin/satsuma) bread	Nihonzaka Parking Area	74.2
6	Crocodile set lunch	Hongo Parking Area	68.8
7	Gabai!! Double Turkish rice burger	Kawanobori Service Area	65.6
8	Conger eel burger	Miyajima Service Area	63.3
9	Karinto manju (fried dough cake/steamed bean paste bun hybrid)	Dangozaka Service Area	62.9
10	Sasakama (bamboo leaf-shaped fish cake) fondue	Ohiso Parking Area	54.3
11	Sakura ebi (small pink prawn) ice cream	Yui Parking Area	52.5
12	Nuki (warm) sushi	Kibi Service Area	50.7
13	Saigo Don	Sakurajima Service Area	50.2
14=	Fried breaded pork with grapefruit set	Kita Kumamoto Service Area	47.1
14=	Tosa ishin (Tosa restoration) burger	Nangoku Service Area	47.1
16	Peanut ramen	Ichihara Service Area	43.9
17	Dangozaka-exclusive Houtouman (steamed bun filled with “houtou”, a local delicacy)	Dangozaka Service Area	41.6
18	Aka oni (Red devil) chili-flavoured soft ice cream	Kibi Service Area	39.8
19	Oyster balls and tiny sardine burger set	Asa Service Area	38.5
20	Weiner sausage rice bowl	Tanigawadake Service Area	37.6