Japan has a knack for giving the world foods it didn’t know it needed. Ramen ice cream, ramen sandwiches, that weird water-cake thing, oddly colored burgers … the list goes on (and on). Now Ikea Japan, tired of sitting on the sidelines while everyone else innovates, has aggressively crashed the party with its new Ninja Dog.
That sounds like something Ivan Ramen would call a souped-up Jewish-Tokyo mash-up dog. But it is, in fact, a black hot dog served in a black bun with — at this point, Ikea’s food scientists were definitely like, “Whatever, we’re going home” — plain old mustard and ketchup. The bun and sausage are made black by, what else, activated charcoal, because you may as well throw some questionable-but-trendy health fads in there, too. Taken as a whole, it’s certainly something.
