Black burgers anyone? Burger King Japan recently unveiled a couple of black-bun burger whoppers available in all of its local stores. Business Insider said that the Kuro Diamond and Kuro Pearl will have its buns, cheese and sauce in black.
The color was reportedly achieved by using bamboo charcoal in order to darken the buns and cheese. The meat, although retaining its original color, has been mixed with black pepper to stay true to the ninja-like theme. The ketchup has been added with squid ink for coloring.
Rocketnews 24 said that the Kuro Diamond will be topped with onions, tomato, lettuce, mayonnaise and Chaliapin sauce, which is said to be named after Russian opera singer Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin. Aside from the squid ink, the sauce will also have onion and garlic, no doubt to complement the savory elements of the burger. The more simpler Kuro Pearl doesn't have the colorful ingredients present in the Kuro Diamond burger, "and for that exact reason it looks far more menacing in our opinion," the site noted.
The burgers are being sold for 690 yen ($6.40) and 480 yen ($4.50) and will debut in Japan beginning September 19th for a limited time only.
The Independent said that this promo was already in repeat. The first time Burger King Japan embarked on this peculiar promo was back in 2012. It has been observed that the first time the promo debuted, the Japanese liked the variety to the usual burger offerings the food chain has been peddling for quite some time in Japan. The gothic burgers have already been included in Buzzfeed's awesome fast food inventions, along with KFC Philippines' Cheese-Top Burger, Wendy's Japan's Lobster and Caviar burger, Carl's Jr' Memphis BBQ pulled pork burger, and McDonald's Japan's Shrimp and Mac n' Cheese Patty burgers labeled "Gracoro" Burgers.
David Rosengarten for Forbes said that the Japanese' penchant for exotic food leaning to the seafood side is due to five general precepts. As a country who has easy access to the sea, it is no wonder that the Japanese have exotic cuisine utilizing food finds from the ocean.
He wrote, "But now imagine a country of imaginative thinkers who have the sea as a chief culinary reference point. Thousands of years of imagining the life of the fish-and some fish have souls, in fact, in ancient myth-have led to much reflection, none of it distasteful, on the process of consuming other, smaller fish, still swimming in the water, and the parallel process of chomping on seaweed from the ocean floor, or on slimy algae growing on rocks."
It may sound icky, but for a country who has brought sushi to the world culinary stage, the black burgers are surely something of a wonderful experience.