This Burger King Japan Burger Was Inspired By Ninjas
The ninja's impact on the fast-food industry cannot be overstated because it often cannot be stated at all. Would we have chicken nuggets without the invention of throwing stars? Would we have the square-cut burger patties of a Wendy's or a White Castle, without first having the samurai swords that we non-historians can only guess cut the burgers of yore? Nobody knows for sure. But one thing we do know: the Kuro Ninja Burger of Burger King Japan drew its inspiration directly from the stealth warriors from centuries ago (via HuffPost).
SoraNews24 reports that the first Kuro Ninja Burger was born in October 2013, as a promotional campaign from Burger King Japan. Based on the Kuro Ninja (which means "Black Ninja"), the burger was modeled after a tiny cartoon warrior, wrapped in black coverings and sticking out his (or her?) little pink tongue. As such, the burger itself has a black bun (more on that later) and much of what you'd expect from a Burger King burger: onion, lettuce, "wide-sized" hashbrowns, mayonnaise, and a dark sauce called "Chaliapin" sauce, which one might speculate is named for the popular Japanese style of cooking very tender steak (via Honest Food Talks). The other thing that "sticks out" about the burger is the long, pink slab of bacon, which pokes out from each side of the bun to mimic the cheeky ninja's tiny tongue.
Black buns and ninja nods aren't new at Burger King Japan
Next time you over-toast a burger bun, tell your guests that it's a Kuro Burger and that they're all the rage in Japan. It might spark an interesting conversation because it turns out, the Kuro Ninja Burger was not the first black burger bun that the island nation was treated to this side of the 21st century. SoraNews24 reported in 2012 that, to mark Burger King's five-year anniversary in Japan, the restaurant unveiled its first-ever Kuro ("Black") Burger. Not named for a ninja (and therefore with no bacon-tongue sticking out the sides), the kuro bun was simply a regular bread bun made with bamboo charcoal, giving it that burnt-looking effect. Also featured in that particular burger was black ketchup, which is ketchup mixed with garlic plus squid ink to maintain the blackened theme.
The Kuro Burger retailed for 450 yen (or just under six bucks American) and the Kuro Ninja Burger rang in at 680 yen (about a dollar more) but came with cute little ninja stickers when you bought a value meal (via SoraNews24). Neither seems to be on offer at the moment, judging by the Burger King Japan website, though a search for each yielded some results from Burger King Indonesia, where the Kuro Burger and its ninja counterpart – complete with bacon tongue – appear to continue their reign. Will the black burgers be spotted at BK Japan? You never know. That's the thing about ninjas ... they're stealthy.