--- title: You Can Now Buy an All-Black ‘Ninja’ Hot Dog at IKEA Japan description: IKEA Japan has released a new, bizarre food offering: a pitch-black "ninja" hotdog (and bun), made with edible bamboo charcoal. canonical: https://time.com/4394873/you-can-now-buy-an-all-black-ninja-hot-dog-at-ikea-japan/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-06T16:52:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:34:05.916Z og:title: You Can Now Buy an All-Black ‘Ninja’ Hot Dog at IKEA Japan og:description: An homage to a ninja's scroll. og:url: https://time.com/4394873/you-can-now-buy-an-all-black-ninja-hot-dog-at-ikea-japan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: You Can Now Buy an All-Black ‘Ninja’ Hot Dog at IKEA Japan twitter:description: An homage to a ninja's scroll. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # You Can Now Buy an All-Black ‘Ninja’ Hot Dog at IKEA Japan  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 6, 2016 4:52 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 6, 2016 4:52 PM UTC For today’s episode of foods around the world, let’s take a look at a new offering from Swedish furniture giant IKEA in Japan: the “ninja” hotdog. It’s called a “ninja” hotdog because it’s dyed pitch black. According to [the IKEA site](http://info.ikea.jp/food/en/bistro/index.html), the inky color comes to the frankfurter and bun thanks to the addition of edible bamboo charcoal, “which is said to have detox properties.” It’s been released as part of IKEA’s celebration of [ten years in Japan](http://en.rocketnews24.com/2016/07/05/infiltrate-your-stomach-with-the-new-ikea-ninja-dog/), and the look and name is an homage to a ninja’s scroll. So if you’re in Japan, in IKEA, and in the mood to deviate from the Swedish meatballs option, you can go for this unique new frank. At 300 yen — about $2.95 — it won’t set you back too much. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4394873/you-can-now-buy-an-all-black-ninja-hot-dog-at-ikea-japan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4394873/you-can-now-buy-an-all-black-ninja-hot-dog-at-ikea-japan/"},"headline":"You Can Now Buy an All-Black ‘Ninja’ Hot Dog at IKEA Japan","datePublished":"2016-07-06T16:52:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:05.916Z","description":"The Swedish furniture giant is branching out beyond meatballs.","url":"https://time.com/4394873/you-can-now-buy-an-all-black-ninja-hot-dog-at-ikea-japan/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Food & Drink","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4394873/you-can-now-buy-an-all-black-ninja-hot-dog-at-ikea-japan/","name":"You Can Now Buy an All-Black ‘Ninja’ Hot Dog at IKEA Japan"}}]}] ```