Part of what drives this race toward ever stranger more over-the-top offerings is, perhaps unsurprisingly, money. After all, wasn’t it only a matter of time after colonization, the privatization of public utilities, the outsourcing of war to contractors, the dawn of the gig economy, that we came to see a roll not as an integral part of a sandwich but an unexploited opportunity for more protein and profit? No longer content to play support roles, they became profit-centers, rich with unexplored opportunity. But such is the American genius for innovation, those areas were soon deemed unacceptably underutilized. Once, bread was the neutral container for a cheeseburger, a tortilla adequate coverage for its insides and pizza crust the suitable platform for a pizza. There is something affecting, tragic and impressive about our obsession with maximizing every element. But there is no denying that this particular genre of shock and awe food is at its root American.īurger King’s black burgers have black buns and cheese smoked with bamboo charcoal and black sauce made of squid ink. In 2012, Pizza Hut launched its hot dog pizza in the UK. This was in addition to its Aka Samurai Burger, with a bun and cheese tinted red with tomato powder. In 2014, Burger King Japan unveiled a massively popular black Kuro Burger, whose bun was made black with bamboo charcoal and squid ink. Though this trend is most pronounced in America, it is not confined to her shores. What is Burger King’s Mac-and-Cheetos if not a modern-day Karma Sutra of stunt food? Cheetos cannot be served beside macaroni, or Doritos next to tacos. It’s the athletic and imaginative positions they assume.

Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Imagesīut it isn’t just this orgiastic edible entanglement of trademarks that makes these sort of shock foods notable.

Burger king fried mac and cheese