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The world's most expensive hot dog

Forget ketchup and mustard, this comes with wagyu beef, foie gras, truffles and caviar

Ben Tufft
Friday 29 August 2014 09:41 EDT
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It is a hot dog like no other, but fans of the humble snack may balk at the price, which is around 100 times the cost of an average dog.The caviar topped creation will set customers back a hefty $169 (£104) and is officially the world’s most expensive hot dog, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Named the Junni Ban, it has been created by Japanese fusion food experts Tokyo Dog. More than a foot long, the traditional smoked cheese bratwurst is topped with butter teriyaki grilled onions, maitake mushrooms, wagyu beef, foie gras, shaved black truffles, caviar and Japanese mayonnaise, and comes in a brioche bun.

To try this mammoth treat serious foodies will need to endure a long wait, as chefs require two weeks’ notice to order and prepare the ingredients.

Junni Ban hot dog
Junni Ban hot dog

Eugene Woo, owner of the company that created the Junni Ban, told local media: “It’s savoury. It has fabulous flavors. It’s an amazing hot dog, Our buyers loved it.

“We wanted to not just throw a bunch of expensive ingredients on it. We just wanted a really awesome hot dog that people would love. It was a lot of research and trial and error.”

It took Mr Woo, and fellow creators Samson Kwong and Rocky Weh, a year to perfect the final recipe for his creation. The first buyer to make hot dog history was Alan Chang, from California, five others duly followed suit and sales of the hot dog have now raised $1014 (£625) for the Red Cross.

Crowned the most expensive hot dog by the Guinness Book of World Records, it surpasses the previous record held by the "California Capitol City Dawg", which sold for $145 (£93) in Sacramento, California, in May 2012.

California Capitol City Dawg
California Capitol City Dawg

Despite the dish being named the world’s priciest, that does not necessarily mean the Junni Ban is. Many restaurants do not jump through the hoops required for an official record. It took Tokyo Dog six months for their application to be approved.

Yet it is not only hot dogs that are being pimped up. Gordon Ramsey’s Maze restaurant in London holds the record for the most expensive pizza in the world, which costs £100. The traditionally Italian dish is finished off with rare white truffle that is priced at a staggering £1,400 per kilogram.

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