Peanut butter and jelly. Spaghetti and meatballs. Chicken and waffles. Some foods just go together. Others need to be forced.
Meet the hamdog — a beautiful combination of hot dog and hamburger. Sure, you’ve had these two foods in the same meal, but did you know they can coexist under the same bun?
That’s right, they can. The burger is sliced in half to create space for the hot dog. Genius!
The hamdog isn’t exactly fresh out of the oven. Inventor Mark Murray said he had the idea back in 2004 while vacationing with his wife in Nashville.
“I grabbed a burger and a hot dog as I was really hungry. I was sitting in the car eating them both at the same time and my wife was looking at me like I was an idiot,” Mark Murray told CNBC.
The Verge scoured Google Patents and tracked down Murray’s 2009 documentation for a “Combination hamburger and hotdog bread bun.”
Murray, who lives in Perth, Australia, took his idea to the Australian “Shark Tank” show, only to be rejected by investors.
Recently, however, the hamdog has been cooking with gas. Social media attention has caused the product to “pretty much explode worldwide,” Murray told CNBC.
The hamdog is sold for $8 at fairs in Australia and includes the beef patty and hot dog with lettuce, tomato, cheese, pickles, mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise.
But the most amazing thing about the hamdog might be how it’s made.
“At the moment there is a fair bit of labor involved in making the buns because they’re made by people, not machines,” Murray told News.com.au. “We’re still developing a way to semi automate production.”
