Jakarta
hotel puts $110 hamburger on menu
JAKARTA
(Reuters) - A hotel in Indonesia is dishing out a hamburger that costs more than
twice the monthly minimum wage in some parts of the country.
The $110 hamburger
offered by the Four Seasons is made of Kobe beef with foie gras, Portobello mushrooms
and Korean pears -- served with french fries, of course.
They're
not exactly selling like hotcakes yet, but the hotel says it has sold 20 of the
1.0 million rupiah ($110.1) hamburgers since they were launched this month.
"One
burger has 225 grams of Kobe beef. It is so expensive because the flavor is really
different," said Erwan Ruswandi, the chief of the restaurant offering the
gourmet burger.
"The
calves in Kobe get special treatment ... they drink beer mixed with milk, vitamins
and eat pesticide-free grass. We add foie gras and also some Korean pears. We
import all the materials, and they are high quality so it is so expensive."
The
minimum wage in most parts the country of 220 million is as low as around $40
a month.
A
tiny number of Indonesians are among the richest people in Asia while millions
live in dire poverty in urban slums or shanty towns in the countryside.