The Reluctant Whore

Following in the recent trend of spending ludicrous amounts of money on inane, unnecessary things in Asia, a hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia has just launched a new hamburger which costs the equivalent of $US110. The burger includes kobe beef and foie gras etc. and all ingredients are imported so it costs a lot.

When the ten thousand dollar martini was launched at the Algonquin in New York City it sort of made sense because there was a certain elegance to it. SORT of made sense because there's enough people in New York or who come to New York that can afford to dump a thousand bucks on a martini. Furthermore, a martini is a more or less elegant drink and the drink came with several diamonds which retain value.

The thousand dollar omelette was slightly more ill conceived because it really did cost that and once you were done you were done. Still, it was being sold in New York which, as a city, is a monument to capitalism and excess so if you buy it then you can probably afford it and if you can't and you buy it you're just an idiot.

In parts of Jakarta people don't even earn half the cost of the hamburger in a month so it seems a little culturally displaced. Plus, the burger isn't REALLY selling that well.

Still - if you have a lot of money and no real brain capacity, Asia is increasingly the place to be, it seems.