Monday, May 28, 2012

Can a $295 hamburger feed the homeless?

Via Serious Eats

"Known as Le Burger Extravagant, this $295.00 burger is a mix of Japanese Waygu [sic] beef infused with 10-herb white truffle butter, seasoned with Salish Alderwood smoked Pacific sea salt, topped with cheddar cheese—hand-formed by the famous cheesemaker James Montgomery in Somerset, England, and cave-aged for 18 months—shaved black truffles, a fried quail egg and served on a white truffle-buttered Campagna Roll, which is topped with a blini, creme fraiche, and Paramout Caviar's exclusive Kaluga caviar—a beautiful golden caviar with a buttery, nutty taste and large pearls from the Huso Dauricus farm raised in Quzhou, China. The finishing touch to this incredible burger is a solid gold 'Fleur de Lis' toothpick encrusted with diamonds and designed by world-renowned jeweler Euphoria New York."

Yeah, it's a publicity stunt. At least the venerable NYC restaurant, Serendipity 3, is donating the profits from selling what is now the world's most expensive hamburger to the Bowery Mission.

But is such outrageously conspicuous consumption an appropriate way to raise funds for the homeless and starving?

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