Battle of the Decadent Burgers

[Priscilla]

The LA Times' New York correspondent weighed in on the decadent burger issue in Monday's paper. Here's a clickable -- registration requirement seems subject to invisible caprice.

[mags]

With all respect, I fail to see why a $50 black truffle burger is any more decadent or guilt-inducing than a $50 entree at another restaurant. There is nothing fundamental about a burger that to me renders the utilization of black truffles with it particularly decadent.

I think it's an issue of symbolic weight. The concept of "burger" carries a lot of it in this country. A "burger" is kind of the epitome of Honest Grub; an icon of working-class integrity. Larding it with frou-frou stuff like truffles and foie gras -- those instant icons of upper-class excess -- is sort of like Marie Anoinette playing peasant or Marla Trump swanning around in $600 custom-ripped jeans. It's a case of the frivolous upper class appropriating a symbol of the working-class Average Joe.

And many thanks to you and Steve for helping me navigate the system

[tommy]

mags,

i'm not exactly sure what the bounds of "upper class", "middle class," and "upper middle class" currently are, but i'm betting that most people ordering this burger, and eating foie gras, are generally speaking, upper-middle class. that probably means a household income of btwn 80 and 150 a year. not excessive, really, in and around NYC. and i don't think these folks are necessarily frivolous or excessive, generally speaking.

Edited January 29, 2003 by tommy (log)

[Belmont3]

Hey, I learn something everyday...and I live here. Seems like us out here in the West have some relavance to you folks on the East Coast. We here are having a pronounced influence on your burger war. See this link, you guys are eating IDAHO Kobe beef. Maybe its a known fact to you but this was a nice little article on the Front page of the paper this morning:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/Business/sto...ry.asp?ID=32140

[torakris]

Kobe beef burger in Tokyo

wonder which was first?

At a restaurant that was started by Akebono, the great yokozuna himself, appropiately called Zuna:

This last is no ordinary burger, though. It's styled "Zuna's Famous Kobe Beef Burger," and while it may not be famous yet, it surely deserves to be. O'Neal has taken Kobe's celebrated beef -- which sells for up to $100 a kilo in the United States -- and minced it up into tennis-ball size patties. It's served with slivers of peppered foie gras and anointed with white truffle mayonnaise. This must be the most decadent beefburger on earth, and certainly merits the 3,800 yen price tag.

at today's exchange rate that is $32

here is the whole article:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getart...g20030523a1.htm

Edited June 11, 2003 by torakris (log)