Jakarta Hotel Puts $110 Hamburger on Menu
JAKARTA, December 18 (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 hot cakes 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 flavour 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.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Monday, December 18, 2006
Shake Shake Shake!
Earthquake #20 (well, there have been a bunch of little ones lately)
Magnitude? 5.8
Date? Monday, 18 December, 04:10:21 AM local time
Epicenter? 45 miles SSW of Banda Aceh or 4.891°N, 95.059°E
What was I doing? Sleeping. All the big ones have been during the night. This one was a good shaker!...But I stayed in bed and waited it out. :-)
Magnitude? 5.8
Date? Monday, 18 December, 04:10:21 AM local time
Epicenter? 45 miles SSW of Banda Aceh or 4.891°N, 95.059°E
What was I doing? Sleeping. All the big ones have been during the night. This one was a good shaker!...But I stayed in bed and waited it out. :-)
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Pilkada
Pilkada is the Indonesian word for local elections. Aceh had its general election on Monday December 11. The governor (gubernor), mayors (walikota) and district heads (bupati) were all up for grabs. This is the first time mayors and district are elected democratically.
There's been a ton of coverage in international media and you can read them if you want in-depth coverage. But to give you the overview, there were 8 pairs of gubernatorial candidates. There were 1.5 pairs of GAM-affiliated candidates, but GAM did not officially endorse anyone, thus the candidates ran as independents. The guy who's the projected winner - Irawandi was a political prisoner and was actually in jail in Banda Aceh at the time of the tsunami. The water knocked down the prison and he escaped. He also is a OSU (Oregon) alum and studied veterinarian medicine there. In pre-election polls 2 weeks prior, he was not even in the top 3. The quickcounts have him at 39% (in 2 separate polls). It came as a big shock to most election insiders because the pre-election pools did not have any candidate above 25%. Some have attributed his win to grassroot level mobilization in the previous GAM stronghold areas in North Aceh. That area is also most densely populated area in Aceh. Another reason may be because Irawandi was seen as the traditional Acehnese candidate, not backed by any national party. So, an undecided rural voter would likely vote for him. On a side note, 77% of Acehnese live in a rural setting.
Lobby of the Swissbel
On Monday, I came back from Jakarta around noon, so I missed out on all the election observing hoopla (most polling stations closed around noon). I attended the 2 evening press conferences at the local 4-star hotel that night to hear the results from the 2 separate organizations doing quick count. The hotel lobby was packed with international journalists, local and international NGO reps and election junkies like me.
While we were having dinner, Irawandi walked past our table and sat down in the private glass-enclosed room. He was all smiles.
There's been a ton of coverage in international media and you can read them if you want in-depth coverage. But to give you the overview, there were 8 pairs of gubernatorial candidates. There were 1.5 pairs of GAM-affiliated candidates, but GAM did not officially endorse anyone, thus the candidates ran as independents. The guy who's the projected winner - Irawandi was a political prisoner and was actually in jail in Banda Aceh at the time of the tsunami. The water knocked down the prison and he escaped. He also is a OSU (Oregon) alum and studied veterinarian medicine there. In pre-election polls 2 weeks prior, he was not even in the top 3. The quickcounts have him at 39% (in 2 separate polls). It came as a big shock to most election insiders because the pre-election pools did not have any candidate above 25%. Some have attributed his win to grassroot level mobilization in the previous GAM stronghold areas in North Aceh. That area is also most densely populated area in Aceh. Another reason may be because Irawandi was seen as the traditional Acehnese candidate, not backed by any national party. So, an undecided rural voter would likely vote for him. On a side note, 77% of Acehnese live in a rural setting.
On Monday, I came back from Jakarta around noon, so I missed out on all the election observing hoopla (most polling stations closed around noon). I attended the 2 evening press conferences at the local 4-star hotel that night to hear the results from the 2 separate organizations doing quick count. The hotel lobby was packed with international journalists, local and international NGO reps and election junkies like me.
While we were having dinner, Irawandi walked past our table and sat down in the private glass-enclosed room. He was all smiles.
He's the fuzzy guy sitting down with glasses. We were all star struck.
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