Tokyo hotel serves giant burger to honour new monarch

Tokyo  :  A Tokyo restaurant has come up with a football-sized wagyu beef hamburger served between gold-dusted buns at cost of $900 to honour the crowning of the new Japanese emperor next month.

The Oak Door steakhouse in Tokyo's Roppongi district on Monday began serving a new take on the lowly hamburger. Diners were treated to a towering feast of giant patties covered with premium wagyu beef slices, topped with foie gras and black truffles and sandwiched between colossal golden-dusted buns.

The 3 kg football-sized whopper sports a diameter of 25 cm and is 15 cm tall. It will spoil guests at the Oak Door steakhouse till the end of June in celebration of the new Imperial era, Reiwa, and the long Golden Week (a succession of several national holidays).

The giant burger is priced at 100,000 yen ($903) and comes with a "one-kg beef patty, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cheddar cheese, Wagyu beef slices, foie gras, black truffles, gold-dusted buns and a side of triple-cooked giant fried potatoes," the restaurant said on its website.

The show-stealer one-stop feast will be available till June 30.

"As a fourth-generation Japanese, I am honoured to witness this exciting time of change in the Imperial era while working in Japan. While I was thinking how I could contribute to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I came up with this idea of Golden Giant Burger," said chef de cuisine Patrick Shimada.

"In celebration of this special occasion in Japan, we consider using gold as a traditional ingredient to present this burger for the enjoyment of our dearest guests."

The restaurant will also serve a regular-sized golden burger from April 5, priced at JPY 20,000.

The Japanese government announced on Monday that the name of the new imperial era will be "Reiwa" -- a combination of two characters inspired by an 8th-century classic poem.

Crown Prince Naruhito, 59, is set to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne on May 1 after the abdication of his father Emperor Akihito on April 30 due to old age, ending the Heisei era.

It is the first such instance of abdication to have occurred to the Japanese throne in more than 200 years.

The term Reiwa is inspired by a poem from the Manyoshu collection, perhaps the oldest existing compilation of Japanese poetry from around the eighth century. It was one among the five shortlisted, announced government spokesperson Yoshihide Suga at a press conference.

The reign of Akihito, 85, has lasted three decades - starting in January 1989 - and is called the "Heisei" era, a term formed by two characters that may be translated together as "achieving peace".