Chicken feed

Some restaurants are wary of food influencers but not because they fear getting a bad review.

When Pei “Lu” Chung went to Hole in the Wall, an Australian cafe and restaurant on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, New York City on 19 November, she ordered pan-seared salmon, bucatini carbonara, and burrata salad.

“She spent five hours scrolling on her phone” and did not touch her food, a waiter told the New York Post.

The restaurant manager recognized the notorious dine-and-dash influencer who tries to trade food for reviews, then leaves without paying her bill. Police were also familiar with the 34-year-old Taiwanese serial scammer they had arrested several times.

When the manager threatened to call the police, she dared him to do so as she would likely be released anyway. In the end, the waiter said, they took away the untouched plates of food and a cappuccino worth $77.

Meanwhile, an altogether different thing happened at a popular fried chicken restaurant in Seoul, South Korea.

Three men ordered fried chicken and ice-cold draft beer at Kkanbu Chicken as South Korea was hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference summit in Gyeongju last month, CNN reports.

The three linked their drinking arms as they chugged their beers in a display of friendship, Yonhap reported.

A crowd had gathered outside to watch the familiar customers: Jensen Huang, CEO of the world’s most valuable company, AI chip giant Nvidia; Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae-yong; and Hyundai Motor Group executive chair Chung Eui-sun.

Huang, Lee, and Chung then stepped outside to offer chicken and cheese sticks to the crowd, according to CNN.

Huang later rang the “golden bell” to signal that they would foot the bill for everyone in the restaurant, eliciting cheers from the surprised diners.

For the three billionaires, the bill was chicken feed.