Restaurant creates Coronavirus hamburgers for hungry customers

A restaurant in Vietnam has created a way for its customers to “take a bite” out of the coronavirus that has disrupted much of the world — by serving burgers designed to look like the actual virus.

Hanoi pizza shop owner and chef Hoang Tung said he wanted to make something that would make people happy when they came to eat in his restaurant. So he fashioned a hamburger bun with characteristic bumps and protrusions resembling those found on the microscopic virus itself, then added herbal powders to give it a greenish tinge and baked it. Meat and garnishes complete the corona burger.

Tung said that since he introduced the burger Monday, he has sold about 50 a day, and that it seems to make his customers happy. Customers have said that eating a burger shaped like the virus makes them feel like they have somehow beaten it.

The French news agency AFP said Hanoi residents seeking to try the burger would soon have to take it home to try it.  As part of their fight against the virus, Vietnamese officials have ordered all entertainment businesses, including bars and restaurants, to close Saturday, allowing only takeout service. They have also banned all gatherings of more than 20 people.