A Vietnamese Communist party leader outraged folks back home over a 24-karat-covered steak at Salt Bae’s London restaurant

When chef Nusret Gokce, better known as Salt Bae, posted a TikTok video of a Vietnamese Communist Party official eating in his London restaurant, he probably didn’t expect to rouse any anger beyond the usual online trolling. Within days, however, the video, which showed General To Lam being personally fed a 24-karat gold-covered steak by Gokce, sparked furor across Vietnam, the BBC reports. The video was taken down on TikTok, and Facebook temporarily blocked the hashtag #saltbae, according to Reuters. For Vietnamese residents, the video captured in sharp relief the yawning gap in the quality of life for party officials and the working class during the pandemic. And in a twist as rich as the steak’s drippings, on the same London trip, Lam and other officials paid their respects at the grave of Communist Manifesto author Karl Marx, to “remember the source of the water we drink.”