PETALING JAYA, July 7 — Actor and cosmetics entrepreneur Aeril Zafrel is still left explaining himself for having splurged thousands of ringgit for a steak on his European vacation with wife Wawa Zainal.
"Actually the price is normal in the UK, but the lower value of our currency makes it expensive," he said.
"For people in the UK, a £1,000 (RM5,291) steak is normal,” he said to Kosmo Online during the screening of his new film Musyrik last night.
The 32-year-old star caused a stir last month when he posted about paying over RM10,000 for a meal at the fine-dining restaurant Nusr-Et in London, UK.
Nusr-Et’s main draw is its celebrity Turkish butcher and chef Nusret Gökçe or ‘Salt Bae’, who’s known for his "salt seasoning choreography” and flamboyant food preparation techniques.
Aeril said that there were "additional charges” to his bill at Nusr-Et, including RM1,000 for the "salt seasoning and meat cutting”.
The actor added that he was not trying to "show off” by sharing moments from his recent trip to Europe with his wife Wawa Zainal.
"We’ve not been able to travel overseas for two years, so we wanted to enjoy the vacation as best as we could.
"Maybe it’s an issue because I’m a celebrity; it’s not that I want to show off, but I just want to capture those (vacation) moments on social media.
"Imagine if I lost my mobile phone, I wouldn’t be able to recover those memories,” said Aeril.
Utusan Malaysia quoted Aeril further on the cost of his vacation, with him saying that the greatest expenses were due to last-minute travel plans.
"For example in Switzerland, the cost of accommodation and transportation alone was RM40,000.
"We were shocked that travelling from the airport to our lodging came up to RM5,000; a lunch for seven people was around RM1,000,” he said.
