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Expensive & Exclusive Food

Saffron's relatively cheap by weight at about $2,300/lb. Iranian Beluga is around $18,000/lb. However, the easy winner are Italian white truffles. They recently set a record when 1.9lbs sold for $85,600 at auction in November last year. That's a touch over $45,000/lb.
I briefly worked for Kerry Foods in Burton on Trent 25 years ago, one of the managers in their food development lab was actually fired for stealing saffron as I was told back then .. I wouldn't know, I was too busy smashing up large vacuum sealed packs of rice with a pitchfork with Kurdish lads. I was fired for walking from the job one day when they got my wages wrong two times in a row. The staff discount mini supermarket was amazing :).
 
Even such a thing as olive oil gets faked, for huge profits, despite the liter being price rather low. There's a good chance someone has adulterated your extra virgin.
 
Surely some illegal meats have to be up there. I saw tiger wine for sale in the north of Burma in a BBC news spot.
I'm quite partial to a bottle or two of Singaporean Tiger beer with a nice Thai green curry. But as they cost just a few quid a bottle I'm pretty sure no tigers were involved in the production process.
 
I'm quite partial to a bottle or two of Singaporean Tiger beer with a nice Thai green curry. But as they cost just a few quid a bottle I'm pretty sure no tigers were involved in the production process.

They probably just put a bit of tabby in there.
 
They pour the tiger a few saucers of beer, and wait for the inevitable. Then bottle it.
 
Isn't that more the world's most expensive gold and gemstones?
 
Even if I had money to burn like that, I wouldn't pay those prices. They're just outrageous.
 

That listing kicks off with Guinness record citations for most expensive burger and most expensive dessert - both attributed to Serendipity 3 in New York.

Serendipity 3 has now introduced the Guinness-recognized most expensive milkshake.

New York restaurant's $100 milkshake earns Guinness record
... A New York restaurant's $100 milkshake has been recognized as the world's most expensive by Guinness World Records.

The record-keeping organization announced Serendipity 3's LUXE Milkshake, available for order in time for Wednesday's National Vanilla Milkshake Day, contains a number of specialty ingredients and comes in a glass adorned with more than 3,000 Swarovski crystals. ...

The milkshake contains Jersey milk sources from Channel Islands cows, Tahitian vanilla ice cream, Devonshire luxury clotted cream, Madagascar vanilla beans, 23 karat edible gold, donkey caramel sauce featuring donkey's milk and Venezuelan cocoa, Luxardo Gourmet Maraschino Cherries and whipped cream. ...

SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2018/0.../?utm_source=sec&utm_campaign=sl&utm_medium=4
 
Has anyone ever seen those 'rich kids of instagram' type pages? There's plenty of people out there willing to drop $300+ US on a bottle of water, then post the receipts on instagram. So I don't have any trouble imagining a market for this restaurant, sadly.
 
I recently bought some of those "crapped out by an animal" coffee beans. Sadly it seems customs confiscated it.
 
I recently bought some of those "crapped out by an animal" coffee beans. Sadly it seems customs confiscated it.

If you have a pet cat or dog, you can try feeding it coffee beans and report back. I can't guarantee results, however.
 
If you have a pet cat or dog, you can try feeding it coffee beans and report back. I can't guarantee results, however.
The cat or dog might try to kill you if you fed it nothing else.
 
I'm more worried about them getting really hyper.
 
Ya cant class a diamond bracelet or a golden spoon as food, ya cant eat em, so those prices are wrong
 
Cordyceps Sinensis or caterpillar fungus is a very strange and very expensive foodstuff. It's a fungus that infects a caterpillar's brain, with the mushroom eventually growing out of the creature's head.

Cordyceps_Sinensis.jpg


It's valued for its use in (what else?) Chinese medicine.

According to wikipedia, proceeds from gathering this bug/shroom account for 40% of household incomes in Tibet. (I did visit a town in Western Sichuan where these, along with other wild mushrooms, were also a major part of the local economy).

As for the price: "In 2008, one kilogram traded for US$3,000 (lowest quality) to over US$18,000 (best quality, largest larvae)."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiocordyceps_sinensis
 
If you have a pet cat or dog, you can try feeding it coffee beans and report back. I can't guarantee results, however.
I'm currently in a country which produces the civets which produce the essential pre-requisite for civet coffee. Apparently it's not so much whatever alchemy happens within the animal's gut that makes the difference as the fact that it knows much better than humans do which berries are most optimal. You essentially outsource the grading work to the civet, and then harvest the finest beans at your - somewhat stinky, I imagine - leisure. One of these days I'll go and try a cup, and let you know.
 
I am persuaded that civet-shit coffee has nothing to do with the animal having any choice at all. Most are caged and suffer from their enforced diet. :(
 
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