20 Unbelievably Expensive Food Items Around The World

Not even in your wildest of imaginations would you have thought to spend lakhs over a food item! Well, some people can do that, just because they can! Numerous food items in the world from various countries, are priced so high, that it is unbelievable. They are priced so due to either having a rare or expensive ingredient, like gold leaves or caviar, or being made intricately involving a complication cooking method. The willingness of their clients to shell out oodles of money only encourages the chefs to try more expensive and sophisticated dishes. While it is not only unbelievable, but unaffordable (by a huge margin!) for majority of humans living on this planet, some are lucky enough to relish those delicacies.

Let us take a look at some such food items which top the list of being the most expensive of their kind.

1. Pudding – Chocolate Pudding at $35,000

Yes, you read that right! Prepared at the Lindeth Howe Country Hotel in England, this pudding has to be ordered at least weeks in advance. The chocolate used in this pudding is of the finest quality and is moulded into an edible replica of Faberge egg. The pudding also contains gold, champagne, caviar and a two-carat diamond.

2. Pizza – White Truffle and Gold Pizza at $2,420

This pizza is a speciality of Margo’s Pizzeria in Valetta, Malta and has a thin curst base and is topped with buffalo mozzarella, white truffles and 24 carat gold leaf.

3. Curry – Samundari Khazana at $4,000 a plate

This curry item is served in the upmarket eatery in London called Bombay Brasserie and involves preparation with extremely costly ingredients like caviar, sea snails, a whole lobster and edible gold. Literally a ‘seafood treasure’.

4. Omelette – Zillion Dollar Lobster Frittata at $2,000

A savoury prepared at Norma’s in Le Parker Meridian Hotel in Manhattan, this dish was priced at $1,000, which was later doubled to reflect the quality of caviar. It is prepared from fresh eggs, Sevurga caviar, a whole lobster, cream, chives and lobster sauce, served over a bed of Yukon gold potatoes.

5. Soup – Bird’s Nest Red Soup at upto $10,000 per kg

This soup is a Chinese preparation made from the saliva of cave-dwelling birds called swiflets, and has a lot of health benefits as per the traditional Chinese medicine. These nests are dangerous to harvest and laborious to prepare, hence, the price!

6. Sandwich – Quintessential Grilled Cheese Sandwich at $214

This sandwich is a product of a New York based restaurant Serendipity 3 and is gilded with real gold. What all make it worth that price are products like the rare Caciocavallo cheese, Dom Perignon Champagne, truffle oil, white truffle butter and lobster bisque. This extravagant grilled cheese sandwich has to be ordered at least 48 hours in advance.

7. Coffee – Kopi Luwak Coffee at $600 per kg

This unique coffee has the most unique way of preparation too. This coffee is produced from coffee beans which have been eaten, digested and excreted by the civet cat which is an Indonesian mammal. So literally, it is made from the poop of a cat!

8. White Gold Caviar at $40,000 a teaspoon

Unbelievable eh! This royalty is obtained from a rare albino sturgeon fish and are the eggs are laced with 22 carat gold. It has a taste of fresh fish, as it is believed.

9. White Truffles at $1,286 per pound

Recently, an 850-gram white truffle from Alba was sold for a whopping $96,000 and that should give you a fair idea about its royalty! These truffles live inside tree roots and cannot be found easily. Dogs are hired in many parts of the world to smell and locate white truffles and hence, their rarity is the reason for their astonishingly high price.

10. Bluefin Tuna at $4,000 per pound

Known as ‘beef of the sea’, bluefin tuna is amazingly tender and buttery that it melts in your mouth within seconds. It has a great taste and texture. However, not only catching a bluefin tuna is challenging, they are also on the verge of extinction, therefore, with scarcity comes high demand and hence, high price!

11. Bagel – Westin Hotel Bagel at $1,000

Imagine spending a whopping $1,000 for a bagel! This bagel from Hotel Westin, New York is smeared in white truffle cream cheese, goji berry-infused Riesling jelly and golden leaf flakes.

12. Raw chicken – Ayam Cemani Black Chicken at $2,500

A rare breed of chicken, it is black inside out as it has a dominant gene causing hyperpigmentation. It is found and bred only in Indonesia and is used for various religious and mystical purposes. According to sources, individual birds have been sold in the United States of America for $2,500.

13. Burger – FleurBurger at $5,000

Made by celebrity chef Hubert Keller, this burger is served at the famous restaurant Fleur in Las Vegas and consists of a patty made from the most expensive Wagyu beef, foie gras and shaved black truffles.

14. Ice cream – Golden Opulence Sundae at $1,000

This royal ice cream sundae is a product of Serendipity 3 I New York. It is made of Tahitian vanilla ice cream with Madagascan vanilla beans, rare Chuao Venezuelan chocolate, expensive Amedei Porcelana chocolate, gold covered almonds, chocolate truffles, marzipan cherries, finally covered with a 23 carat edible gold leaf along with a serving of Grande Passion caviar and gilded sugar flower.

15. Cheese – Pule at $600 per pound

While most cheeses are made from cow/goat/sheep’s milk, this cheese is unique as it is made from the milk of a Balkan donkey! You read that right. This donkey is native to Serbia and Montenegro only and to produce 1 kg of Pule, we need around 25 litres of donkey milk.

16. Hot Dog – Junni Ban at $169

This hot dog is a product of Tokyo Dog in Sacramento and is made of smoked cheese bratwurst topped with butter teriyaki grilled onions, maitake mushrooms, wagyu beef, foie gras, shaved black truffles, caviar and Japanese mayonnaise.

17. Sushi – Nigiri roll at $1,978

This specialty sushi is made of premium pink salmon from Norway, foie gras, wrapped in edible 24 carat gold leaf, three Palawan pearls and 20 carats of African diamonds.

18. Watermelon – Densuke at $6,100

This record holder comes from Japan and is a black coloured jumbo-sized watermelon. These watermelons are grown only on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and usually given as gifts owing to their uniqueness.

19. Melon – Yubari King Melon at $5,000

This melon owes its staggering price to its distinct sweetness and can only be produced in the Yubari region of Japan. Like the Densuke, these melon are also given as gifts, however, in pairs. Infact, a pair was sold in auction in 2017 for a whopping $30,000!

20. Spice – Saffron at $15 per gram

Saffron is considered a spice as well as a color as it is the only food product that lends deep color to the food. The high price of saffron is due to the fact that it is a highly labour intensive crop and to make around 450 gms of saffron, we need about 75,000 flowers!

As astonishing and unbelievable as it may be to most of us, for some it might not be at all. Well, as they say, if you have it, flaunt it – so, why wouldn’t the rich indulge in these whims when they have all the means!