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15 Of The Most Expensive Foods In The World

15 Of The Most Expensive Foods In The World

15 of 16

Don’t feel guilty ordering takeout a couple times this week. When you consider the prices of some of the foods listed here, you won’t feel so bad. Here are 15 of the most expensive foods in the world.

Oliveoiltime.com
Oliveoiltime.com

Lambda Ultra Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil

This delicious oil is made on the Greek island of Crete using the legendary koroneiki olives. The olives are considered the best in Greece. They’re harvested, pressed and packaged by hand. For $54, you’ll get about 500 milliliter (16.9 ounces) — about two cups worth.

Source: Most-expensive.com

Wikimedia.org
Wikimedia.org

Bird’s Nest Soup

Not just any bird’s nest, but the nest of the cave swiftlet. The nests are made completely out of birds’ saliva. They take on a gelatineous texture when soaked in water, making them great for puddings and soups. The birds make their nests high up on rock walls, deep inside caves so retrieving them is no small task. A bowl of bird’s nest soup can cost $100.

Source: Naturalnews.com

Wikipedia.org
Wikipedia.org

Not your average deli meat

At the Foodhall in Selfridges, London, you can buy ham that costs $180 per pound. The Albarragena Jamon Iberico de Bellota is a specialty item made from pigs that were fed only only acorns and roots. The meat is cured for three years and sold with a DNA certificate to prove that it is, in fact, a very special ham.

Source: Guinnessworldrecords.com

Wikipedia.org
Wikipedia.org

Kopi Luwak

Kopi Luwak is one of the world’s most expensive coffees and there’s a lot of conflicting information out there about it. One version is that only 500 pounds of the light beans are produced each year and they come from the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. It’s also known as Vietnamese weasel coffee, and as “cat-poo coffee,” made by collecting coffee beans eaten by wild civets. It is allegedly sold for $3,000 US per kilogram. According to TheGuardian, up to 40 percent of the product sold as genuine kopi luwak isn’t. Which begs the question whose poo are you drinking? And why?

Source: Realkopiluwak.com, TheGuardian.

Pixabay.com
Pixabay.com

Real Kobe Beef

The methods used to bring us real Kobe beef are kept pretty secret, but we do know the cows feed on just beer and grain and are massaged daily, making them incredibly tender. The beef can cost around $300 per pound.

Source: Notesofnomads.com 

Flickr.com
Flickr.com

Matsutake

Mushrooms make our list several times. Matsuke mushrooms are a Japanese delicacy and can cost around $500 for a basket of five. Even though the Japanese have been eating this mushroom for centuries, the reason it is so pricey is that nobody can figure out how to farm the fungus, so it is decreasing in availability rapidly.

Source: Japanguidebook.com

steamykitchen.com
steamykitchen.com

Saffron

When you order Indian food, you might be ordering more luxury than you thought. The spice saffron, popular in Indian cuisine, can cost around $500 an ounce. It’s expensive because the crop comes from three tiny, threadlike stigmas in the center of the crocus sativa flower, and collecting it is labor intensive. The stigmas have to be removed by hand and toasted to dry. It takes more than 80,000 crocus flowers to make a pound of saffron.

Source: Courierpress.com

Wikimedia.org
Wikimedia.org

 

Swedish Moose Cheese

In Bjursholm, Sweden, there’s a seemingly humble farmer named Christer Johannson who makes about $500 a pound for his moose cheese. The cheese comes from the milk of moose cows that weigh more than 1,000 pounds each. It takes Johannson between 30 minutes and two hours to milk one of his cows, and they only give milk between May and September.

Source: Blogcritics.org

Wikipedia.org
Wikipedia.org

White truffles

This little nutty mushroom costs around $2,000 a pound. The truffles grow for only a short period each year and must be foraged for by pigs.

Source: Time.com

Wikimedia.org
Wikimedia.org

Yubari Melon

Another big-ticket item, the Yubari is a Japanese melon that can cost between $5,000 and $20,000. The melons are only harvested in the city of Yubari. They’re hard to come by and are known for their incredible flavor.

Source: Gourmet.com

Wikimedia.org
Wikimedia.org

Beluga Caviar

Beluga sturgeon produce the largest of the fish eggs used in caviar and since it can take up to 20 years for the fish to reach its growing potential, many die off before producing the beloved giant eggs. The caviar runs around $5,000 per kilogram.

Source: Caviar-guide.com

Wikimedia.org
Wikimedia.org

Japanese Densuke Watermelon

If you didn’t know this was edible, you might think it was a bowling ball. This is a 17-pound black watermelon, and only around 65 are harvested each year. These days you can get one for around $4,000 but they once cost around $6,000.

Source: Thestar.com

Wikipedia.org
Wikipedia.org

 

A very pricey meat pie

At the Fence Gate Inn in Lancashire, England meat lovers can enjoy a pie stuffed with some of the most expensive types of mushrooms and meat, and topped with gravy made with vintage wine that sells for around $1,800 a bottle. You can get the entire pie for $14,260 or one slice for $1,781.

Source: Guinnessworldrecords.com

Lifehack.org
Lifehack.org

 

Edible gold

At Serendipity 3 in New York City you can eat gold. The restaurant, known for seriously luxurious dishes, makes a frozen hot chocolate ice cream sundae using 14 of the most expensive types of cocoas and chocolates. Diners could find an 18-karat gold bracelet at the bottom of their bowl. The dish is eaten with a gold spoon encrusted with diamonds that diners can take home. One dish costs $25,000.

Source: Reuters.com

Wikipedia.org
Wikipedia.org

Fugu

Fugu is another name for puffer fish, a Japanese delicacy. The dish can be found for just around $20 but it can cost you something much more valuable than money — your life — which is why we think it’s the most expensive dish. For a chef to cook this dish safely, he must undergo rigorous training. If the fish is cooked incorrectly, its poison can kill someone, but the perfect amount of poison must be left in to achieve the desired taste. Um. No.

Source: Washingtoncitypaper.com