Ordinary Food at Extraordinary Prices

[beandork]

Came across this article - welsh rarebit selling for £350!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006170320,00.html

For those who are unfamiliar, welsh rarebit is what the rest of us call cheese on toast. Naturally, the price has been bolstered by the inclusion of matsutake mushrooms and umbrian truffles. This smacks a bit of Ramsay's £100 white truffle pizza.

The question I pose is : what other food seen as either junk or ordinary could be cast into the pit of fine/expensive dining?

Is there a way to do £100 bowl of baked beans? A US$200 hot dog?

[Gifted Gourmet]

Daniel Boulud's world's first $99 hamburger ...

The sirloin burger layered with truffles stuffed with braised short ribs, foie gras and yet more black truffles is the ultimate whopper -- at least in price. At $59 (or $99 for the double truffle version) it's officially the most expensive commercially available burger in the world. The Guinness Book of World Records certificate is hanging in the window to prove it.

source

The World's Most Expensive Pie

2.5 Kilo Wagyu Fillet of Beef £553

1.5 Kilo matsutake mushrooms £2,250

2 bottles 1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild £4,300

250 grams French Bleus mushrooms £13

100 grams winter black truffle £84

Four packets Gold Leaf £300

Shallots, flour, egg, fresh herbs £5

2 Bottles Louis Roederer Cristal Rose pink champagne £690

source

ZILLION DOLLAR FRITTATA

6 eggs

1 tbsp chopped chives

1.5 tbsps butter

1 lobster

5 tbsps double cream

10 ounces of sevruga caviar

source

London club launches £333 cocktail

Created by head barman Giles Andreis, the Magie Noir features a shot of Richard Hennessy aged cognac, a measure of Dom Perignon vintage champagne and a dash of Crème de Mure.

It also contains fresh imported lemon grass and lychees plus extract of yohimbe bark, an ancient herbal aphrodisiac from West Africa.

The Magie Noir is presented in a crystal glass and with a cocktail pin of 24-carat white gold, created by top jewellery designer Tom Binns.

At present the Guinness Book of Records are considering the drink for the title of most expensive cocktail in the world.

The current record is held by the Ritz Hotel in Paris for the £190 Ritz Sidecar.

source

World's Most Expensive Vodka Filtered with Actual Cut Diamonds

The new company's first product launch through its TransBorder Spirits USA subsidiary will be vodka imported from Poland which utilizes an industry first patented diamond filtration process. The process utilizes nearly one hundred diamonds of up to one carat in size, and results in a Vodka with unsurpassed clarity and smoothness.

DIAKA Vodka, an acronym for 'diamond vodka,' represents the ultimate expression of luxury to connoisseurs accustomed to the finest products in the world. The patented process is the culmination of over five years of research and development. DIAKA introduces a new standard of excellence and quality in the spirits market place: it is The Platinum Standard.

source

Marketeers do not sell products, they sell dreams to believers.

[sabiha]

'The most expensive sandwich' also got publicity recently....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4894952.stm

Want to have a bite of the world’s most expensive sandwich! Then, pay a visit to the McDonald outlet near you. The McDonald sandwich, named after its creator Scott McDonald, the chef at London department store Selfridges is said to be the world’s most expensive sandwich. The healthy sandwich consists of wagyu beef, fresh lobe foie gras, black truffle mayonnaise, brie de meaux, rocket, red pepper and mustard confit and English plum tomatoes. BBC reports that there have been least five advance orders placed for the 21oz meal that costs £85.

Somehow, the thought of all those ingredients altogether doesn't sound so appealing

[Shalmanese]

Is there a way to do £100 bowl of baked beans? A US$200 hot dog?

←

Sure.

£100 Baked Beans: Heirloom beans, Kurobata pork smoked with organic applewood, Danish Smoked Salt... and truffles!

$200 Hot Dog: 100% Wagyu Sausage, artisinal sourdough loaf, heirloom tomato relish... and truffles!

€500 Beer: Organic, Artisinal hops, Hand threshed barley, Water from pure norwegian springs... and truffles!

¥100,000 Chocolate Truffle: Single Estate chocolate, organic, Madagascar, hand picked vanilla, Pesticide free, artisinal sugar... all enrobing a massive truffle.

[beandork]

I swear, once our southern hemisphere truffieres drag the price of truffles out of the stratosphere these people are going to have to get imaginative with how they inflate their meals' prices!

*shakes fist at future*

*has a bowl of white truffle icecream*

[Shalmanese]

I swear, once our southern hemisphere truffieres drag the price of truffles out of the stratosphere these people are going to have to get imaginative with how they inflate their meals' prices!

*shakes fist at future*

*has a bowl of white truffle icecream*

←

I wouldn't get your hopes up

[MarketStEl]

I'm surprised no one has brought up the $100 Cheesesteak yet.

Served with a small bottle of champagne, Barclay Prime's cheesesteak is made of sliced Kobe beef, melted Taleggio cheese, shaved truffles, sauteed foie gras, caramelized onions and heirloom shaved tomatoes on a homemade brioche roll brushed with truffle butter and squirted with homemade mustard.

Which technically makes this a $100 Mushroom Cheesesteak, Taleggio wit.

Add lettuce and it'd be a $100 Mushroom Cheesesteak Hoagie, Taleggio wit.

[jackal10]

Cleopatra topped all these, a long time ago.

For those that don't know, she and Mark Anthony had a competition as to who would serve the most expensive dish. Mark Anthony served a feast of rare and wonderful foods - larks tongues, and the equivalent of truffles and kobe beef of the day.

Cleopatra served plain ordinary food and a glass of vinegar...into which she dropped one of her priceless exquisite pearl earrings to dissolve...

Edited April 16, 2006 by jackal10 (log)

[jennahan]

Humph. Call me cynical, ornery, and/or disgusted, but this kind of food is under the category "f*&k you food". In other words, I eat these ridiculous things just because I can...and you can't.

[Daniel]

I am waiting for food grilled on a fire of burning hundred dollar bills...

Or, what if you fed a Panda nothing but truffles and saffron for the first year of its life.. Then you took the Panda and grilled it on a fire made from priceless art work... That my friend is good eating...

Edited April 16, 2006 by Daniel (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

The $3,000 Sapphire Martini

it's made with Blue Curacao, Bombay Sapphire Gin, dry vermouth, and blue sugar around the rim. But $3000?... Get the drink and get a pair of custom made blue sapphire and diamond earrings.  But this is a bargain, really. The Algonquin Hotel in NYC has a drink that costs $10,000 (you get a diamond with that too).

[M.X.Hassett]

Dont forgot Gordon Ramseys pizza

Mr Atherton brings the dish to the table himself where he shaves the fresh white truffle onto the top of the pizza. Customers can choose between a £60, £80 and £100 pizza according to the quantity of the edible fungi used.

Id try a slice for 16.99 pounds.

and

TEA: A pot of Kiyosawa tea from Plaisir du Chocolat in Edinburgh costs £23.80.

BURGER: A burger of Wagyu beef costs £55 at Zuma in Knightsbridge, London

SANDWICH: A sandwich of caviar, oysters and champagne was sold at a food festival in Manchester for £177.

FISH FINGER: Barry's Bistro in Aberdeen sells a £100 fish finger with crayfish, crab, scallops, king prawns and caviar.

OMELETTE: The Zillion Dollar Frittata, served at Norma's in Manhattan, costs £55.

Scotsman.com

The (mentioned upthread) diamond platinum line vodka is the most idotic thing I have seen in a while.

[beandork]

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=85963

holy zeitgeist, similar discussion erupting in UK thread...namely the 85 quid selfridge sandwich