10 most expensive Food
This has been a difficult list to
write because the prices of these items vary from season to season. However,
despite that, these 10 foods are generally the most expensive things you can
eat. The ordering is based partly on price and partly on how luxurious they are
considered to be.
1. Beluga Caviar
Beluga Caviar is the most
expensive food item in the world, costing up to $5,000 per kilogram. Caviar is
fish roe (eggs) and this particular brand comes from the Beluga Sturgeon, found
mostly in the Caspian sea. It can take up to 20 years for a Beluga Sturgeon to
reach its maximum size and they can weigh up to 2 tonnes. The eggs are the
largest of the fish eggs used for caviar. Beluga usually ranges from purple to
black, the palest being the most expensive. Beluga caviar is generally served
on its own on small pieces of toast as it needs no additions of flavour to
improve it. If you have not experienced eating caviar, when you bite down each
egg pops and releases a slightly salty-fishy flavour.
2. Saffron
Saffron is the most expensive
spice in the world, reaching prices beyond $2,000 per pound (depending on
season). Saffron is the three stigmas and style of the crocus flower. Each
stigma and style must be picked by hand and it takes thousands to make a single
ounce of the spice. Brightly yellow in colour, the spice is used for colouring
and subtle flavouring of food. It has a bitter taste and a hay-like fragrance.
3. White Truffles
Truffles are from the underground
ascomycetes family (tubers) and are reputed for their high prices. It has an
odour similar to deep fried walnuts which is extremely pungent to some people,
causing a reeling effect. Interestingly, some people are unable to detect the
odour of truffles (which is possibly to their advantage!) The white truffle is
the most expensive of the family. They are generally served sliced into
extremely thin slivers on top of other food and are frequently suffused in oil
for sale as truffle-oil.
4. Kobe Beef
Kobe Beef is raised from
the black Tajima-ushi breed of Wagyu cattle – is produced only in Hyōgo
Prefecture in Japan. It is bred according to secret, and strict traditions. It
is fed on beer and grain and produces meat so tender and fatty that it
rivals foie gras in texture. The beef can cost up to $300 per pound. This breed
of cow is genetically predisposed to intense marbling, and produces a higher
percentage of oleaginous, unsaturated fat than any other breed of cattle known
in the world. Another special trick in the production of this meat is daily
massages by the human owners.
5. Bird’s Nest
The nests in question here are
produced by a variety of Swifts, specifically Cave Swifts who produce the nest
by spitting a chemical compound that hardens in the air. The nests are
considered a delicacy in China and are one of the most expensive animal
products consumed by humans. It is generally served as a soup but can also be
used as a sweet. When combined with water, the hard nests take on a gelatinous
texture. My own experience of Bird’s nest was in a pudding called Bird’s Nest
and Almond soup – the nest was dissolved in almond milk which was served as a
sweet soup. The nest tasted musty and had the texture of snot.
6. Fugu
Fugu is the Japanese word for pufferfish and is also a
Japanese dish prepared from the meat of pufferfish. Pufferfish are deadly and
if the fish is prepared incorrectly it can lead to death (in fact there are
numerous deaths reported in Japan each year from the consumption of this
delicacy). One pinhead of the pufferfish poison is sufficient to kill a full
grown adult male human. It has become one of the most celebrated Japanese
dishes. In order to prepare the fish for human consumption, a Japanese chef
must undergo rigourous training and certification. It is normally prepared in
such a way that a tiny amount of poison is left in the fish as the poison gives
it a slightly numbing and tingling effect.
7. Foie Gras
Second to caviar, foie gras is one
of the finest western foods available. It is the liver of ducks (foie gras de
canard) or geese (fois gras d’Oie). It is produced by a method called gravage,
which is force-feeding of the animal of grain via a tube down the throat. Ducks
and Geese have an anatomy that makes this painless. The liver expands to many
times the normal size and contains a great deal of fat. The texture of foie
gras is very similar to that of butter with a very earthy flavour. Foie gras is
generally eaten as a raw pate, but is can be lightly cooked to give it a
greater depth of flavour. Unfortunately this delicacy is surrounded by
controversy and the sale and consumption is banned in some American places. It
is freely available in all parts of Europe and the rest of the world.
8. Lobster
Lobsters form a large family of
marine crustaceans that nets a $1.8 billion for the seafood industry every
year. They have a close family relationship with fresh water crayfish. Lobsters
live on rocky, sandy, or muddy bottoms from the shoreline to beyond the edge of
the continental shelf. They generally live singly in crevices or in burrows
under rocks. The most common preparation of lobster is to drop the living
creature into a pot of boiling water which kills it very quickly. The flesh is
then served with melted butter so as to not overpower the subtle flavour of the
meat.
9. Matsutake
Matsutake is the common
name for a group of mushrooms in Japan. They have been an important part of
Japanese cuisine for the last 1,000 years. The tradition of mushroom giving
persists today in Japan’s corporate world, and a gift of matsutake is
considered special and is cherished by those who receive it. The annual harvest
of Matsutake in Japan is now less than 1000 tons, and it is partly made up by
imports from China, Korea, and Canada; this is due to the difficulty in
harvesting the mushrooms. The Japanese Matsutake at the beginning of the
season, which is the highest grade, can go up to $2000 per kilogram.
10. Oysters
The name oyster is used for a
number of different groups of mollusks which grow for the most part in marine
or brackish water (water that is saltier than fresh water but not as salty as
sea water). The oyster is the root of an idiomatic saying “The world is your
oyster”, which means that to achieve something in this world, you have to grab
the opportunity. All types of oysters (and, indeed, many other shelled
molluscs) can secrete pearls, but those from edible oysters have no market
value. Oysters are best served raw in their own juices with a slice of lemon.
Oysters have, for many years, been considered an aphrodisiac.
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