Flashiest Foods

Credit cards at the ready as we look at the most expensive dishes around. Gold-leaf-coated truffles, anyone?

Most Expensive Bacon Sandwich

The Bacon Bling Butty
Served at: Tangberry’s coffee house, Gloucestershire, England
Will set you back: £150
You know when you really fancy a bacon sarnie? There’s just nothing else that can satisfy that hankering for bread, meat, grease, truffle, saffron and edible gold, is there? Luckily, a coffee house in Gloucestershire has come to the rescue with their rather impressive, and somewhat blingy bacon butty. Seven rashers of bacon from rare-breed pigs, a free-range egg and truffle shavings are placed inside a Hall’s Quality Bakers’ bun, which is spread with truffle oil instead of butter, sprinkled with edible gold dust and saffron and served alongside a watercress garnish. Worth £150 quid? Well I’m inclined to think so, especially as the proceeds all go to charity. Who knew eating a bacon bap could be such a good deed?

Dearest Dessert

The Frrrozen Haute Chocolate
Served at: Serendipity 3, New York, USA
Prepare to pay: $25,000 (or £15,804.77, to be precise)
If you think you’ve already had the most chocolatey pudding possible, you’re (apparently) seriously mistaken. No hackneyed ‘Death by Chocolate’ can measure up to this. Serendipity 3’s upmarket pud features a blend of 28 different cocoas, of which 14 are the most rare and expensive on the planet. Once again edible gold is a primary ingredient, and coats the frozen chocolate as well as the Baccarat Harcourt crystal goblet in which it’s served. You may feel that $25,000 is a tad steep, but you do get to keep the golden, jewel-incrusted spoon it’s served with. Also, unlike the (now extremely overshadowed) screwball with its bubblegum surprise, at the bottom of this bad boy you’ll find an 18-carat gold diamond bracelet. That does change things….

Premium Pie

Name Unknown
Served at: The Fence Gate Inn, Lancashire, England
Price tag: £8,195 (or £1,024 per slice)
Ever thought, ‘Hey, this here regular pie is alright, but it could perhaps do with some matsutake mushrooms, black truffle, a gold-leaf crust and some vintage Mouton Rothschild 1982 in the gravy’? No, me either. But someone did, and that someone was ex-butcher and landlord of The Fence Gate Inn, Kevin Burkins. Apparently a guest came in after a particularly good day at work (blatantly a Friday) and so he created this Japanese wagyu beef pie for them as a one-off. £8,195… Think of all the Fray Bentos pies you could buy for that…

Costly Curry

Samundari Khazana
Served at: Bombay Brasserie
The damage: £2,000
Exactly how would one go about making the world’s most expensive curry, I hear you cry? Well I can tell you you’ll need to start by preparing the Devon crab and white truffle while you get your assistant to carefully and meticulously coat half a cherry tomato in gold leaf before filling it with Beluga caviar. Then, take four sea snails and pop them into a hot pan to sizzle, while your second assistant dresses a whole Scottish lobster in real gold. Meanwhile, ask your third skilful and delicately handed helper to hollow out four quail’s eggs and fill them with yet more caviar. (Crikey, the hefty price tag is probably necessary in order to cover all these wages). To serve, top with fresh truffle shavings. Naturally.

Baroque Bagel

Name Unknown
Served at: Westin Hotel, New York, USA
Yours for: $1000 (or £635)

I’m not sure about anyone else, but I would be a little (very) reluctant to start the day with a thousand-dollar restaurant bill. Especially if it was for a breakfast that I probably wouldn’t have time to eat at said restaurant. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the most important meal of the day, but I just don’t think trying to munch it while running to work, or taking strategically timed bites at my desk between writing and making phone calls would do it justice (typed as I reach into my desk drawer for a handful of morning Cheerios). This would definitely have to be a weekend breakfast and would require a clear diary for the whole morning, just to make absolutely sure I could give the white-truffle-cream-cheese-with-goji-berry-infused-Riesling-jelly-and-gold-leaf-topped treat my complete, undivided attention.