And rare products then you. The most unusual and strangest food in the world

Where to go for live langoustines, vegetarian chicken, sweet potato noodles and gummy houses.

Olga Davydova

• What they sell: fish, seafood, elite products from Europe.
• Why go: feel like a gourmet risk cooking the freshest langoustine; impress guests.

La Maree is, in a sense, a gastronomic giant: the company has been importing fish and delicacy seafood to Russia since 1989. In addition, the company currently owns five restaurants in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Monaco. Russian restaurants have fish shops. In general, the main part of fish delicacies comes to the restaurants of the city and to the counters of good gourmets through La Maree. The main concept is exclusive: deliveries are made every day by plane from twenty countries of the world, fish does not lie on the counter for more than one day, prices are as striking as the assortment.

Sea urchin, 250 rubles/100 gr.

Oysters Marennes D "Oleron, 160 rubles / piece.

In the center of the hall on Suvorovsky Street there is a stand, where about 20 types of oysters are presented all year round (Marennes D´Oleron - 160 rubles per 1 piece). On special order showcases under a "fur coat" of scaly ice - so that the color of the gills does not change - flaunts monkfish (280 rubles per 100 g), wild gilthead and sea bass (250 and 470 rubles per 100 g). In aquariums, turbot trembles melancholy, live Kamchatka crabs and langoustines move their claws. The latter, by the way, are supplied live only to La Maree aquariums. And in order not to look all over the city for a worthy side dish or sauce, the shop sells homemade pasta, expensive fifteen-year-old balsamic vinegar, and other related ingredients. The service is expectedly good: the sellers know where the fish came from, how to cook it and what to add. The line will be cleaned, fillets will be made from Murmansk cod, crab will be dismantled into phalanxes and everything else, if necessary - the selected product will be boiled, salted, marinated. If you really need gourmet products of the marine genre, you won’t find cooler than La Maree in St. Petersburg.

La Maree (Suvorovsky pr., 34)

"CHEESE SHOP"

• What they sell: cheeses.
• Why go: to learn with closed eyes to distinguish the young "Toscano" from the aged; buy a real Roquefort and amaze your home with the aroma of France; drink coffee and chat with "cheese fans" behind the counter.

The "cheese shop" is cute and pretty: at the entrance is a touching ceramic lamb, inside there is a small counter, wooden racks and plump plush sheep. Deliveries here happen every two or three days, or even more often. They don’t order in large batches: they wait until something comes to an end, and only then they buy 1-2 heads of cheese. Cheese Lavka receives a number of positions directly from producers: Tuscan cheeses, Parmegiano Reggiano and Grana Padano, Auriquio, a line of Krasnodar cheeses Lefkadia.

To understand how much 100 grams of Parmeggiano costs, you need to look at a huge chalkboard, and then try to match the numbers and tempting pieces of cheese in the window. But it’s better to do otherwise: sit on a high stool near the coffee machine, ask some burning question like “What would you advise me?” and start espresso. After listening to an excursion into cheese science, remember about the cooled coffee, drink it in one fell swoop and buy all sorts of different things, and then with a smart look tell your friends that this Saint-Nectaire with a nut-mushroom flavor is the favorite cheese of Louis XIV, and Gorgonzola was kept in a cave .

Morrier (Rivore Jacquemin), 160 rubles / 100 g.

The path of a cheese gourmet should begin with determining the type that you like: from goat or cow's milk, with blue mold or with a whitish crust, semi-hard or soft. Mandatory tasting must-haves are Roquefort (322 rubles per 100 g), classic soft cheeses - Brie or Camembert (130 or 340 rubles, respectively), sheep Calisardo (220 rubles per 100 g), semi-hard Folle Epi (171 rub.) and gentle Trurier (210 rub.) with a creamy taste.

"Cheese Shop" (Kamennoostrovsky pr., 42B)

"FRUIT SHOP"

• What they sell: vegetables and fruits, familiar and exotic; products from Europe.
• Why go: buy pitahaya, kumquat and a hybrid of Chilean and virgin strawberries that looks like strawberries, only white, and tastes like pineapple; marvel at the assortment of tomatoes; grab a pack of cuttlefish ink paste.

"Fruit Shop" is the brainchild of the "Agrotechnology" company, which supplies vegetables and fruits to almost all restaurants and retail chains in the city. For some one and a half years, a small shop on Vasilevsky Island has grown to seven pieces; the eighth is about to open. In the shops they started with vegetables; groceries were gradually added, mainly from Italy and France, now they are starting to bring in European cheeses and meat delicacies.

Lychee, 695 rubles/kg.

Pitahaya yellow, 69 rubles / pc.

The latest opening is a store in the Front Quarter. The interior here is almost like a restaurant: English wallpapers and homemade lampshades over the fruit stalls. The assortment of the shop will quite pass for a brief fruit and vegetable encyclopedia. Furry lychee and bristling kivano, let's say, are quite expected, and they are in supermarkets, but twenty varieties of tomatoes, eleven varieties of cabbage and green peas with peas in pods are impressive at any time of the year. Prices vary: French golden-orange tomatoes "Pineapple" with fruit will cost 406 rubles. per kg, brown and almost sweet Kumato tomatoes from Spain - 270 rubles, and domestic tomatoes from Krasnodar cost 99 rubles.

Most fruits and vegetables - with the possible exception of potatoes and carrots - are updated daily, or even twice a day. The geography of deliveries of the Fruit Shop covers the whole world: green beans from Kenya, blackberries from Mexico, mangosteen from Thailand, persimmons that do not knit from Spain. According to the owners, the main secret is thoughtful logistics; no item stays in stock longer than 2-3 days. And you can make juice from almost any product right in the shop: there is a juicer at the checkout.

"Fruit Shop" (Bolshoi pr. V.O., 35, Kuibysheva st., 33, Malaya Konyushennaya st., 12, Karpovka river embankment, 21, Varshavskaya st., 43, Vyborgskoe shosse, 17/1, Paradnaya st., 3)

"VEGAN WASTE DREAM"

• What they sell: all kinds of things and a bird; meat delicacies from Spain and Italy; farm dairy products; some Italian groceries.
• Why go: splurge on a wagyu steak or Iberico jamon; learn the names of beef options from a cow painted on the wall; support local farming.

You can fall in love with Vegan's Nightmare for the name alone - this is one hundred percent success of domestic naming. It is fashionable inside: open brickwork, wood-trimmed counters, “legs” of jamon hang from the ceiling. In addition to various parts of pork and veal, you can buy quail, guinea fowl, cockerel or Dagestan lamb in the shop. The prices are rather high: a guinea fowl costs 820 rubles. per kg., pork belly - 430 rubles. per kg. Chilled vacuumed marble steaks lie modestly on the right side - striploin, ribeye and the famous wagyu, made from a cow that was given beer and massaged. At the checkout, Jamon Iberico Bellota temptingly looks out from under the cover - the most expensive Spanish dry-cured ham from pigs fed on an acorn diet (1460 rubles per 100 gr.).

Jamon Iberico Beyota, 1460 rubles / 100 g

Suppliers of the Vegan's Nightmare shop are several farms in different regions of the Leningrad region. When choosing producers, the owners of the shop looked at the sanitary conditions in which the cattle are kept, at the fattening of animals - so that they are fed with cereals, without hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals - and at the slaughter technology. The meat comes to the shop and is stored in the form of carcasses; cuts their regular butcher. The carcass leaves in two or three days. Judging by the half-empty counters at half past seven in the evening, the meat is really fresh every day - the next day it simply does not remain.

"Vegan's Worst Dream" (Moskovsky pr., 155)

PASTA

• What they sell: an incredible number of varieties of pasta and sauces, olive oil, rice for risotto, cheeses and sausages of Italy
• Why go: buy pasta with orange; decide on nettle sauce; order truffles.

Pasta does not yet have its own premises: two shops are based in shopping centers, next to anchor grocery tenants like Perekrestok. Despite the modest size of the trading place, the choice is impressive: there are at least thirty types of pasta, and more than fifty types of sauces.

Grilled artichokes in grapeseed oil, 787 rubles

Most of the goods (except for cheeses and deli meats) come to Pasta directly from Italy, without intermediaries. Here, for example, there is pasta with wheat germ (tortilloni - 299 rubles) - the know-how of the Morelli factory, one of the oldest Italian factories. Usually, manufacturers remove this very germ, but at Morelli they learned not only to extract it, but also somehow put it back - in order to make the paste more useful. - a wide range of pastas with natural additives, from spaghetti and linguine with cuttlefish ink (326 and 229 rubles respectively) to Penne with cocoa (215 rubles) and Tagliolini with nettles (227 rubles). The names of the sauces seem fantastic: pumpkin sauce with almond biscuits, Venetian radicchio with red wine, asparagus or arugula (474 ​​rubles per 190 gr.). True, not everything may be available - it is better to check in advance. Serious culinary specialists can order Italian in Pasta - black or white, and it will be brought exactly from Piedmont; the main thing is that the order falls in season.

From left to right: Extra Virgin Sabina olive oil, 996 rubles.
Grilled artichokes in grapeseed oil, 787 rubles
Oil-spray bioorganic with orange, 328 rubles.
Cheese fondue with truffle, 683 rubles
Pasta Marelli (basil-garlic, lemon-pepper, pink pepper), 754 rubles

In two shops, Pasta hostesses are already crowded: a full-fledged store of 50 sq.m., with an expanded assortment is on the way - among other things, olives, olives and wine are promised. True, the store will also be located in a shopping center; Which one is kept a secret for now.

pasta (14 Kosmonavtov Ave., 5 Akademika Pavlova St.)

"VEGANICA"

• What they sell: ordinary products, like in a supermarket near the house, only without meat, fish, poultry, milk, eggs and evil chemicals.
• Why go: buy vegetarian pork, dairy-free bio-yogurt, non-alcoholic alcohol and sugar-free chocolate; finally decide to grow seedlings from mung bean or lentils.

"Veganika" is like a supermarket, only with a vegetarian or eco-bias - it's up to you as you like. In general, buyers are divided into two categories of people: the first, convinced vegetarians or vegans, go here instead of "Dixie" or "Family" for food every day. The basket includes wheat sausages, sausages and meatballs, frozen soy semi-finished products and dumplings, as well as a whole line of soy milk products (from phytoyogurt to soy sour cream). The second group is those who are puzzled by the now popular healthy lifestyle (healthy lifestyle). In this case, organic whole grains, sprouting grains, sugar-free sweets are used.

Soy cheese paste, 42 rubles

For both, it is extremely important that the manufacturer does not deceive the consumer; this is closely monitored at Veganica. Manufacturers certify their products with a bunch of certificates, confirmation letters and guarantees.

Phytoyogurt soy in assortment, 33 rubles.

Many products come to St. Petersburg through Veganika, and from here they end up on or - rarely - on the shelves of retail stores. For example, a series of "dairy" products based on soy protein "Bob and Soya" (yogurt with dried apricots - 33 rubles, sour cream soy cream - 31 rubles), Italian soy ice cream (110 rubles), or marinated and frozen soy meat from Thailand (vegetarian fried pork with pepper - 190 rubles, vegetarian salted fish - 430 rubles). To all the novice vegans who are perplexedly scouring the shelves of supermarkets - stop scouring and rush here.

"Veganika" (Moskovsky pr., 7)

"HAZELNUT"

• What they sell: nuts and dried fruits in any variations, herbs, dried berries, candied fruits and cereals.
• Why go: to taste three types of peeled almonds; enjoy healthy sweets - candied fruits and dried fruits; buy dried berries to make tea with them and wait for the cold weather.

In the spacious Hazelnut shop on Sadovaya (entrance from Brinko Lane), identical transparent cans flaunt on wooden racks. Inside - multi-colored candied fruits, burgundy dried cranberries and dark brown dried juniper, green mung bean, ground red turmeric, fragrant dried thyme. But, of course, nuts rule the show: raw and roasted, with salt and pepper, in shell and peeled, in chocolate, yogurt or sesame seeds. The girl behind the cash register explains that almonds from Samarkand (50 rubles per 100 g) are sweeter than those from California (40 rubles per 100 g), and Non-parel (45 rubles per 100 g) is almost sugary in general. The rarest and most expensive nut in Filbert is macadamia: 100 gr. cost 190 rubles. Originally from Australia, macadamia is now grown in other tropical countries. This macadamia is from Bolivia.

Dessert Panforte, 135 rubles

Cocoa beans, 50 rubles/100 gr.

Another specialty of Hazelnut is dried berries: cranberries, wild strawberries, raspberries, mountain ash, currants, super-popular and healthy Goji berries. True, the pleasure is not cheap: 100 gr. dried lingonberries or cranberries will cost 300 rubles, raspberries or goji berries - 250 rubles, blueberries - 290 rubles. True, dried berries are much lighter in weight than fresh ones, and there are almost the same amount of vitamins in them, so there is still a benefit.

Sublimated strawberries, 250 rubles/100 g

In general, in "Funduk" there is expanse for supporters of various "natural" foods - teas on herbs, legumes, cereals. Here, for example, there are three types of chickpeas - from Azerbaijan, India and Uzbekistan. One boils faster, the other is suitable for cutlets, the third is ideal for stew. You can buy dried Ivan tea and hop cones, rye or oats for seedlings, cocoa beans and carob - sweet carob. The right place for those who for some reason do not eat sugar, or prefer to eat plant foods.

"Hazelnut" (Sadovaya street, 42)

"OLIVIA"

• What they sell: olive, pumpkin, rice, walnut and other oils, vinegars, olives, olives, capers.
• Why go: find out how Extra Virgin Olive Oil differs from Pure, and why you need Pomace; to buy a very healthy Styrian pumpkin oil, made in a small Austrian factory, as a gift to my mother.

The Olivia stores - now nine of them - are owned by Paritet MM, one of the largest distributors of olive and other oils. The first store on 8th Sovetskaya was opened in 2009. Olivia looks elegant: glare of light plays on the sides of glass bottles, golden oil seems like some kind of fabulous elixir, and the number of variations presented convinces that choosing the most common salad dressing should take at least twenty minutes. More than 10 producers are represented in Olivia, from the well-known Italian Trasimeno or Basso to small family oil mills from Austria or France. For example, at the Hamlitsh oil mill in Deutschlandsberg, in the Austrian province of Styria, unrefined oil is made from the seeds of the Shritian pumpkin. This product - dark, thick, with nutty notes - is considered one of the most expensive pumpkin oils. And pretty bottles of La Tourangelle with bright content come from France.

Pistachio oil, 345.5 rubles

Avocado oil, 345.5 rubles.

Prices at Olivia are more than humane. The same Styrian pumpkin will cost 260 rubles. for 250 gr., and pistachio or avocado oil - 345.5 rubles. for 250 gr.

Considering the cost and assortment, it is simply impossible to leave Olivia without a purchase. And you can stop going there with or without reason only when the battery of oils and vinegars no longer fits in the bottle. And then not for long.

"Olivia" (8th Sovetskaya, 6, Savushkina St., 48, Suvorovsky Ave., 1, Karpovka River Embankment, 10, Sredneokhtinsky Ave., 15, Moskovsky Ave., 138A, Bolshoi Ave. V.O., 76, Kondratevsky pr., 61, Bolshoi Sampsonievsky pr., 92)

"MKT NEVA"

• What they sell: ingredients and tools for confectioners of varying degrees of advancement.
• Why go: buy pink and blue fondant and try to mold an edible cartoon Piglet; to buy food felt-tip pens as a gift to a familiar child; be inspired by the possibilities for confectionery creativity.

Finding a store where you can buy confectionery ingredients at retail and in small volumes was not so easy. It turns out that home-grown confectioners mostly buy the same mastic in an unpainted (white) form in buckets of five kilos, and turn to online stores for waffle decor. MKT Neva, a fairly large wholesale supplier, opened a retail outlet precisely in connection with an increase in applications from retail buyers. In the shop windows there are small (1 kg each) buckets with multi-colored mastic for modeling masterpieces (from 290 rubles, Turkey), bulk bags with multi-colored sprinkles (from 150 rubles), bottles with fruit pastes-toppings. A stand with dyes, mostly Italian, is like an artist's shop: there are mother-of-pearl and velvety, bright and pastel, powdery, pasty, gel ones.

Food markers, 90 rubles/pack.
Multi-colored gels for decoration, 75 rubles / pc.

Sugar and marmalade decor: a pirate, 50 rubles, a house, 90 rubles.

For those who have no time to sculpt Snow White or paint a Khokhloma-style cake, a ready-made decor is provided. You can buy, for example, a tiny Santa Claus made of mastic, or Italian round waffle plates for the heroes of the occasion of any age - from kids with Hello Kitty and Cars to brutal, with motorcycles.

Waffle decor (butterflies, flowers), 130-150 rubles.

If the desired item is not available, you can order from the catalog. From a warehouse in St. Petersburg, all the ingredients will be delivered in three days, from Italy - within a month.

"MKT Neva" (Kolomyazhsky pr., 28)

• What they sell: Chinese, Japanese and Thai products, Indian spices.
• Why go: inhale spicy smells; buy sweet potato vermicelli in authentic Chinese packaging; feel like a member of a secret sect, because mere mortals cannot find the entrance to Adi.

Actually, Adi on Fontanka, 89 is a warehouse. You can find it only if you know where to go, because there are no signboards or wooden arrows with pointers here. The mysterious semicircular door, like in a hobbit's hole, with an intercom button is located in the courtyard of house 89; Entering the gate from the Fontanka embankment, you need to turn left. It is better for the faint of heart to tune in in advance: a warehouse is a warehouse. Having passed the pantry lined with boxes and it’s still not clear what, you need to go down the chipped steps down, and - voila! - we are in a small room where packages of Chinese teas and boxes with bags of Indian spice manufacturers MDH and TRS are placed on the shelves, bags of Chinese canned mushrooms, dry ice mushrooms and shiitake are laid out.

Everything is utterly authentic: packages with hieroglyphs or incomprehensible words like Do Xanh Boc Vo Hai Yen (the inscription on the package with shelled mung bean from Vietnam, 82 rubles per 500 gr.). Something dark green and incomprehensible turns out to be algae for soup (300 rubles per 500 grams), a one and a half kilogram package of pickled ginger costs 220 rubles, and for sushi, in addition to domestic Jasmine rice, they offer Vietnamese sticky rice Chapsari (130 rub per 1 kg.). It is recommended to visit everyone who is not indifferent to secret and authentic places with attractive prices.

Adi (emb. River Fontanka, 89)

Photos: Anton Kuznetsov

Many of us love to travel, learn new places, culture, visit interesting and unusual countries, get acquainted with the customs and dishes of the places we visit.

Traveling and not trying the local cuisine is like going to the sea and not swimming in it. Food preferences in each region are significantly different, and the more interesting it is to get acquainted with new dishes, to feel new tastes of various products.

Products that are considered rather strange in our region can be eaten and even a delicacy in some cuisines. Therefore, before trying the national dishes of other nations, study this topic in advance.

But there is a small category of people who specifically try new, even strange and sometimes disgusting (at first glance) products. We have compiled a rating of 10 dishes that (we think) look rather strange.

# # #

In the photo: Jumiles (Jumiles)

Humiles- this is nothing more than Mexican bugs - six-legged insects, no larger than 1 cm in size, that live in the forests and mountainous regions of Mexico. They are widely eaten by Mexicans, for some southern regions of Mexico, these insects are included in the daily diet.

In the photo: Fried bugs on a flatbread

Bed bugs are eaten both raw and mashed. Often they are added to other dishes, served with caviar, shrimp and asparagus. These insects are rich in protein, as well as vitamin B12 and iodine, which gives them a slightly "medicinal" taste.

Bedbugs have a rather interesting sweetish-bitter taste, similar to a mixture of mint and cinnamon.

# # #

9. Sannakji

Pictured: Sannakji

is a Korean delicacy made from small octopuses. Moreover, the dish is served in such a way that the tentacles of the octopuses are still moving on the plate. They are served with sesame oil and sesame seeds.

The tentacles have quite a lot of strength, they seem to resist, do not want to be planted on a fork and chewed, wriggling on a plate, and then in the mouth. The dish has a very mild and pleasant aroma.

Pictured: Sannakji

One disadvantage of this dish is that the tentacles often stick to the palate, and if they are poorly chewed before swallowing, they can stick to the throat, making breathing very difficult. There were also deaths from suffocation with tentacles stuck in the throat. Therefore, sannakji must be chewed very carefully. Fans of this dish really appreciate the feeling of chewing live food.

# # #

8 Stinky Heads

Pictured: Stinky salmon heads

Salmon family fish is appreciated in many cuisines of the world, but the next dish is unlikely to please the average traveler. We are talking about a delicacy known in Alaska - the head of a salmon, which is stuffed into a wooden barrel and left for a long time.

The second cooking option fish head dishes is to bury them in a hole lined with moss. After a couple of weeks, the fish is fermented, and correctly speaking, it rots. Then all this is dug up and crushed. The result is a dish that resembles sauce in consistency and emits a fetid odor.

For the natives of Alaska, these stinky fish heads are an unprecedented delicacy.

11 chose

Many Russians still have fresh memories of those times when almost all products were rare, with the possible exception of pasta and table salt. When the "Book of Tasty and Healthy Food" of 1959 with its colorful photographs deservedly stood on the library shelf in the "Fantasy" section.

Today on our table there is nothing! There is literally everything your heart desires, and not just "overseas eggplant caviar." However, there is a category of special delicacies, the rarest products in the world, available not just to great gourmets, but to gourmets with great wealth. Are dishes made from these products really that tasty, or is it all about their rarity and price?

Steak from Wagyu

Wagyu is a rare breed of Japanese cows, which is now grown in Australia.

It is their meat - marbled beef (kobe), which is considered the most expensive in the world. Tasting steaks from a kilogram of marbled beef will cost about a thousand dollars. Special feed, massage with sake and beer give the meat a special taste and appearance. Australian wagyu drink red wine, so their meat is even more valued.

Sandwich with caviar

If you are still sure that the most expensive caviar in the world is black, then your confidence will now dissipate. The most valued caviar of the albino beluga "Almas", which is found in the Caspian Sea, but not on our shores, but on the Iranian coast. 100 grams of caviar cost 2 thousand dollars, and the delicacy product is packaged in golden jars. Connoisseurs who had a chance to taste "Almas" claim that caviar has a unique nutty flavor.

Black and white

A pound of white truffles can cost gourmets from a little over a thousand to 4 thousand dollars. And all because it grows only in the wild, never wanting to be cultivated in the gardens of Italian farmers. The cost of white truffles depends on the size - a one and a half kilogram white truffle sold at auction cost connoisseurs of its rare taste more than 300 thousand dollars.

Its fellow black truffle is just as rare and expensive, but black truffle dessert is even more valuable. Knisschildt chocolate. It is a whole black truffle covered in a thick layer of dark chocolate and named after the author, chocolatier Fritz Kniesschildt, who first prepared it in 1996.

Potatoes with mushrooms

Who refuses a frying pan with fried potatoes and mushrooms? Cheap and delicious! Yes, if you collected mushrooms yourself in the forest, and potatoes from your grandmother's garden. Another thing is if these are Japanese Matsutake mushrooms, popular in Japanese cuisine. Moreover, their price varies from 90 dollars per kilogram if they are imported from China, Canada, Sweden, and up to two thousand if they grew in Japan. And to them, the delicacy potatoes La Bonnotte from the island of Nurmoitier from the Atlantic at 500 euros per kilogram, grown and harvested only by hand and fertilized exclusively with seaweed. No more than 100 tons of this especially valuable and delicate potato are harvested every year.

A cup of coffee

You may have heard of this type of coffee before. "Kopi Luwak" or civet coffee, which grows in Sumatra and Sulawesi and is also produced by a small funny animal. The civet was once considered a coffee pest because it feeds on coffee berries. Later it turned out that the civet is a real treasure, since the grains that have not been digested by her body, but passed through it, have a special taste and lack of bitterness. One kilogram of such grains costs about 400 dollars.

Watermelon slice, melon slice

How much can a slice of watermelon cost? Do you think a little? Unless it's a Densuke watermelon. This almost black berry (watermelon is referred to as a berry) from the island of Hokkaido costs $ 6,000 apiece, and only 65 pieces are grown per year. Hokkaido farmers can surprise gourmets with another rare fruit - melon. Yes, melons grow in our country and in considerable quantities, what kind of rarity is this? However, Yubari melon only looks like ordinary melon, its taste is completely different and its sweetness is extraordinary. Perhaps all this is due to a special fertilizer - volcanic ash.

The cuisine of each country is fundamentally different from each other, each nation has its own traditional dishes that people like to cook in all corners of our world, but there are also very unusual, interesting dishes that are prepared exclusively in some restaurant or city that differ with their originality and ingredients, we will talk about them today.

In the first place are seemingly traditional dumplings, but it is these dumplings that are cooked in the only restaurant in New York "Golden Gates" and in addition to the usual meat of pork, beef, and in some cases salmon, torch fish glands are placed, which give the dumplings an unusual bluish glow. Anyone can taste such a dish in this restaurant for only $ 2,500.

The second, more product that attracted attention is the macadamia nut, which is found exclusively in Australia, previously this nut was a common dish of the "local" natives, but for some time now the extraction of this nut has significantly decreased, up to 40 tons per year, therefore, per kilogram of this wonderful nut will have to pay $ 30.

You will not believe, but there is also the most expensive sandwich in the world - it is a platinum club, which is served in the restaurant of the Hotel Von Essen. And the composition of this dish includes - most importantly, bread, but cooked on a special sourdough, white truffles, quail eggs, tomatoes from Italy.


If you are not such a gourmet of exotic and expensive food, I suggest you apply for the delivery of ready meals through special online services.

Since we are talking about products, I would like to highlight the most expensive spice in the world - this is saffron. This product is interesting because saffron is the stamens of plants of the crocus family, which, by the way, are collected by human hands, and as they say, manual labor is especially valued in order to collect at least 0.5 kg. saffron, 500,000 plants must be devastated. And a kilo of this stuff costs $6,000.

Well, I cannot but tell you about the truffle, although everyone knows that the truffle is very expensive in itself, the white truffle stands out from the family, the price of which reaches 30,000 EURO.

Now it's the turn of sweet lovers - chocolate. The most expensive is Chocopologie by Knipschildt, which is produced exclusively in the USA. You will not find such chocolate on the shops, but only in elite restaurants, because 0.5 kilogram of this miracle costs $ 2,600.

I can't tell you about the most expensive coffee in the world - "Kopi Luwak", which has an unusual production method. Luwak is a small animal that loves coffee beans very much. Having eaten and digested them, the grains acquire an unusual aroma and taste. For a kilo of this goodness, you will have to pay 400 US dollars.

In this collection you will find an overview of the most expensive foods and drinks. There will be coffee, vodka and much more

The most expensive spice in the world is saffron. True saffron is the stamens of a plant in the crocus family (Crocus sativus). From the stamens of marigold flowers, saffron is also made, called false, or Imeritinsky. The stamens are harvested by hand and then dried. To get half a kilogram of spice, 225,000 stamens are needed. To ennoble a dish designed for three to five people, no more than six stamens of real saffron are enough. Imeretinsky saffron is used in significantly larger quantities and does not give such a flavor. One kilogram of real saffron costs about 6 thousand dollars.

The most expensive nut in the world is macadamia. Once a staple food for the Australian Aborigines, macadamia has now become an exquisite and very healthy delicacy. Only two types of these nuts are cultivated (there are plantations in Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Hawaii and the southern United States). The height of the macadamia tree reaches 40 meters, it bears fruit for up to 100 years, but peeling the nut from the shell is not an easy task. Due to the difficulties with breeding and harvesting the delicacy, it is produced no more than 40 tons per year. The cost of one kilogram of macadamia, even in its historical homeland, exceeds $30.

The most expensive caviar in the world is not black at all. And not even a rare gray. The most expensive is "Almas", an albino beluga caviar, occasionally exported from Iran. One hundred grams of caviar, packed in an indispensable jar of pure gold, will cost the buyer about 2 thousand dollars.

As you know, the most expensive mushroom in the world is the white truffle. It is impossible to set any exact price per kilogram of this delicacy, because almost every large mushroom is sold at auction. Sometimes this does not benefit either the customers or the product. So, in 2004, a mushroom weighing 850 grams bought for 28 thousand pounds sterling ... was simply rotten. The inconsolable buyer buried it in the garden in the hope that a new giant would grow in its place, but was subsequently forced to transfer the remains to the deceased's homeland, Tuscany. In early November 2007, three Hong Kong tycoons pooled their money for a 750-gram mushroom for $209,000 (so far, the biggest money ever paid for a truffle). Nothing terrible happened to this copy: it was safely prepared and eaten at an exclusive truffle banquet, where the families and friends of the magnates gathered.

It would seem that an ordinary potato cannot cost sky-high thousands! Nothing like this. Resourceful peasants living on the islet of Nurmoitier annually harvest no more than 100 tons of "La Bonnotte" variety per year. Since the divine tuber (and according to legend, this particular variety was bred by the supreme god of the Incas) is exceptionally tender, it can only be collected by hand. The most expensive potato in the world costs about 500 euros per kilogram.

The most expensive meat in the world is beef. And not simple, but marble. And - necessarily from the Japanese cows Wagyu. For centuries, these cows were bred only in Japan, near the city of Kobe, treated respectfully and fed only the best herbs, as well as daily rubbed with sake and watered with beer. For a long time, the Japanese did not export cattle for breeding, but now Wagyu cows are also bred in Australia. But this affected the cost of meat only upwards: to improve the quality of products, Australian farmers began to give cows red wine (at $ 16 per bottle). A 200 gram fillet costs over $100 in Europe. Some, especially delicate pieces are sold for a thousand dollars.

The most expensive sandwich in the world is proudly called the von Essen Platinum Club Sandwich. You can try it by paying 100 pounds (almost $200) at the Von Essen hotels. This sandwich is really tasty, because it includes: Iberian ham, Bresse poulard, white truffles, quail eggs, dried Italian tomatoes and bread made with a special sourdough.

The world's most expensive pizza "Luis XIII" offers a young Italian chef Renato Viola. It costs 8300 euros. According to the author, "this price is not exaggerated if we keep in mind the exclusive products and two people who come to the house to cook it." Pizza, except for the base, is prepared in the presence of the client. The composition includes: buffalo mozzarella, three types of caviar, as well as red lobster, shrimp and lobster (all this, of course, is elite and very expensive). Even the salt in this pizza is not ordinary and not even sea, but Australian pink "Murray River".

The most expensive omelette in the world can be eaten at the restaurant of the New York hotel "Le Parker Meridien". It costs a thousand dollars. In addition to the actual eggs, there are whole lobsters in the omelet. It is served on a bed of fried potatoes and garnished with ten ounces of sturgeon caviar.

The most expensive chocolate in the world is called Chocopologie by Knipschildt. It is produced in the USA by Knipschildt Chocolatier. Naturally, it is dark chocolate. Naturally, it is not intended for long-term storage: after all, in order for confectionery products not to spoil longer, it is necessary to use cheaper ingredients, which is unacceptable in haute couture chocolate making. For a pound (453 grams) "Chocopologie by Knipschildt" will have to pay $ 2,600.

The most expensive coffee in the world - "Kopi Luwak" - is made from grains not of some unique variety, but rather of a unique life path. "Kopi" in Indonesian means "coffee", and "Luwak" is a small animal, a type of civet, an animal of the viverrid family. The luwak is a small carnivore, but loves to eat the ripe fruits of the coffee tree, and chooses the best ones. He eats more coffee than he can digest. Undigested grains, passing through the intestines of the animal, are exposed to its enzymes and, as lovers of "Kopi Luwak" swear, acquire a unique taste and aroma. A kilogram of coffee, which was helped to be born by luwak, costs from 300 to 400 dollars. Most consumers of this variety, as, however, usually happens with all expensive food products, live in Japan. As you already understood, the delivery of coffee beans will cost you a tidy sum. But it will be worth it...

The most expensive tea in the world is called Dahongpao, which means "Big Red Robe". It belongs to oolong teas (highly fermented teas with an intense taste and aroma). They get the "Big Red Robe" from a leaf of only six bushes growing near the Tianxin Monastery. The age of these unique bushes is 350 years. Each year they collected no more than 500 grams of the legendary tea, the cost of the finished product reached 685 thousand dollars per kilogram. In 2005, 20 grams of tea (four spoons) was sold at an auction in Fujian Province for 208,000 yuan (about $25,000), and a week earlier the same amount was sold for $24,000. In 2006, the entire harvest was transferred to the Chinese National Tea Museum for storage, a moratorium was declared on further collection. From now on, no one will be able to enjoy Dahongpao tea. However, since the 80s of the last century, mother bushes have been propagated vegetatively. The tea obtained from them is also called the "Big Red Robe", but connoisseurs believe that it cannot be compared with real Dahongpao.

The most expensive champagne in the world - "Perrier Jouet Belle Epoque Blanc de Blanc" - is made from special grapes, which are harvested only from two small plots of the vineyard in the town of Cotes des Blancs. It is created only in the years of the best grape harvest. In 2007, only 156 bottles of this drink, hand-painted in the art nouveau style, were imported into Russia. Each bottle of 0.75 liters costs about a thousand euros.

The most expensive whiskey in the world - "The Macallan Fine & Rare Vintage" 60-year-old, bottled in 1926 - you can not buy for any money. However, its price is known: 38 thousand dollars. Those who wish are invited to buy for more than 10 thousand an analogue of the coveted drink - "Macallan Fine & Rare" 1938 release.

The most expensive beer in the world - the Belgian "Vieille Bon Secours" - can be purchased at the London bar Bierdrome. A bottle costs about a thousand dollars, a pint will be poured for $79.

The world's most expensive vodka "Diva" is prepared by Scottish masters in compliance with all imaginable and unimaginable rules. It is filtered through northern birch charcoal, and for complete purification - through sand and crumbs of diamonds and other precious stones. The standard bottle is decorated with cubic zircons, however, at the request of the customer, they can be replaced with any other gems. Depending on the cost of jewelry, the price of a bottle also varies - from the standard 400 to 1000 dollars.