Because A Luxury Meal Shouldn't Need a Loan
Caviar used to be the ultimate symbol of luxury, but these days, it’s practically middle class in the world of absurdly expensive food. There are gourmet dishes out there now that could pay your rent or even secure you a used car. Even if you have room on your credit card for this kind of indulgence, it’s satisfying knowing that there are meals that feel luxurious without costing a month’s salary. So let’s dive in: here are ten extravagant meals and ten that taste high end at a fraction of the cost.
1. Fleurburger 5000
Served at Fleur in Las Vegas, the Fleurburger 5000 features Wagyu beef, foie gras, and truffle sandwiched between a brioche bun. It’s paired with a bottle of 1995 Château Pétrus. The price for this culinary flex is a whopping $5,000.
2. White Truffle Pasta
This dish starts out simply enough with butter, noodles, and salt. Then someone shows up with a truffle shaver and turns lunch into a mortgage payment. The Alba white truffle from Italy can cost $4,000 a pound, and the best restaurants slice it directly onto steaming pasta. The aroma hits first, and then the bill hits afterward.
3. The Fortress Stilt Fisherman Indulgence
Served in Sri Lanka’s Fortress Resort, this dessert costs around $14,500. It’s a gold leaf–adorned dome of Irish cream, mango compote, and Dom Pérignon sabayon balanced over a chocolate sculpture of a local stilt fisherman. It also comes with an 80-carat aquamarine stone, simply because that’s what a luxurious afterthought looks like—gemstones.
4. Bluefin Tuna Sashimi
At the Tokyo Tsukiji fish auction, a single bluefin has sold for $3 million. The buttery flesh is so prized it’s treated with reverence and a degree of ritual as chefs slice it with specialized blades the length of your arm. There’s an argument to be made that no animal on Earth has inspired such culinary obsession.
5. Wagyu Beef (Kobe Grade A5)
Imagine meat so marbled it looks like a piece of abstract art. Authentic Kobe beef can cost over $500 a pound and is so fatty that it almost seems to liquefy in your mouth. To get the rich marbling, these cattle are fed a grain-heavy diet, often including corn, barley, and sometimes rice straw or wheat.
6. Bird’s Nest Soup
As you might imagine from the name, this dish is made from the hardened saliva of swiftlets harvested from cave walls in Southeast Asia. It’s considered a delicacy for its supposed health benefits and costs $3,000 per kilogram. The texture is gelatinous, faintly sweet, and oddly comforting, as long as you don’t dwell on the dish’s origins.
7. Matsutake Mushrooms
These fragile mushrooms can fetch up to $1,000 a pound. Their aroma is a mixture of cinnamon and wet earth that lingers, perfuming the air with the essence of the pine forests where they are harvested. Japan reveres them on almost a spiritual level.
8. The Zillion Dollar Lobster Frittata
This is a New York brunch joke that became real. The dish costs $2,000 and features a whole lobster, six eggs, sevruga caviar, and cream. It’s served at Norma’s in the Parker Hotel, where it exists mostly to provoke conversation.
9. Italian White Gold Pizza
This $12,000 pizza is topped with edible gold, truffles, caviar, lobster, and champagne-infused dough. You have to order it three days in advance, giving you just enough time for buyer’s regret. It’s culinary theater that’s equal parts ridiculous and brilliant.
10. Samundari Khazana Curry
This $3,200 “treasure curry” was a one-off that included edible gold, abalone, Devon crab, white truffle, and a whole Scottish lobster. It was created to celebrate the release of Slumdog Millionaire, which feels rather ironic considering the film’s subject matter.
And now for the cheaper and arguably smarter alternatives.
1. Salmon Roe
Salmon eggs are bright orange, briny, and burst in your mouth like tiny water balloons. They cost a fraction of the black stuff, but look equally stunning on toast points or sushi. If it’s fish eggs you crave, there’s no need to splurge on the gold tin to satisfy that craving.
2. Truffle Oil Pasta
It’s a scandalous truth that most truffle oils contain zero truffle. Still, a drizzle of the good stuff over pasta or fries makes any meal feel like a secret indulgence. Skip the $4,000 fungus and spend $20 on the bottle instead. Your senses won’t be able to tell the difference.
Addilyn Ragsdill @clockworklemon.com on Unsplash
3. Mango Sticky Rice
Southeast Asia’s humble dessert triumphs again with its ripe mango spread over warm coconut rice. It’s decadent and satisfying in a way gold leaf simply isn’t. Eat it on a humid night from a paper plate, and you’ll be smiling through every mouthful.
4. Tuna Poke
Hawaii figured out how to make raw fish casual and accessible. There are no multi-million-dollar auctions, just fresh tuna, soy sauce, sesame, and some scallions. You can even mix and match with the vegetables and protein of your choice.
5. Chuck Steak Cooked Right
If slow-braised, this cheap cut turns tough muscle into buttery meat that rivals pricier steaks. All you need is patience, salt, and a cast iron pan to give that perfectly caramelized sear. There’s a quiet victory in making something humble taste expensive.
6. Egg Drop Soup
Forget bird saliva. For a few dollars, a bowl of steaming egg drop soup hits the same soothing notes with its silky texture and gentle warmth. The smell of sesame oil might not scream luxury, but at least you don’t have disturbing imagery lingering in your mind.
Sharon Chen from Austin, United States on Wikimedia
7. Oyster Mushrooms
These mushrooms are mild, meaty, and have a wonderful texture that mimics seafood, soaking up flavor like a sponge. Roast them with butter, and they’re not far off from the taste of truffles. Close your eyes as you chew, and they hold up their end of the illusion.
Kier in Sight Archives on Unsplash
8. Lobster Roll
You can still enjoy lobster without remortgaging your house. A small lobster roll consisting of a lightly toasted bun, some butter, and a squeeze of lemon delivers all the decadence at a sane price. As a bonus, you can ditch the lobster cracker and dig in with your bare hands.
Steve Wrzeszczynski on Unsplash
9. Homemade Margherita Pizza
Pizza may very well be the truest expression of comfort food. It doesn’t get much simpler than a margherita pizza with tomato, mozzarella, basil, and olive oil. When the crust’s cooked just right, you realize gold leaf is a distraction from what pizza’s supposed to be.
10. Chickpea Curry
This dish is warm and fragrant, with just the right amount of spice. The smell fills the kitchen, and for under $10, you’ve created something that rivals any treasure curry on the planet. A plate full of naan bread is all the added luxury you need.
KEEP ON READING
20 Food-Related Art Projects
