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/ck/ - Food & Cooking

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4345828 No.4345828 [Reply] [Original]

Hey /ck/, I was wondering. what was the most expensive meal or ingredient that you've ever bought? Was it worth it? What would you have bought instead with the money?

I personally am thinking of fulfilling my 5 year long passion of buying a black or white truffle, but the price would seriously put back my funds for a new laptop. =[

pic unrelated.

>> No.4345830

Truffle oil. What would I buy instead? Truffle oil.

>> No.4345832

Black truffles are not expensive. I bought a black truffle for $20. White truffles on the other hand.

>> No.4345851

>>4345832

1 Black Truffle for $20 is expensive. Too risky to try and make a profit, when you consider product loss and the money you'll be out if they don't sell and go bad.

>> No.4345855

>>4345828
Being a poorfag, the most expensive thing I've bought was wagyu beef. No, it didn't feel all that special but maybe I cooked it too long for shabu shabu.

>> No.4345859

Saffron for some real motherfucking authentic Spain-spanish food.

Saffron, sweet paprika, yellow rice, pork, chicken, peas. delicious.

>> No.4345864

on my honeymoon in Maui I spent $82 on a steak at Spago & it was worth every fucking penny
also spent $12 on a cup of coffee there which was also incredible
the most expensive ingredient i've bought was probably a jar of saffron for about $40

>> No.4345870

>>4345864

was it that cat poop coffee?

>> No.4345881

>>4345870

probably not, at a place like spago cat poop coffee would cost more. probably JBM or something.

>> No.4345886

>>4345881

I did have some 10-Euro coffee when I was in Paris. Might've been similar to yours. Either way, my coffee was incredible.

>> No.4345892

>>4345870
lol, no
it was from a neighbouring island called Molokai(yeah, the place that used to have a leper colony) & it was owned by a family that only grew for Spago
at least thats what the waiter told me
it was amazing coffee, i normally drink coffee with cream & sugar but this was so good I just drank it black

>> No.4345907
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4345907

Ignoring normal stuff like saffron that only seems expensive if you measure it by the pound, the most wasteful/extravagant meal I had was breakfast at a place called Norma's in NYC. It was a few years ago and I forgot the details, but breakfast for two came to around $100. It was a pretty basic, well executed hotel breakfast, no fancy or unusual ingredients. Shit did not make sense.

I've had cat poop coffee but I bought it in Indonesia and it wasn't all that expensive (might have been something like $15 for a pouch that made several small cups).

>> No.4346258 [DELETED] 

>>4345828

I think kirschwasser. Worst part is I forgot to use it. Threw it away.

>> No.4346282

$130 meal at a fancy restaurant
the food was cold
100 mcdoubles instead

>> No.4346325

>>4345828

I think it was kirschwasser. Forgot to use it. threw it away.

>> No.4346461

duck and wildrice dish at some restaurant
something like $55

duck was overcooked

duck to cook at home

>> No.4346498

>>4345864
>spending money in a tourist trap
come on

>> No.4346536

Foie gras: shrug
Aged balsamic: worth it
Beluga caviar: shrug
Vanilla: worth it
Périgord truffle: worth it
Other black truffle: no.
Wine over 25 Euro for a bottle: you're getting rolled
Truffle oil: an even bigger scam.

>> No.4347431

>>4345907
it's in NYC, that's why. huge rent costs.

>> No.4347441

>>4345892
>that's what the waiter told me
I can't believe people this naive exist

I bet you gave your money up front to that friendly black man, I'm sure he'll be right back with your drugs

>> No.4347465

Foie gras is probably the most expensive food item that I have eaten. I was a bit disappointed in it, because it doesn't really stand out against other livepaté or liverwurst. I can get liverfoods from the supermarket here in Finland that costs 4€/kg and tastes almost exactly the same.

>> No.4347542

>>4347465
really? I've only had foie gras once, but it was pretty different from the liverwursts i've had.

>> No.4347559

>>4347465

What kind did you have? Was it fresh or from a can? Was it whole or was it reconstituted? Foie gras comes in various types. Fresh, whole, foie gras is totally different from foie gras blocks, which are made from trimmings that are pressed together. The latter is very similar to standard liver pate whereas the former is completely different in taste, texture, and price.

>> No.4347591

Prime grade steak. About $25 per steak. Most amazing steak ever.

>> No.4347616

>>4347441
What else are you supposed to do? Go and inspect the farm and press the farm owners to make absolutely certain that their beans go to probably the only restaurant on the tiny little shit island?

It's Hawaii, you dumb shit. It would probably cost MORE just to import the beans from a far off African or Asian country, especially for a dinky little cafe.

>> No.4347630

>>4345828
The most expensive meal I've ever bought was about $300 at Morton's for an Anniversary dinner for me and my wife.

Most expensive ingrediant sheer price wise was about 8 pounds of prime grade beef rib roast for Christmas dinner. Cost something like $160 if I remember right.

The most expensive item for the amount I got (i.e. price/pound) was saffron. Cost like 7 bucks for half a gram.

>> No.4347635

Bought a cheap bottle of rum, brandy and whiskey for cooking.

Ended up drinking most of them.

>> No.4347633

>>4346536
mah nigga

>> No.4347649

I once spent $40 on 6 oz. of kopi luwak coffee, just to see what all the fuss was about.

You know that amazing magic moment when there's fresh coffee brewing and that smell just climbs up in your brain and makes you feel like everything is going to be okay?
And you know that disappointing moment when you take that first sip and it just tastes like coffee?
Kopi luwak actually tastes like that smell. Totally worth it.

>> No.4347657

Saffron for some saffron rice i suppose

>> No.4347663

I bought a gallon of moonshine once
Not very tasty, wouldnt recommend

>> No.4347712
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4347712

>>4347663
i dont think you buy moonshine for the taste

>> No.4347716

Most expensive meal? French laundry, summer 2011. 2K/4 people, which is _cheap_. Still, for 150/person on wine we ended up with like... 7 glasses per person. I think they were using us to finish off open bottles, shit was great.

Ingredients? Um... I once bought one of those $80/lb 20 year aged cheddars from Whole Foods, but it was only a thumb-sized brick and cost me a couple of dollars. Had a two-hand-sized tin of saffron once, but that was given to me to be used in something I was making that day (a stupid amount of paella).

Outside of alcohol, that's the worst of it.

Not sure what else I would've spent the French Laundry money on. Booze and snacks to celebrate instead of going out, I suppose.

>> No.4347753

>>4345886
>expensive coffee in a paris cafe
>must be some kind of super special blend

protip it's massively overpriced regular coffee because it's paris

>> No.4348072
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4348072

>>4347431
>breakfast for two in NYC normally costs $100

Yeah, no.

>> No.4348193

$12 tomato at whole foods

>> No.4348215

My most expensive purchases don't really compare to other people's in this thread, but I've bought tea that was more than $60/lb, fresh seabass that was $26/lb, and I spent $80 on the rib roast I fixed for Christmas this year.

>> No.4348218

Fuck truffles and truffle oil. Just saying.

Most expensive shit I've ever bought was two whole lambs. I spit-roasted one and butchered the other. Was well worth the price. Set me back 300 dollars for two weaned lambs.

>> No.4348231

>>4347441
Did that once and the black man actually did come back with my drugs. Spent 20mins shitting it waiting on a street corner for him to return. But he came back. So there.

>> No.4348234

>>4345864
Might have been Kona Coffee?

>> No.4348340

>>4345851
Not set you back from buying a laptop expensive.

>> No.4348359

some very pricey cognac. Totally wasn't worth it. What a douche.

>> No.4348397

>>4347716
>French Laundry

How far in advance do you need to book a reservation there?
Do you think the experience is worth $500 a person?

>> No.4348399

>>4347716
>7 glasses of wine with dinner

fuck, I'd be a blubbering mess after that. is that normal for such restaurants? never been anywhere that famous. sounds like fun though.

>> No.4348478

>>4346498
tourist trap my fat white ass
i originally didnt even want to go, the wife wanted to.
i wanted to go to more local fare, mostly seafood since we were on an island but i had picked out all of the other restaurants on our honeymoon & she really wanted to go there because its apparently a hot spot for celebrities, typical woman of course
sooooooo fucking glad i went there. ungodly good. i have never found any other place that comes even relatively close in comparison
& the coffee wasnt kona, im not 100% but i believe kona comes from the big island & i had kona every morning i was there on my honeymoon, this stuff from Molokai was better by leaps & bounds & kona is pretty fucking good coffee

>> No.4348522

Was in Japan doing a homestay and someone on the program offered to take someone out to get Kobe beef. Luckily I got picked and we found a really nice place.

Meal cost ~500 USD total. Turns out fried rice and miso were an extra $75. Whoops! Thank god I didn't pay a cent.

>> No.4349488

Once had a $22 sandwich in an airport in Sweden. It was a hard roll, about the length of my hand with a tomato slice, one leaf of lettuce, and a slice of cheddar with a couple very thin slices of smoked ham. It was from the fridge display, had been sitting there for a while. Cheese was ok, the rest tasted like shit. It was the cheapest thing I could find. The fuck if that was worth it.

Same trip, spent roughly $2,500 for a combo deal: breakfast of scrambled eggs on a bagel with mayo and apple juice, and later a dinner of italian herb chicken, steamed veggies, sweet potatoes, and 2 dinner rolls. Few glasses of wine I didn't know the name of. I asked for another dinner roll and some jam instead of the desert. On the way out they gave me a ham sammich brown bag lunch to take with me. I put the lunch in my bag and forgot about it until the next day so can't comment on the taste. There was a picture of a reindeer on the front, I was anxious to see what that tastes like. The $2500 was to upgrade from coach > business class on a 13hr flight. Company paid for it. Toooootaly worth it. My ass and knees are still feeling comfortable from that.

>> No.4351088

>>4345828

A meal at the nexus of what started fine dining in Vancouver, or at least one of it's children who went on to have 5 kids of different countries.

TL;DR, a meal at COAST, a restaurant in Vancouver which is part of the Glowbal group where the owner used to work at Joe Fortes.

The steak made up for the shitty Thanksgiving Dinner I had with my family who had very little sense of taste. Joe Fortes was a 60 dollar Brunch as I ordered a full course meal. Never regretted that since I was stuffed all the way to dinner time.

>>4348397

It's the wine that makes up for most of the cost along with food pairing.

>> No.4351116

>>4348399
Honestly, we were expecting 3 or 4, so we started off trying to finish the glasses when we thought it likely they were going to switch... but then we realized the wine just kept coming. We slowed down/let them take away non-empty glasses when it was time, but we were still pretty tipsy by the end. Actually had to wait in the car for an hour for anyone to sober up enough to drive (or perhaps we were being overly cautious).

We were also there until past midnight, so, yeah.

>> No.4351130

>>4348397

The expense was... the experience was worth it. The food alone? No. The full package, though, including the kitchen tour, the "extras" (500 included two of the menu either/or options, and we asked for the 'coffee and donuts' at the start so it would be ready at the end, plus there's a bunch of mini-courses in-between), and the SERVICE. Goodness, it was impeccable.

tl;dr, worth it if you can afford it, but probably not worth going more than once unless you can _really_ afford it.

I got my reservation about a month and a half in advance, but I did this by calling first thing in the morning _every day_ for a week and a half. The line is often really busy and you won't even get through. Your best bet is being available to take _any_ reservation that'll fit your party; that's how we did it (one morning I called, the guy recognized my series of table requests (4top or 6top), and said he had something open; there was no other alert and if I hadn't called I wouldn't have moved off the waitlist).

Now for a short story about the service.

We were on our second course; a peanut-butter-and-jelly themed pate with a warm brioche. While I was eating I noticed a waiter taking away my half-eaten brioche and I wondered what I did wrong... obviously the look showed on my face because she smiled and said,

"This one isn't warm anymore," and a moment later replaced it with a fresh one. French Laundry won't even let your food get beyond optimal temperature if they can help it (similar things happened with our in-between-course bread rolls).

>> No.4351223

40$ Ribeye
Delicious

>> No.4351247

When my wife was pregnant, I got to eat all kinds of expensive stuff, because you know, where she wanted to go, I too went, lol. For her birthday that year (she was about 7 months pregnant at the time), I took her to one of the nicest steakhouses in the city. She was craving red meat. Anywhooooo.....we had appetizers of steamed clams with chorizo and white wine, and a wedge salad. Then I had the New York strip with fried oysters ($45), and the wife had the 22 oz bone-in ribeye ($55) plus sides , and a cheese tray for dessert. If I remember correctly, it was about $200 all said and done. Everything was cooked perfectly, and it was a great dining experience, but it was pure indulgence. We knew that once the baby came, we wouldn't be able to have dinners like that out for a loooong time. So, we were just milking it for all it was worth. I mean, I can grill a mean steak at home of course, but it was worth the great evening we had.

>> No.4351282

Around 3,000RMB at Uncle Yu's Family Kitchen in Chengdu, China.
Thats the equivalent to about $500 by myself.
Best chinese food I had in all of China. Crazy textures and flavors, about 12 courses. No wine, brought my own.
Some of them were weird mushrooms, one was roasted avocado (wtf?) some pickles, duck tonges, wild variety of small dishes.
'Hanger' Duck was dreamy and the end: a perfect lychee. Nothing else.

Great meal, but I dont think Id ever go back. that was a lot of $.
On the other hand I became good buddies with the chef there, though neither could understand each other, we understood food. Cool dude.