• A4 wagyu tomahawk

• Louis XIII cognac

• pure saffron

Worth it? Definitely. Especially since I didn’t pay for any of it. This was all professional training as a fine dining server.

Frozen green beans from Costco. They were contaminated with listeria–there was a recall–and I was one of the lucky ones that got to have a stay in the hospital. The CT showed that the blood was just because the constant shitting had stripped the lining out of my colon. The hospital never got a culture, just gave me a bunch of antibiotics, so the law firm that was handling the recall told me to fuck off with my hospital bills.

1/10, would not repeat.

I once used $1k caviar as a topping for a Papa John’s pizza. It was delicious.

I ate at a 9 course meal at a Michelin star restaurant a few days ago in Nice, France.

This was the menu:

It cost us 658€. It was good.

The first dessert course left me in stitches because I thought it was so over the top:

Overall it was worth it for the experience and each course was very flavourful.

As others have noted proper good quality fresh truffle is really worth it (unlike all the “it’s no nicer than regular food but we’ve served it on a statue, covered it in gold leaf and sprinkled salt onto it off the top of a bald man’s head” fancy food you can spend a fortune on.) Freshly shaved truffle is like if Willy Wonka decided to turn his hand to making the perfect savoury food experience. It smells like the most satisfying food ever and then the instant your teeth slightly penetrate the surface of the shaving it somehow seems to instantly fill every space in your head with that scent at double the intensity and your whole mouth is awash with a uniquly rich and warm flavour.

I love single origin chocolate and was once gifted a bar of Amedei Porcelana (sometimes called “the most expensive chocolate in the world.”) It was, unsurprisingly, a perfectly executed bar of chocolate. Texture, balance of sugar to cocoa etc were all flawless. The flavour was delicate and perfectly balanced. It was like the most refined expression of the exact central archetype of what chocolate should taste like. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who would like to experience the most perfectly chocolatey chocolate. Personally I found that while it was a flawless execution of a straight down the middle chocolate and I am very glad to have had it, I prefer a bit more character and so my favourite bar is still the Grenada Chocolate Co 71% (which slaps you in the face with big juicy tropical fruit flavour and is overall not quite as refined as Amedai Porcelana.) Though I’ve not had the chance to eat either in several years so I suppose it’s possible they may have changed since…

As a kid I liked to chew random stuff, (and tbh as an adult too, but I control myself by chewing socially acceptable stuff!) and I once chewed on some fancy curtains were pretty big and covered a big bay window, and my parents had to replace them. I don’t know how much they were but it couldn’t have been cheap.

Kobe Beef in Kobe, Japan.

Best beef I ever had. Not worth it though. I didn’t realize how loaded my friend was when she suggested it to me, so I ended up reserving for 4 people before checking the prices.

I did spend 700$ eating sushi one time though. That time was worth it. For any sushi lovers planning a Japan trip - Stay out of the main cities and go for the coast. The best sushi is far from Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka.

As far as dollar amount, probably some meal with my girlfriend. We don’t do fancy but usually have one nice meal on a vacation.

But as a percentage of my income - something called Bonzai Chicken I ordered for $70 on my honeymoon back in the 90s. I made $7/hr at the time. I didn’t know it had curry in it or that I was allergic to curry. I spent the remainder of my honeymoon sick as a dog.

On a business trip, a local colleague took me for the (reputed) best Peking duck in Hong Kong - it was somewhere in the Central district, on the island itself.

I can’t remember how much it cost, but I know my colleague had to book three weeks in advance, and confirm 48 hours in advance that we were indeed having the duck.

It was fantastic. As an Aussie, I never truly appreciated properly cooked duck until then.

Some dinner at a fancy restaurant my fiance took me to for my birthday. I did my best to be respectful but I hated everything about it. The food tasted no better than a cheaper restaurant and everyone was so insanely pretentious. Would never choose something like that on my own. All the people with money I know love the place, but I would honestly be happier going to an Applebee’s than throwing my money into the garbage like that and have to have stuffy unrelatable conversations with strangers.

Fancy modern Itallian restaurant, authentic fresh truffle topping to my and my spouse’s dishes, cost $80 just to add that.

100% worth it, never tasted anything like it before. I don’t know if I would do it again, now that I’ve had the experience, but I’m glad I did.

The most expensive thing I’ve had that was really notable (as I’m sure I’ve ordered something pricier and thought nothing of it) was half an A5 wagyu steak from Wegmans. I think it was originally around $250/lb but it was on a manager’s special sale. I think it was around $80 for a ½lb, which is genuinely insane to me knowing that manager’s special means it’s the last chance to buy something before it goes bad.

Anyway, it was really good. A very odd experience though because afterwards I kinda stopped craving/ cooking/ ordering beef for a couple months. It was like I achieved some superlative thing and was just done with the concept of beef for a little bit. A strange reaction to such a positive experience, that said I do still eat beef occasionally.

I can’t think of a time I’ve deliberately eaten something expensive (as opposed to out of convenience), except for the kopi luwak, which was a gift.

It was from a relief worker I knew well, who had gotten it from a friend of his in SE Asia who collected the wild beans as a hobby. At market prices at the time I think the little cup I had worked out to around 40 dollars, and this was some time ago.

Anyway, was it worth it? It was a normal cup of Joe, except it had no bitterness to it at all. The cat’s gut apparently takes all the bitterness out of it without touching the flavour much, At a similar price to normal coffee I’d buy it, but as an uber-luxury I’d say it’s in no way worth it, unless you’re just consuming conspicuously.

Was part of a team that was sent to Boston for a project. While we were there, the company announced they were changing the meal expense policy from reimbursement for submitted bills to a fixed stipend.

But that policy change was a couple of days away, so the whole team went to this fancy expensive restaurant for dinner, and we ordered expensive food and wines as one last hurrah.

I don’t even remember where or what I ate or drank.

I just remember it was a good time.

I just got done eating dippin’ dots.