From sniffed fungus to the bird’s nest from the caves, here’s the list of 5 expensive food ingredients.  

Interestingly, the culinary world has created fusions and rediscovered some of the most exotic and expensive food and served it on our platter. But ever wondered why the food on your menu is so costly?  Well it’s not due to a customary fine- dining experience of the restaurant but it’s the ingredients.

Keeping in mind the nutritional values and availability here is a list of most expensive ingredients in the world of food.

Truffles

Truffles are a strong-smelling underground fungus resembling an irregular, rough-skinned potato. Truffles generally are in black and white and are found at the base of Oak trees especially in France and Italy. Ideally they have a pungent, intense, earthy fragrance and lend a unique flavour and aroma to the food. The truffle are mostly hunted with the help of pigs and the dogs from underground and these animals can easily smell these. Moreover the exotic food was valued at $61,250/kg during its last auction by Sothebys.

Saffron

Saffron the gem in traditional cuisine, is best for enhancing the flavours of the food and giving it’s distinctive colour. One of the main reason for saffron to be the costliest is because of growth and processing factors. Generally saffron is grown only seven days in a year during autumn season and it is collected and the entire processing is done with human hands. It is also accurately calculated that for a 1kg of saffron the person must pick 300,000 flowers. All these factors attribute to, the price of saffron being valued between Rs.100, 000 to Rs.125, 000 per kilogram.

 Caviar

Well you all might have heard of Caviar as the exotic dish on the gourmet list and its abundant health benefits. This exotic food has more interesting facts, like the cosiest caviar is harvested from the albino sturgeon fish which is found in the Caspian Sea. This is approximately $ 34,000 or INR 21, 62,738 and known to be extracted rarely, when the fish is said to turn 100 years.

Kopi Luwka

Well the world’s most expensive coffee Kopi Luwka is from the Cat’s Poo. Kopi Luwka, is the digested feces of the palm civet cat which eats the coffee beans. The feces are collected, cleaned, roasted and ground. The expensive Kopi Luwak coffee is extremely sweet, smooth and rich because the bitterness of the coffee is removed in the digestion process. The coffee is priced at approx INR 12,000 to INR 24,000 per 250 grams.

Edible-nest swiftlet

The edible-nest swiftlet, is the ingredient for a perfect gelatinous texture soup or broth. These nest is found in caves from Southeast Asian countries. The swift bird takes at least 30-35 days to make the nest and the collection of the nest is done thrice in the year, where the nest is scavenged from the caves. The swiftnest cost around Rs 64000 for 500 grams.