Why Do These Dishes Have Gold in Them? Would You Eat Them?

I may be a foodie, but like any frugal Indian, I keep a judicious eye on the right-hand column of a restaurant menu when placing an order. If I think something is overpriced, I lose interest. But we often hear of most expensive dishes served in exotic restaurants – many with gold added to them. I always wonder, do really wealthy look for ways to spend money? Would I eat these if I were rich? Would you?

I am not much of a burger fan – I’d rather eat the meat without the bread, but this interested me: It is a burger that has all the most expensive ingredients: truffle, saffron, caviar, premium meat, foie gras and… gold. But would I eat it? I don’t know.

This is a pizza made from squid ink dough (I thought the stuff was venomous, but apparently I was wrong). It also has caviar, truffles, stilton cheese and, of course, edible 24-carat gold leaves. It costs $2000 or about Rs. 1.5 lakhs.  The Industry Kitchen in New York is the place where one can find this exotic pizza that costs roughly the same as an entire budget trip to the US.

The $25,000 taco was created by the Frida restaurant in Mexico. The gold corn tortilla contains the finest meat, beluga caviar and black truffle brie cheese. It is topped off with some premium tequila, chili peppers and civet coffee (made from semi-digested beans obtained from civet excreta). OK, this I don’t even want to try – apart from the civet excreta issue, it looks more like a floral arrangement; not very appetising.

This luxe doughnut was created in the UK can cost a thousand pounds. This one contained fine champagne jelly, gold-dusted chocolate flowers, 24-carat leaf gold and wait for it – edible diamonds. Look at how pretty that is! I couldn’t possibly know how to eat it.

Popcorn is, at best a good accompaniment to a good movie – ideally, it should be cheese and caramel by turns. Gold seems unnecessary. However, the Billion Dollar Popcorn from the house of Berco has organic sugar caramel, fine butter, bourbon vanilla, the world's most expensive salt and of course 23-carat edible gold.

I like my dosa crisp; with lashings of desi ghee. Some evidently think gold is better. At Rajbhog in Bangalore, they serve a gold plated dosa – and it’s served on a silver platter as well. The prices till a few years ago were a fairly modest Rs. 1100 per plate of gold-vark dosa – could well be a lot higher now.  

Something called the Raffaelo gold paan is created by Yamu’s Panchaayat’ in New Delhi’s Connaught Place. This will set you back Rs. 600, not a lot but do you really want to pay that much for paan – even if it is made with gold? The thing is, people tell us how all these dishes have such expensive ingredients and how much the final thing costs; they even show us pretty pictures. But there is one thing they forget to tell us – how do these things taste? Flavour, mouthfeel, aroma, the possibility of chipping a tooth on metallic ingredients, digestive problems a day later…