Fit for a King: Luxury Menu Items of the World Quiz

Answer: White

Almas white caviar comes from the albino beluga sturgeon found in the Caspian Sea near Iran. Albino sturgeon are quite rare and Almas caviar is obtained from specimens that are over a hundred years old, as their eggs improve in quality and taste as the fish ages. Almas caviar is sold exclusively in stores run by the Caviar House & Prunier company, and comes packaged in a tin made of 24 karat gold!

Answer: Foie Gras

The name is French for "fat liver", although it has been a delicacy since the time of the ancient Egyptians. Foie gras is well-known for being expensive, so a small serving can cost more than a main meal. This is partly because of the expense of raising the birds, which mature slowly and eat a lot more food, especially in the last few weeks of their lives when they're force-fed.

Not surprisingly, foie gras today attracts considerable controversy, as animal rights activists consider the practice of force feeding to be cruel and have called for it to be banned.

This controversy is another reason that foie gras is so expensive, as restrictions on production limit its supply.

Answer: Sea snails

Like most kinds of sea snails, abalone have a single shell, while scallops and clams have two. Abalone have a delicious meat and a beautiful iridescent shell, which are both highly prized. Abalone generally are highly expensive because of the difficulty of capturing them in the wild, as their shells provide good camouflage.

The brown-lipped abalone is a rare Chinese variety and is said to have a unique taste that makes it not just the most expensive but, according to some, the best seafood in the world.

Answer: A bird

The ortolan is a small bird native to many parts of Europe and Western Asia that has been eaten as a delicacy at least since ancient Roman times. I won't go into the details of how the bird is prepared, as it is rather cruel, but will mention that it is typically cooked and eaten whole.

There is an odd tradition of covering one's face with a large napkin or towel while eating it. Reasons given for this are either that it retains the full aroma with the rich flavour, or that it is to shield oneself from God's eyes, owing to the shameful and decadent nature of the act! An episode of the TV show "Billions" prominently featured some of the extremely wealthy characters eating illegally imported ortolans with great relish while following this tradition. One of the characters described eating one as "a religious experience". Hunting, selling, and cooking ortolans are all prohibited throughout the European Union.

Despite this, there is a thriving black market, which has severely impacted the ortolan population.

Answer: Piedmont, Italy

Although black truffles are notoriously expensive, white truffles are even more valuable, as they are rarer. Alba white truffles are named after the city in Piedmont, Italy, as they are found in the surrounding countryside. Truffles are so costly because they grow only under special conditions, are difficult to find, require special training and skills to locate, and can only be harvested during a few months of the year.

Answer: Mushroom

Matsutake is an extremely rare variety of mushroom that grows among the roots of specific pine trees in Japan, China, Korea, and a few other places. There is no way to cultivate Matsutake mushrooms, and they can only be harvested once a year. They are currently under threat from insects and invasive trees, and production in Japan has been adversely affected by a disease that kills pine trees.

They are sought after in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese cuisine for their distinct spicy-aromatic odour.

Answer: Sweden

Moose cheese is produced and available only at the Elk House in Bjurholm region, Sweden, which houses three female moose (named Gullan, Haelga, and Juno) who only lactate from May to September. The farm produces about 300 kg of cheese a year in several varieties: white mould, creamy blue, dried blue, and feta cheese.

The cheese is served in a restaurant adjoining the farm. It was reported in 2013 that the cheese sold for over US$1,000 a kg!

Answer: Asian palm civet

The Asian palm civet is a tree-dwelling animal that mainly eats fruit. When they eat coffee cherries, the seeds are not digested, and may be harvested from their droppings. The practice of using coffee beans from civet droppings originated with native Indonesian farmers who were forbidden to pick coffee fruits for their own use, so they decided to obtain the beans second-hand, so to speak! Amazingly, this practice soon caught on, and kopi luwak became a luxury good among people who could already afford to buy regular coffee but decided instead that it would be a great idea to pay top dollar for coffee that has passed through an animal's digestive system. Well, each to their own.

Answer: Bird saliva

Swallow's nest soup, or bird's nest soup has been eaten in China for over a thousand years. Male swiftlets build the nests from interwoven strands of saliva. Originally, the nests were harvested from sheer cliffs, so collecting them was dangerous. Nowadays, they are farmed in special multi-storey buildings. Swallow's nest soup comes in black, white, and red varieties. Black is the cheapest, while red is the most expensive and has been reported to cost up to US$10,000 a kilogram!

Answer: Chocolate

This dark chocolate is made from translucent, white cocoa beans called Porcelana because of their resemblance to porcelain. Porcelana cocoa is grown on small plantations in Venezuela where it is native; the chocolate is produced by the Amedei company of Italy. It has won various awards from the "Academy of Chocolate" and is sold in individually numbered packages.