Iran What immediately springs to mind when you think expensive food? Filet mignon? Foie gras? Caviar?

What is the most expensive food in the world?

A little research turns up quite a few samples of impressively-priced fare. This is everything from a prix-fixe meal at Sublimotion in Ibiza, Spain, priced at $1,850 per person. That includes a 15-20 course tasting menu accompanied by a light-and-sound show. A gold leaf-encrusted ice cream sundae for $25,000 at Serendipity 3 in New York City, which also serves up hamburgers topped with such exotica as fried quail eggs and caviar at $295 a pop is on the list.

However, although Serendipity uses expensive ingredients, the prices of their dishes are also inflated by pretty much just adding bling to the meal–the burgers have diamond-encrusted gold toothpicks, and the ice-cream sundae hides a gold-and-diamond bracelet at the bottom and is consumed with a gold-and-diamond spoon, which are yours to take home. As a matter of fact, almost every single one of the “world’s most expensive” dishes feature a healthy dose of edible gold leaf to boost their price.

Is that particular food really expensive?

Frankly, all this seems like cheating. Sure, you can call a pizza expensive if you have to take an airplane to a private island to eat it, just like you can call it the world’s most dangerous pizza if you have to swim a crocodile-infested river and wrestle a bear to get to it.

So, let’s eliminate the contrived dishes that are only expensive because the chef had to get up at 3am on the first new moon of the month and forage for elderberries by the light of a 300-year-old hickory torch…and oh, you also get four ounces of gold with it…that you have to eat. That leaves expensive types of food. Many of the world’s most expensive dishes contain these, anyway, underneath all that 24-karat magic.

Individual entries on this list are subject to market fluctuation, of course, so it’s always changing, but here is a typical “top ten” list of expensive foods:

Top 10 list of expensive foods

10. Otoro bluefin sashimi:

Its an individual bluefin tuna can fetch millions of dollars at Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Auction. You can buy sashimi online for personal use for around $200 a pound. Order it at a restaurant, and expect to pay about $25 for a single serving.

9. Foie Gras:

This food is illegal in some places, and with good reason–it is fatty liver of goose, created by force-feeding the poor birds. Cruelty isn’t nice, or cheap.

8. Coffin Bay King Oysters:

This is from Australia, these oysters are pretty pricey, fetching $100 each.

7. Kobe bee:

Even more expensive than the runner-up, wagyu beef, Kobe beef steaks can run about $300. Kobe is a city in Japan, but apparently Kobe beef is so delicious, basketball star Kobe Bryant was named for the food and not the city. Chew on that.

6.Wild Harvested Kopi Luwak:

Its the most expensive coffee, priced at $3,000 per kg.

5. Bird’s Nests:

Yep, actual bird’s nests, made by swiftlets from their saliva; for some reason, somebody decided they should be eaten, and in China, they are considered a delicacy, usually prepared as a soup. Since swiftlets tend to build their nests in caves, harvesting them is a laborious process that results in a high price for an individual nest. White nests are less expensive than red nests, which are available in only one location in Thailand and can sell for up to $10,000 dollars per kg.

4. Saffron:

This is the world’s most expensive spice, derived from a crocus flower and priced at about $2,000 per pound. Iran produces most saffron.

3. Almas Caviar:

The most caviar is pretty expensive, but this kind. It comes from the albino beluga sturgeon runs $25,000 for about two pounds.

2. Brown-Lipped Abalone:

It’s the world’s most expensive shellfish, now dangerously over-fished due to demand as a delicacy. Look for sustainable farmed abalone, rather than wild caught.

1. Alba (white) truffles:

Truffles are expensive, but the white ones are the most expensive. These come from Italy and run about 7,000 Euros per kilogram. However, the price varies wildly. It depends upon demand and individual truffles. In 2014, one weighing in at 4.16 pounds (1.89 kilos) was auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York. It was sold for $61,000!

Even though I dismissed foods with gold leaf earlier, I do have to give a shout-out to 666 restaurant in New York City. It features The Douche Burger–priced at $666. It also features Kobe beef, foie gras, lobster, caviar, champagne-steamed gruyère cheese, truffles, kopi luwak barbecue sauce. Let’s not forget gold leaf–for its hilariously self-aware name.

And there you have it: The most expensive food in the world. If you feel that you have enough money to literally put it down the toilet. Bon appétit!