The world’s most expensive dishes

The Golden Phoenix Cupcake

The world’s most expensive cupcake was introduced to sweet-toothed spectators in Dubai’s new Bloomsbury’s cafe on 5 July. The Golden Phoenix sweet treat is priced at a whopping 3,676 dirhams, and is created from a recipe that includes Italian chocolate, 23-carat edible gold sheets, organic strawberries and lots of edible gold dusting. The cake is presented on a 24-carat gold stand and must be ordered at least 48 hours in advance. (Bloomsburys, Dubai)

The ‘27.321’ cocktail

In 2008, Dubai’s famed sail-shaped hotel, the Burj Al Arab, poured the globe’s most expensive cocktail: the 27.321, priced at 27,321 dirhams. So-named (and priced) after the hotel floor it was served on (the 27th), along with the hotel’s height (321m), it was made from 55-year-old Macallan single malt natural colour whisky from Moray, Scotland, dried fruit bitters, homemade passion fruit sugar, and served in an 18-carat gold glass. Although the hotel sold 10 of these cocktails within six months to individual guests, it has now serving them. (Burj Al Arab, Jumeirah)

The Frrrozen Haute Chocolate

A moment on the lips; a lifetime on the… credit card. Such is the case with the world’s most expensive dessert, the Frrrozen Haute Chocolate, priced at $18,713. Available at Serendipity 3, a restaurant in New York’s Upper East Side, the dish combines 28 different kinds of cocoa, is adorned with 5g of edible 23-carat gold and infused with gold flakes. The sweet treat is presented in a goblet lined with edible gold leaf, served with an 18-carat gold and diamond bracelet and eaten with a solid gold spoon encrusted with rare black, white and chocolate-coloured diamonds. (Serendipity 3)

Le Burger Extravagant

What does it take to make the world’s most expensive burger? Japanese waygu beef, infused with 10-herb white truffle butter, seasoned with Alderwood smoked pacific sea salt, topped with cheddar cheese, shaved black truffles and a fried quail egg served on a white truffle-buttered Campagna roll and finished with a blini, crème fraiche and Kaluga golden caviar. Oh — and, a solid gold diamond-encrusted toothpick on the side. The damage? $293, by appointment only, also at the world-famously pricey Serendipity 3 in New York. (Liz Steger)

Sushi Del Oriente

How about some Sushi Del Oriente — nigiri sushi wrapped in 24-carat gold leaves and sprinkled with five 0.20-carat African diamonds? This is the dish one Japanese businessman tucked into at his personal residence in Manila, Philippines, in 2010, served by up-and-coming celebrity chef Angelito Araneta Jr of premium gastronomy company Karat Chef. The bill? A cool 85,727.59 Philippine pesos. Apparently, the chef’s “artworks” are typically purchased as marriage proposal gifts. How could you say no?

Buddha Jumps Over the Wall soup

Head to London’s Kai Mayfair restaurant with £108 in your pocket and you can slurp up some of the world’s most valuable soup. The dish — called Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, apparently because it is so delicious that even a vegetarian would jump over the wall to get to it — is comprised of shark’s fin, abalone, Japanese flower mushroom, sea cucumber, dried scallops, chicken, Hunan ham (a cured ham), pork and ginseng – and must be pre-ordered five days in advance. No jumping over walls required. (Bernard Yeoh)