Drea Knufken
Gold, formerly a losing proposition, is experiencing a revival as investors scurry to inflation-proof their assets. A smaller industry lurks in the shadow of bullion and maple leaf coins. It is the edible gold industry, which invests only in appetite and opulence. Here are 10 ways that people eat their gold:
1. Gold Brick Chicken
Long Island’s Blackstone Steakhouse wins novelty points for integrating gold leaf into a chicken and mashed potatoes dish. They roast half a chicken in a brick oven, puree sweet potatoes, and add 24K gold leaf to finish the dish off.
2. Goldschlaeger
A longtime college party favorite, this Italian cinnamon schnapps is famous for containing small flakes of gold. The volume of gold—less than 0.1 grams per 750 ml bottle—pales in comparison to the volume of alcohol, which is 40%.
3. Gold Leaf Sushi Roll
Image: What’s Cooking America
Sushi Roku in Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace offers one of the most indulgent sushi rolls on the planet. Appropriately dubbed the High Roll-er, this hedonistic masterpiece contains Kobe beef, lobster, and black truffles, finished off with 24-carat gold leaf.
4. White Truffle Bagel
Image: Hotel Chatter
If you have $1,000 to kill, and a craving for bagel, why not drop into the New York Westin for chef Frank Tujague’s one-grand bagel sandwich? Slathered with white truffle cream cheese and a special Riesling, goji berry, and gold-leaf jelly, the bagel’s proceeds go towards culinary school scholarship money.
5. The Golden Opulence Sundae
New York’s Serendipity http://www.serendipity3.com/main.htm sells the Golden Opulence Sundae, a chocolate sundae covered in 23-karat gold leaf, suffused with gold dragets, and served with an 18-karat gold spoon that diners can keep. The price? A record-breaking $1,000.
6. Gold-and-Diamond Chocolate Cake
Image: Reuters
Manila entrepreneur Angelito Araneta Jr. plans to sell a chocolate cake covered with 24K gold leaves and small diamonds for roughly $2,500 a piece. The cake is marketed towards men intending to propose to their girlfriends. We think you’d be just as well off giving her $20k, the price of an 8 piece cake, on gold credit cards and letting her go on a shopping spree. That will surely win her heart.
7. Gold-Covered Wedding Cake
A British couple covered their wedding cake in edible gold leaf. Unlike some of the other treats on this list, however, the gold-covered wedding cake was relatively cheap: It only set them back 50 pounds.
8. Gold-Infused Champagne
Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace offers a 24K-gold-infused rose champagne. One 3-liter bottle costs $2,995.
9. Gold-Sprinkled Capuccino
Image: Roy Backstrom/Flickr
The Emirates Palace, creator of the gold-infused champagne mentioned above, also sells a $25 cup of cappuccino topped with 24-karat gold dust sprinkles in place of cinnamon.
10. Caviar
It isn’t infused with gold, like this imitation caviar , but Almas’ $49,000+ caviar, harvested from a 100-year-old sturgeon in Iran’s section of the Caspian Sea, makes up for the fact with its 24K gold packaging.
