Do you remember the RM18 kailan saga? Well, if you don’t then here’s what happened.
An anonymous netizen shared on Facebook that they ordered a portion of salted fish kailan and was charged RM18 for it. Then when they looked at the portion, they got a shock to discover that it was not even worth the price paid as it was only sufficient for 1 person.
When we saw this we couldn’t believe our eyes as well!
This got us thinking, kailan can’t be the only expensive vegetable around right? So, we dug a little deeper and here’s what we found:
1. Hop shoots
And the award for the world’s most expensive vegetable goes to… a shoot named Hop Shoots or Hop Asparagus which can go for up to 1,000 euros for a kilo (that’s RM4,781 for us!) in Belgium and Holland.
We know what’s running in your head – is it covered in gold???
It turns out that hop shoots are really tiny and one would have to really open their eyes to look for one. This makes it difficult to harvest as they would need to hunch over and look for a hop shoot, reported The Guardian.
It is said that it resembles asparagus but in reality, both of them come from different plants as Hop Shoots are from the cannabis family.
Other than that, the hop flowers are used as a stabilising agent in making beer and they can also add aroma or bitterness to the alcoholic beverage. Wow, the more you know!
2. Le Bonnotte potatoes
With potatoes, you can make a variety of dishes like mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes or even ABC soup. However, with this one, you wouldn’t want to do any of that as one kilo of Le Bonnotte potatoes can cost up to 500 euros (RM2,387)!
The reason behind this high price is due to the potatoes being planted on a French island in the Bay of Biscay where they only produce 100 tonnes of it per year.
The potatoes are handpicked and can only be harvested in a one-week time frame according to Taste Atlas. These potatoes have a better life than I do!
It is said that one should not peel the potato when eating it as that’s where the taste is!
3. White truffle
Although fungi are not seen as true vegetables, over here in Malaysia, we eat them like one!
The white truffle is the world’s most expensive fungus and it can cost up to USD 3,000 (RM12,630) per kilo. The price is 10 times more than the minimum wage, so that’s when you know that it is real, real bougie.
The costly mushroom can only be found in certain areas in Italy and Croatia and it is elusive in the sense that they are buried a foot underground, so only trained dogs can locate them, said the Guinness World Records.
Well, one can only dream of consuming these vegetables!
What is the most expensive vegetable that you have bought (not the salted fish kailan please)? Let us know in the comments!
Also read: UKM Researcher Successfully Creates Ulam Raja Supplement To Prevent Senile Dementia in the Elderly
