Saffron. Needed some so I stopped at Whole Foods on the way home last night. I asked a young stock boy where the spices were, so he and his co-worker walked me to the aisle. I looked at the safron, did a quick calculation, and said, “Not bad, it’s only about $20,000 a pound.” After I scraped them up off the floor, one of them said, “that’s more than my car.” He then looked at the price sticker, which gave the unit price at $22,384. I opted for the cheaper saffron, which was only $3,996 a pound. A veritable bargain.
What you paid for the cheaper saffron is about right – in fact, that’s actually kinda a good deal. The more expensive saffron is absurdly priced – I don’t think I could ever go for that.
I think Whole Foods and “bargain” don’t really belong in the same sentence.
Bruce
I was visiting a friend in Milan recently and he took me to grocery store and led me to saffron aisle (yes aisle) and I couldn’t believe how cheap it is over there. Needless to say I backed up the truck. Not sure what the price per pound was but it is substantially less and the selection was amazing.
With truffles, saffron, etc. sometimes it just isn’t worth it to count the cost. You have to grit your teeth and go forward. I bought a package of Veleta saffron, and it looks fabulous, but I have no idea what the price is per pound. I didn’t need a pound.
On the other hand I have a friend who occasionally visits Iran (how many people here can say that?) and he brought me back a lovely disk, the size of a CD, of Persian Saffron which may be the best I have ever used.
Wish I could FIND truffles in local stores. I like to see what I am buying…
+100
You gotta buy it in bulk:
"On the other hand I have a friend who occasionally visits Iran (how many people here can say that?) "
With “Tehrangeles” just up the road, I have quite a few friends who visit “the old country” to see family and check in on businesses.
I’ve been buying the less expensive and hyper expensive saffron from Pensey’s for years.
MACAU – A Macau casino mogul bid $330,000 for a pair of white truffles, including one weighing about two pounds, matching the record price he paid at the same event three years ago for one of the giant fungi.
Billionaire Stanley Ho made the winning bid Saturday at a charity auction through representatives of his company, Sociedade de Jogos de Macau.
The pair included a huge truffle dug up in the central Tuscany region weighing about two pounds (900 grams) as well as one found in Molise weighing about 14 ounces (400 grams).
The auction was staged at Ho’s Grand Lisboa hotel in the former Portuguese colony of Macau, with bidders participating simultaneously in Rome and London through a satellite link.
In 2007, Ho paid $330,000 for a white truffle unearthed in Tuscany weighing about 3.3 pounds (1.497 kilograms).