HOME |
RSS | 
This Italian-made toothpaste squeezer is hand-crafted with chrome plating, non-slip silicone feet, and has an engraved logo. Don’t waste toothpaste. If you use it for 200 years, it will pay for itself! Link -via Boing Boing
Billed as “the ultimate stiletto,” this pair of shoes is made of gold or platinum (your choice) and encrusted with 2,200 handset diamonds, over 30 karats total. It also features “the exquisite Stamen Fluted Heal” (sic). It also comes with extra soles, so it will never wear out. The price? £100,000. That’s $163,500 US. Got that in a size 6E? Link -via J-Walk Blog
There are luxury cars, houses, fashion – you name it. But what about luxury condoms?
Despite the age-old joke that the most expensive condom is the one that broke (the cost of raising children? $249,180), two French entrepreneurs identified an distinctly unfulfilled niche:
A pair of self-described French aristocrats have launched a high-end condom company that aims to offer customers protection — as well as an air of prestige.
The minds behind The Original Condom Co. say there is a demand for classier prophylactics in the same way there is a demand for luxury brands like Rolls Royce, Cartier and Dior.
"There [is] always a need for quality, good taste and beautiful objects," said vice president Count Gil de Bizemont, who co-founded the company with His Royal Highness the Prince Charles Emmanuel de Bourbon Parme after passing through the town of Condom, France.
Architect Takuya Tsuchida solved a unique problem for this new homeowner in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. He had a nine-car garage, but wanted to be able to view a car of his choice in his living room. So Tsuchida built an elevator to connect the garage and living room. You can see more photos and floor plans for this luxurious home in the links.
Gallery and Floor Plans via Geekologie | Photo: Koichi Torimura
They call it “The Eighth Continent”, and this bathing experience starts at only $50,000 from the ME! Bath® company. You get a combination of glacier water and Hawaiian deep-sea water. Add Arabian Sidr Honey, Peruvian Pink Salt, Illipe Butter from Borneo, Murumuru Butter from the Amazon, Kokum Butter from India, Israeli Jojoba Oil, and 24-karat gold. The final price depends on whether you want to have this bath in a spa or in your home. Link -via J-Walk Blog
(image credit: Flickr user dieselbug2007)
It’s the high-tech integrated features that makes a bathtub really luxurious. Here is a list of best 20 high tech luxury bathtubs that give you the feeling of having a royal bath. Take, for example, the Red Diamond bathtub from WaterGamesTechnologies.
It features console with massive gold frame and Swarovski crystals, 2 HD waterproof TV on a mobile console which disappears at the press of a button. For price tag of $47,200, the tubs also enjoy multicolor lighting and a champagne holder encrusted with swarovski crystals.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
When Hermés yacht brand executive Pierre-Alexis Dumas met Wally builder Luca Bassani Antivari they hatched a dream- to combine the terrestrial luxury of your own island with the aquatic bliss of yachting. The fruit of their efforts is WHY (Wally Hermés Yachts), a 36,000 square foot, energy-saving, sustainable yacht unlike any seen before.
Antivari: This revolutionary concept of the moving island is developed with latest and most advanced technologies, recycling thermal energy, as well as any organic and inorganic waste. The architecture of the project fits perfectly in the environment- there are no excesses, nothing is superfluous, the impact on the sea is minimal.
Dumas: We hope to open a new path, to offer a new lifestyle that is different, serene, contemplative and respectful of the environment, moving slowly on the water, combining the pleasure of sailing and absolute comfort.
The whole fascinating story, lots of pictures, stats and more video at Twisted Sifter. WHY’s website. (Photos by WHY HWSam)
The luxury world of the couture is an interesting place. People are always on the search for the newest, most shocking art or fashion to impress their other rich friends. The culinary world is no exception. While there are still people who love their lobster and fillet mignon, many modern chefs like to experiment with the newest and craziest ingredients, while others like to reach back deep into the past -say, the middle ages- for inspiration. As a result, there are some gourmet foods that are just too out there for the average man and woman to even begin to comprehend. I invite you, my friends, to travel this weird world with me, the strange land of the couture gourmets.
Eating a roasted bird isn't really that crazy, but the process leading up to the roasting of Ortolan birds has actually caused France to declare it illegal for humane reasons. Ortolan birds are nocturnal, sparrow-like birds. To prepare them for cooking, the live birds are trapped in a dark box. The darkness messes with their eating schedule and causes them to continually eat until they are about two to three times their original size. After a proper level of obesity has occurred, the birds are drowned in brandy or other liquor and then, finally, roasted.
Funny how a country that defends fois gras even finds this practice too barbaric. If tortured animals make yummier meals, than this little guy must be quite a treat.
Have
you ever ate a duck and thought, “I could get so much more out of those
bones and guts?” If so, Canard à la Rouennaise is right up your alley.
Basically, the recipe takes a nice roast duck, then places the carcass
in a press and crushes the juice out of everything left over. The result
is a very bloody, very rich “sauce” that can cost around $1000 a plate.
While the presentation may be quite interesting, as they crush the duck right at your table, I just can't understand paying that much for some blood. I know a lot of people love marrow, but isn't this just too crazy?
Corn
smut is a fungus that destroys corn crops. Like many indigenous people,
early villagers decided to make the most out of a bad situation and ate
the fungus that took over their crop. Nowadays, the smut is considered
to be quite a delicacy and sometimes costs more than corn itself.
This is the only thing on this list I have actually ate, of course, that's probably because I don't have the money to be a real gourmet foodie. Surprisingly, it's very delicious if you get it from a good restaurant -preferably one actually in Mexico. It's similar to mushrooms and quite has a nice aroma.
Source (Photo: Zampano [Flickr])
Many
people claim durian is quite good. The smell however, is one of the worst
things on Earth. It is said that you can smell the durian fruit stands
from all the way down the street. Some hotels and airports refuse to let
people bring the fruit inside for fear that it will chase away their customers.
While many people hate the fruit -smell is closely associated with taste after all, many people are quite passionate about their love of durian. The fruit is said to be strongly flavored and savory, with a custard-like texture. Anthony Bordain may have described it the best when he said, "its taste can only be described as...indescribable, something you will either love or despise. ...Your breath will smell as if you'd been French-kissing your dead grandmother."
Source (Photo: Sama Sama - Massa [Flickr])
Here's a food that wouldn't be so strange if it was served in any other manner. Even other foods eaten alive, like shrimp aren't that strange, the main thing here is the whole life-threatening thing. Live octopi can choke you with their moving tentacles. It's a real-life kill or be killed situation.
Dipping your dinner in alcohol is said to help knock them out momentarily and make them less deadly, but that is to be debated. Truly skilled baby octopi eaters will barely chew their meals before gulping them down, but amateurs generally choose to chew them thoroughly -which can take up to 15 minutes. As you can see in the video, eating the treat can be quite a challenge for a novice.
French
foodies flip over a lot of things, but two things they hold close to heart
are caviar and escargot. So a pair of snail farmers thought, “why not
combine them?” The flavor is said to be delicate and quite nice, but from
what I hear, most people still prefer caviar.
The process to making snail caviar is a carefully guarded secret by the couple who invented it. We do know it involves very happy snails getting freaky in a huge barn and a hand review all of the eggs to make sure they are up to par. Between there being only one supplier and requiring quite tedious harvesting, all done by hand, the price of the snail caviar is quite high -about $82 an ounce to be more specific.
Source (Photo: Fr Antunes [Flickr])
Bird
nest soup, as the name suggests, is created using nests created by the
nests of cave swifts. These specific birds create their nest from their
own saliva, which hardens into a sort of shell. When boiled, the nest
creates a unique flavor and jelly-like consistency that is quite popular
in many parts of Asia -at least, amongst those who can afford it. The
nests are one of the most expensive animal products consumed by humans.
Just one bowl of the soup costs between $30 and $100 American dollars.
Of the multiple species of cave swifts that create these nests, the most expensive nests come from in a red shaded and are said to have additional medicinal qualities. These health benefits range from curing asthma to boosting the immune system to aiding digestion. Like many medicinal meals from the East though, this has not been scientifically proven as of yet.
Photo: Chadedwardxxx
[Flickr]
Surely you've heard the urban legend that someone bought a carton of eggs, cracked one open and found a chicken fetus inside? Well, this is sort of the same thing, except it's not an urban legend and it's a duck instead of a chicken. Oh yeah, and it's on purpose.
Basically, you take your fertilized egg, boil it and there's your meal. Most people seem to eat the egg around the fetus and then snack down the baby duckling bones and all. The “ripeness” of the egg varies from country to country, but it can be eaten any time from being boneless and tiny to pretty much being baby ducks with tender bones and beaks.
I
must admit, it was hard to choose the ranking positions for this list.
It's hard to compare duck fetus to corn fungus to killer octopi, but I
have to say that coffee beans that have been partially digested definitely
deserve a place in the top three. If the title or photo of this one hasn't
given it away already, let me be clear. Kopi Luwak is a very popular coffee
blend right now, despite the fact that the beans get their special flavor
by being eaten and then pooped out by a civet -a cute mammal from South-east
Asia.
The coffee is one of the most expensive brews in the world, selling for between $120 and $600 a pound. Because the digestive enzymes of the civets break down the proteins in the beans that ordinarily make coffee bitter, the blend is naturally sweeter.
Casu Marzu is a sheep's milk cheese loaded with writhing, live fly larva. It is illegal in many countries for its obvious health dangers, but for some reason, foodies still actively seek it out. Even worse, the cheese can become toxic after the maggots die, so it has to be eaten while they are still very alive. The texture is rather creamy and it is generally served on Sardinian flat bread. Dinners are expected to keep their hands over the cheese as they place it in their mouth because these larva can jump up to 15 cm -potentially right into dinner's eyes.
This is one of the only things on this list that makes me want to throw up just by looking at it. I mean, this is one food that almost makes Gordon Ramsay puke -that alone says how disgusting this specialty is. Flies are filthy and eating the living bodies and excrement of their larva is just not right, regardless of where you're from.
Have any of you ever experienced these foods? What did you think of them? If not, what was the weirdest thing you ever ate?
