old has always been the most valued coveted idol to mankind. Some men have adorned religious relics to conquer in the name of god with it. Some men have upturned their entire lives and sometimes empires in order to dig it up, or seek it out. But what do we modern day bourgeois do with gold besides wear it and trade it? We eat it. We smash it up into sheets or dust, stick it in our mouths and shit it out...If that's not gluttony I don't know what is.
Eating gold has become more popular in the past five or six years as a way to advertise fancy dishes, cocktails and contemporary dining. From all around the world, almost every major tourist spot will offer gold studded grub for the modern diner. For example the exuberant Frozen Haute Chocolate from Serendipity 3 restaurant in New York City. This desert costs $25,000! This dessert is made up of cocoa, frozen milk, with 5 grams of 24-carat mixed in, and then topped by more gold.
The most expensive pie in the world from the Fence Gate Inn in Lancashire will put you back $14,260, in it includes the worlds most expensive beef (Kobe), mushrooms (matsutake) both from Japan, and more expensive wine and other ingredients and of course Gold!
Or try The Sultan's Golden Cake from Ciragan Palace Kempinski, Istanbul. This $1,000.00 cake consists of rare and expensive marinated fruits and truffles and is covered in 24-carat gold leaf and comes in a sterling silver box.
Though, digesting gold is nothing new. In fact the Egyptians believed eating gold would ensure everlasting life. In medieval Europe gold was not only served in dishes to display ones wealth, but due to its rarity and preciousness it was thought that it had to be good and healthy for the body. Gold unfortunately does not offer any benefits to the body, it is an inert metal, and does nothing more than pass on through.
Egyptians, and other ancient gold munchers of course were wrong about its benefits, but modern day diners seem to be the real fools when it comes to 
eating gold leaf and dust. When first researching this topic I couldn't believe what a preposterous extravagant waste it was to just eat and shit out thousands of dollars worth of gold just so you could say that you had. But as I researched further I found that in fact any gold you may purchase with a desert, cocktail or all sorts of other meals isn't worth more than a few dollars. In fact you could go down to your local gourmet supply store and purchase about twenty "leaves" for about $27.00 to $30.00 or 100 mg of gold flake or dust will only cost you around $25.00.
That doesn't stop restaurants though from charging you for what you may believe this gluttonous display of modern wealth should cost, no, those dishes will put you back thousands of dollars for a few dollars worth opulence.
Take for example the Guinness World record for the most expensive sundae The Golden Opulence Sundae again from Serendipity 3 in New York City. This sundae is made of vanilla ice cream, truffles and 23-carat edible leaf, and probably doesn't have more than a few dollars worth of gold in it, but will put you back $1,000.00. Or my personal favorite, the $3,700 Pizza Royal 007 from Glasgow based restaurateur, Domenico Crolla. What is it? This is a "gourmet" pizza 
topped with champagne soaked caviar, cognac marinated lobster and with about $4.00- $5.00 worth of gold leaf thrown around. I love pizza, but this one just makes me laugh.
Liquor and wines too can be bought from your local grocery store packed with the 24 carat flakes. Commonly believed to make tiny incisions in your throat on its way down, thus speeding up and intensifying the intoxication. 
This actually isn't true. Though, gold in liquor doesn't actually charge you an arm and a leg for the added frill. Take Goldschlager for example. Goldschlager premium cinnamon schnapps with floating 24k gold flakes goes for $25 per bottle. You could get a bottle of Woodbridge's Gold Wines, Barossa Valley and California Gold 2005. Both come with 24K gold, and both are only $25.00. Sake with gold flakes added is called Kinpaku-iri. Gold in sake is an old tradition, the Japanese add gold to there sake for new years for good luck and propriety. An easy bottle to find is Kuromatsu Hakushika Gold Yamada Nishiki which goes for $22.99.
Gold these days doesn't seem as popular as the diamond, though you can get that in your food too, like the $10,000 Martini on the Rock in the Blue Bar at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. This Cocktail comes with vodka, dry vermouth, Olive, and one enormous diamond. Still, gold is, and most likely will always be, considered a way to display one's wealth. Yet I think I'll keep my smarts about me and save my change for a more worthwhile way to shove money down my throat. Like the Kobe beef, which when done right, and by a professional can cost you $160 - $300 for an eight ounce serving...now that's gluttony the right way.
(Cornelious Lang is a new contributing writer to No-Fi "Magazine"
and finds any dessert under $14,000 to be tasteless and beneath her.)
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