Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

This wasn't a meal; it was a money laundering operation.

2 chunks of parmesan: $28
Not having to tolerate the company of the poor: priceless

Why is everyone mad. He added about $50,000 to the US's economy. Remember that he is from Russia and deals in rubles. Now his rubles have become dollars. Go USA!

@DCLSweetspot: Well, by that logic, why do we do a percentage for different dishes as well? It takes the same effort to bring out a plate that costs $20 as a plate that costs $8. We still do a percentage in those cases. Perhaps we should just give tips of a set fee rather than a variable percentage.

@sheba0915: a little strange that they didn't drink any vodka though.

I took my sweetie out for a lovely Thai meal on Sunday, no wine or beer and I had a diet cola. I didn't order appetizers because I was trying to keep the bill reasonable and it still came out to about $28 with tax and tip.

We each ordered combinations that included our dish of choise, veggie pad thai and steam rice. I was pretty satisfied!

I think you should add a fried egg on top. That would totally put it over the top. And also be super innovative. :P

It amazes me that people expect you guys to come up with completely new dishes for this column all the time.

@sanhedrin: It was a table full of Russians. Therefore, the amount of alcohol consumed was not particularly outrageous.

@lebcook - re: taratoor, I'd totally forgotten about that name, but now that you mention it, sounds familiar. Just goes to show you how confusing food names can be. I've learned not to be absolutist about this stuff, because it can vary so wildly from place to place.

My current favorite example: in Mexico, chilaquiles are usually fried tortilla strips in a tomatillo sauce, while in the U.S. they are often scrambled eggs and tortilla strips. Except those are more often called migas. But then in Spain, migas are more typically day-old bread and meat!

(I know, someone is going to be writing in with a different version of those facts in just a second! Lay it on me :))

@Hassouni Good to know; so how would you distinguish between the plain sesame paste and the prepared sauce described above? Is it just from conversational context or is there a separate term?

The $25,000 for 5 bottles of wine or $100 truffle carpaccios don't seem quite as ridiculous to me as the $12 bottle of water, $9 cappucinos, $55 milanesa, $14 parmesan chunks, or $39 spaghetti. I suppose it's either because I'm not as familiar in the market for enormous truffles and expensive vintages of wine, or because the markup on the luxury items may be a larger dollar value, but a smaller percentage of the cost of those items.

Unfortunately, this makes me detest the rich even more than I did before.
I'm sure the alcohol was used as a 'lubricant' if this was a business meal. I guess if your are a Russian oligarch, then you don't seem to mind spending a year's salary (not mine!) on one little ol' luncheon. This just shows that the excess of the classes is still alive and well and living in the food industry as much as Wall Street.

Wow, the final bill ($52,221.09) came out to the price of a home in some cities...YIKES.

Oh well, it's all relative, I suppose.