A restaurant in Shanghai is making headlines for its bizarre dessert that features sterilised, dried elephant dung as its base. Wait, what? Yes, you read that right. The sweet item contained flowers pressed into it, a touch of herbs and honey.
The unusual offering was a part of a grand 15-course rainforest-themed meal experience priced at 3,888 yuan (Rs. 45,400). The exact price of the dessert alone is unknown.
The internet learned about the dish after a blogger dined at the restaurant and informed netizens about the elephant dung dessert. Food blogger ‘Mixue’s Culinary Notes’, who has over four lakh followers on RedNote, posted a reel featuring the expensive meal.
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As she virtually walked viewers through the dishes served, they paused their mobile screens in surprise when she reached the eye-grabbing dessert.
The blogger revealed the name of the dish was “Flowers Inserted into Elephant Dung”.
According to a SCMP report, the dung dessert was served with herbal perfume, fruit jam, pollen, and honey sorbet. Presented to mimic crispy crumbs, the dung-based dessert is designed to reflect the raw, adding to a rainforest vibe.
Grabbing and enjoying the dessert wasn’t simple. Customers were reportedly given a “dessert tour” to enjoy the dish at its best, before taking a bite of it.
They were asked to climb a staircase and pick a herbal perfume, fruit jam from the available options to customise their dessert.
Elephant dung is produced from the animal’s plant diet and is rich in fibres. While certain coffee brands use the dung for their preparations, the Chinese eatery’s dessert curation was something unimagined yet.
