18 of the rarest foods to eat in your lifetime

• We compiled a list of the rarest foods around the world that you should try in your lifetime.
• Try a spoonful of New Zealand's Mānuka honey, made from a flower which blooms for only 12 days.
• Feast upon golden Almas caviar, sourced only from the Caspian Sea.

From the hard to make to the hard to find to the potentially deadly to consume, we're taking a look at 18 of some of the most rare foods around the world.

Đông Tảo chicken
Đông Tảo chicken, or dragon chickens, look like a bird wearing a pair of Uggs. But their oversized feet are the telltale feature of this rare bird. Đông Tảo chickens have a dark meat, with a color closer to red meat. In Vietnam, where these birds are bred, the birds are often eaten during the Vietnamese New Year, but need to pass high standards to be deemed worthy. Buyers look for a tall chicken that weighs around 5 kilograms with thick, red feet and shiny black feathers.

Donkey cheese
"A typical American cow produces about 28 liters of milk per day, compare that to the sole liter a single donkey generates in 24 hours, and donkey cheese already feels pretty exclusive. The milk is closer in nutritional properties to breast milk than other common varieties, and lacks enough of a key protein in cows milk to easily cultivate cheese, meaning the process to turn Donkeys milk into cheese is kept under lock and key. Super filling with a nutty, earthy flavor the cheese can sell for $500 for a single pound"

Sea cucumber
This giant ocean slug is a sea cucumber - a bottom feeder with a tubular shape that has no limbs and no eyes but a ton of monetary value. It can be found all over the world but is most prevalent in the Pacific Ocean. Mostly eaten in Asian cuisines, sea cucumbers are beloved for their thick, chewy bite that's full of protein and antioxidants but low in fat. The Japanese sea cucumber, full of red and orange spikes, can set you back $3,500 for a single kilo, a little more than 2 pounds.

Ayam Cemani
If you've never visited Indonesia, it's unlikely you've encountered this chicken: charcoal black from gizzard to feathers to feet. The Ayam Cemani, bred on the islands of Indonesia, has a dominant gene that makes the chicken appear black all the way down to its organs. Just one of these chickens could cost around $200, though due to fears of the spread of bird flu, the chicken isn't often cleared for export, which means outside the country, a bird could set you back thousands of dollars.

Almas caviar
While it's common knowledge that caviar is pretty rare, your bougiest caviar ain't got nothin' on this. Almas means diamond in Persian, and while all caviar comes from wild sturgeon, Almas caviar stands out from other fish eggs with a golden color derived from an extremely rare albino sturgeon that lives in the Caspian Sea. It's said to have a spongier texture, with a less salty but nuttier flavor than your average caviar.

Saffron
Saffron is the world's most expensive spice, with a single pound setting you back $1,500 or more. Bringing it back to high school earth science, the spice comes from the stigma of a saffron crocus flower, or the part of a flower where pollen germinates. Since each flower grows only three stigmas, it takes 17,000 flowers grown on a quarter acre of land to make a single pound, probably making the price seem a little more reasonable.

Matsutake mushroom
Matsutake mushrooms are known as the king of mushrooms in Japan. In wild forests, these mushrooms are rare because they need really specific conditions to grow, and even then, the blossoming mushrooms are susceptible to becoming snacks for wildlife. Many say they're worth the hunt for their spicy, pungent aroma and woodsy, earthy flavor.

Swallow's nest soup
When you think of a bird's nest, you likely picture a mound of twigs and leaves. But swiftlets make their nests entirely of their own sticky saliva, crafting a hard, transparent mass to hatch their chicks. In the wild, the birds build their nests on dangerously high cave ledges, making harvesting nearly, but not quite, impossible. The nest is cooked into a gelatinous soup full of protein.

Fugu
Fugu, a type of puffer fish, have poisonous livers, eyes, and ovaries that, when not properly removed, are more lethal than cyanide if consumed, giving the fish a reputation as the most dangerous food on Earth. It's because of this toxicity that preparation of the fish is highly regulated by the government in Japan, where fugu is a considered a delicacy. Chefs train for years before taking an extensive exam just to earn a certification to serve fugu. When sliced into sashimi, fugu has a mild, fresh taste with a chewy texture.

Yubari King melon
This melon might look like your average cantaloupe, but it is so much more. In fact, one Yubari King melon sold for $14,500 in 2018. And although the melons are grown in temperature- controlled greenhouses for cultivation all year round, they're still pretty rare. That's thanks to the meticulous TLC farmers pay their crop through the entire growing process, where each melon tree is pruned of its crop down to a single fruit, which they even massage by hand to ensure perfection. If you're looking to taste one yourself, make some friends in high places, since Yubari King melons are typically purchased as gifts.

Iberian ham
Bred exclusively in the Iberian Peninsula of Spain and Portugal, roaming freely in cold, rocky oak forests, feeding off grains and acorns, lives the black Iberian pig. The most coveted part of the animal is the legs, which are buried in salt for 15 to 20 days and cured in stages over years before they're finally ready for sale. The finished legs are sliced wafer thin, making for a uniquely fatty, succulent bite of sweet, salty ham with a bit of a nutty flavor.

White truffles
Truffles in general are pretty rare, but white truffles take it to the next level. Prone to growing near the roots of hazelnut and oak tree trees in Italian mountains, truffles are wild fungus that require specially trained dogs or hogs to sniff out. A white Alba truffle lacks an outer shell, giving it a golden color with a knobby shape and a slightly garlicky, rich, woody and earthy flavor.

Maple syrup
We all know the excitement of thick, sugary syrup blanketing a stack of pancakes on a Sunday morning. So it may be a shock to hear that sugary goodness is often more than likely a blend of high-fructose corn syrup and extracts. 40% of the US's real, pure maple syrup is tapped from the trees of Vermont. And while you may be thinking, "A forest of trees, all this syrup, there's no way its so rare!" it takes 44 gallons of sap to make a single gallon of real maple syrup. Grade A syrup is the most delicious and expensive to produce, with its lighter golden color and accompanying delicate taste.

Mānuka honey
Mānuka is a flower native to New Zealand that blooms for only 12 days. After the bees do what bees do, Mānuka honey is available for harvest for a super short two to six week period, which is why honey from this particular flower represents about 1% of the honey in the world. It has a rich, earthy flavor and is thinner than honey you're likely used to.

Icelandic salt
Icelandic Salt From kosher to sea to table, salt is one of the most prevalent seasonings around the world, but not all salt is created equal. Pure Icelandic salt can set you back about $30 per pound, which is 30 times the price of common table salt. That's because this salt comes from one of the coldest, most remote regions of Iceland where its meticulously harvested and processed by hand, making it a favorite among some of the world's best restaurants.

Parmesan cheese
Like Champagne or Camembert, Parmesan cheese is a regulated food that can only be made in the small region for which the food is named. Parmesan hails from a part of northern Italy called Emilia-Romagna including a town called, you guessed it, Parma. With only 329 dairies certified to make this cheese in the region - and due to the strict regulations, that means the whole world - Parmesan can cost more than double the price of more common cheeses, like cheddar.

Madagascar vanilla
With rows of vanilla extract and flavoring in the grocery store spice isle, vanilla might not seem like a rarity, but you're less likely to come across real whole-bean Madagascar vanilla than you might think. In fact, this long pod is one of the most difficult plants to harvest in the world, with flowers that bloom for only one single day a year and need to be hand pollinated that same day before pods are harvested and cured for months. And if you're totally fine with vanilla extract, keep in mind a lot of the products on those shelves aren't real vanilla, because even that process is time intensive, needing pods to be soaked in clear alcohol for up to two years.

Wasabi
Wasabi might seem like a common enough item, but in reality, the side of green paste you get with your sushi likely isn't the real thing, but rather a blend of root vegetables from the same family, like horseradish and mustard. Real wasabi is one of the hardest plants to cultivate and maintain in the world, needing ultra specific water flow, sunlight, soil, and consistent temperatures to thrive. Even then, it takes about a year and a half to grow before it's harvested by hand and ground into a paste for an earthy, rich, and more floral flavor than the grocery store fare.

So which rare foods do you want to try? Are there any we missed? Let us know in the comments below.