The Most Expensive Hotel Will Cost You $80,000

If you have ever thought you paid a bit too much for your hotel stay, it is sure not going to compare to the price of the most expensive hotel suite in the world. If you’re now thinking you want to check this out, then be warned it is going to set you back $80,000… for one night. Now, this is seriously living the high life.

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Geneva, Switzerland, houses The Hotel President Wilson, which offers the largest suite in Europe at 5,500 feet, and also the has the most expensive hotel room in the world. To get to the room itself, you must go through a private elevator which will take you to the top floor of the Royal Penthouse Suite. Not to be mistaken with an average hotel room fit for one or two, but this suite comes with a staggering 12 bedrooms, allowing you and a dozen friends to live it large.

While also fit for a very large family, the wraparound terrace is sure to blow you away with the view of Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc. With Geneva not always providing the warmest of temperatures outdoors, have no fear, because there is also the choice of two jacuzzi’s, which are situated in the two master bedrooms.

jacuzzi

Just like the outdoors are set for awe-inspiring views, the indoor interior is sure not to disappoint. For an over-the-top suite, comes over-the-top amenities inside, making the option of staying in all day that ever more favorable. This includes the world’s largest TV screen by Bang & Olufsen, a billiards table, a Steinway grand piano, Hermès toiletries and an art collection of rare and ancient pieces.

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With red carpet in the bedroom and gold furnishings fit for a queen, it is no surprise many celebrities choose to stay there for their visit. So, while the paparazzi may not be waiting for your royal entrance, if you have $80,000 going spare, then you can be in for a real treat.

45 British Food Quirks Brits Don’t Realize Are Weird

British Cuisine Is Full of Puzzling Quirks

British food doesn’t exactly have a good reputation. Lots of it is beige, more of it is stodgy, and plenty of dishes have strange and unappealing names. But of course, everyone loves the food from their own nation. It’s nostalgic, it’s comforting, and it’s delicious, even if people from other countries can’t seem to agree. Plus, the UK is made up of four nations, so there are actually more food cultures than you might think. Let’s take a look at the food quirks Brits don’t realize are weird.

Boiled Eggs and Soldiers

Eggs are popular all over the world, and different countries enjoy them in their own ways. In the UK, eggs are enjoyed fried, poached, scrambled, and boiled. In fact, boiled eggs are so common in the country that many British people have their own egg cups, which hold their boiled eggs in place.

Boiled Eggs and Soldiers

British people cut the top off their soft boiled egg, and then dip slices of toast into the runny yolk. This is known as dippy eggs and soldiers.

All Day Beans on Toast

Heinz baked beans are a food staple in the UK, especially for people in a rush or on a budget. The beans come in a tin with a sweet tomato sauce, and are most often enjoyed on top of some hot, buttery toast. However, beans can be eaten at any time of the day.

All Day Beans on Toast

Baked beans often make up part of a cooked breakfast in the UK, and they’re eaten inside baked potatoes as part of lunch, and with sausages for dinner.

Chip Butties With Butter

Everyone knows that the Brits like to eat fish and chips, but there are many different ways to enjoy the delicacies of the chippie. For example, if you aren’t in the mood for an entire battered cod, you could sample a chip butty. Of course, “chips” in the UK are what Americans call “fries,” so a chip butty is a buttered bread roll full of hot fries (basically).

Chip Butties With Butter

Ideally, your chips should be straight from the fryer and covered in salt and vinegar.

Smiley Faces and Turkey Dinosaurs

For our next British food quirk, we go back to school dinners, where kids across the UK tucked into plates of frozen food designed to appeal to children. When it came to school dinners, potato smiley faces were a popular option, as well as curly fries, or potato cubes.

Smiley Faces and Turkey Dinosaurs

As for the meat, the turkey dinosaur ruled supreme. There were also turkey twizzlers, which ended up being banned from schools thanks to celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s crusade to make British school dinners more healthy.

Cheese on Toast With Worcester Sauce

While reading this list, you might notice that British people really enjoy eating cheese. One of the most common ways to enjoy some strong British cheddar is grilled, on top of some toast, with a dash of Worcester sauce.

Cheese on Toast With Worcester Sauce

In the UK, the most common type of Worcester sauce is called Lea and Perrins. The company created the condiment in the 19th century and it’s used as a flavor enhancer. A few drops on top of some cheesy toast really heightens the whole snack.

Birds Eye Fish Finger Sandwich

It’s always good to have something in the freezer for those times when you can’t be bothered making something from scratch. For many British people, that thing is a box of Birds Eye fish fingers.

Birds Eye Fish Finger Sandwich

Fish fingers are like fish sticks – breaded white fish, cooked in the oven from frozen. One of the most comforting ways to enjoy them is to sandwich them between white bread. Some people like theirs with ketchup, others with mayo. They always hit the spot.

Breakfast of Champions

Across the four countries of the UK, people are eating absolutely massive breakfasts. In England, it’s “the full English,” in Northern Ireland it’s “The Ulster Fry,” in Scotland it’s “the full Scottish,” and in Wales it’s “the full Welsh.” All of these breakfasts include eggs, bacon, and sausage, but each region has its own variants.

Breakfast of Champions

These mega breakfasts are called “fry ups” and can include: black and white pudding, tomato, mushrooms, soda and potato bread, baked beans, cockles and laverbread.

Yorkshire Puddings At Any Opportunity

When we mentioned the ever-popular British Sunday roast, we didn’t even mention the beloved Yorkshire pudding (have you noticed how much British people love the word “pudding?”). These are a baked side dish, made from a simple batter of eggs, flour and milk. The batter transforms in the oven, rising into perfectly puffed cups, ideal for holding gravy.

Yorkshire Puddings At Any Opportunity

Some supermarkets and restaurants make gigantic Yorkshire puddings and serve meals inside them – such as bangers and mash (sausage with mashed potato).

Curry With Two Carbs

It may seem normal enough to enjoy a curry with two separate carbs. After all, in an Indian restaurant, British people would enjoy their chicken tikka masala with pilau rice and a large garlic naan bread. The same is true for British people enjoying a Chinese takeaway. They would order a chicken curry with fried rice and a nice portion of chips (fries) on the side.

Curry With Two Carbs

In some British takeouts, you can simply request a “half and half” with your meal, which is half fries, half rice.

Fried Black Pudding

You may have noticed that black puddings are an option when it comes to the mighty British fry up. We’re not so sure that you want to know what they’re made of. Well, the tasty British black pudding is a blood sausage, made from pork blood, pork fat, and oatmeal.

Fried Black Pudding

Admittedly, this sounds pretty gory, but it’s actually really delicious. Usually, black pudding is sliced and fried, creating iron filled disks of savory sausage. Black pudding is a delicacy in many parts of the UK.

Chips and Curry Sauce

Before we move away from chips (fries), let’s take a look at some British regional food quirks that apply in the chip shop. Some parts of the UK enjoy their chips with gravy, ketchup or mayo. Others eat their fries covered in curry sauce. This is a popular late-night snack, enjoyed on the way home from a night out.

Chips and Curry Sauce

Curry sauce in the UK is a mild, slightly sweet, yellow sauce, modeled on what Chinese takeaways serve as a “Chinese curry sauce.” It’s good stuff, trust us.

A Simple Crisp Sandwich

And while we’re here, why not consider the similar crisp sandwich? In American parlance, a crisp sandwich is a chip sandwich, but in UK parlance, a chip sandwich is a chip butty. Still with us?

A Simple Crisp Sandwich

Anyway, everyone knows that combining carbohydrates leads to tasty results. For the best crisp sandwich, we recommend using white bread with cheese and onion flavored crisps. Just make sure that you don’t cut the roof of your mouth with any rogue crisp shards!

Hot-Dog Buns With Icing

Now, this really is a British food quirk. From an American standpoint, we acknowledge that iced buns must look really, really weird. It’s undeniable that this British baked good is basically a hot-dog bun with white icing on top. But iced buns are a favorite of people of all ages across the UK.

Hot-Dog Buns With Icing

You can get a traditional iced bun in a local bakery, or you can buy a packet in the grocery store. Some people just take a bite, and others spread with them butter.

Crumpets With Lots of Butter

The UK boasts all sorts of bread varieties, one of which is the lovely crumpet. Crumpets are made from batter – rather than dough, like other breads – and are covered in lots of tiny holes. This might be slightly alarming to people suffering from Trypophobia (fear of small holes) but it’s just great for people who enjoy eating large amounts of butter.

Crumpets With Lots of Butter

Crumpets are popped in the toaster and then slathered in butter. These are also known as pikelets in some part of the UK.

Mushy Peas from a Can

British people should really know that anything with the word “mushy” in its name is bound to be unappetizing to people from other countries. And yet, British people really love mushy peas. This bright green side dish is made from soaked and dried marrowfat peas, and is available pre-prepared in a can.

Mushy Peas from a Can

Traditionally, mushy peas accompany fish and chips, but they’re also eaten with many other British meals. In fact, at times, mushy peas have been called “Yorkshire caviar.” They’re tastier than they look.

Asking for Scraps

As it turns out, British people like batter so much, they’re willing to eat little shards of it. “Scraps” are the name of the batter bits that are left over in the deep-fryer after frying fish (or scampi, or a sausage, or anything else). Scraps are usually given to customers for free, though some places do charge.

Asking for Scraps

Scraps go by different names across the UK. They’re called “bits” or “dubs” in parts of Northern England, and “gribbles” in the West Country.

Haggis, Neeps and Tatties

It’s time to look to Scottish cuisine, which has several quirks, including the battered Mars Bars we’ve already mentioned. Of course, when people think of Scottish food, they think of haggis, which is a savory pudding made from sheep offal. It’s actually Scotland’s national dish, and the subject of Robert Burns’ 1787 poem, “Address to a Haggis.”

Haggis, Neeps and Tatties

Haggis is traditionally served with mashed swede and potatoes – known as neeps, and tatties. You can buy haggis in Scottish supermarkets, or battered in the chip shop.

Take Out Sausage Rolls

The British love their sausages. They eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and with all sorts of carb accompaniments. One of the most common by far is the takeaway sausage roll – the perfect way to eat sausages on the go.

Take Out Sausage Rolls

Sausage rolls are usually pork sausage (but sometimes beef), covered in puff pastry and pre-baked. Local bakeries will heat one up for their customers, and serve them in a paper bag. Eat with ketchup or brown sauce.

Lovely Welsh Laverbread

Wales has all sorts of food quirks, especially this seaweed-derived product, known as laverbread. Laverbread is made from a smooth, edible seaweed, known as “slake.” The brownish red algae is washed and boiled down until it turns into a dark green pulp. It is then minced or pureed.

Lovely Welsh Laverbread

This dish a high amount of minerals, including iron and iodine. Because of this, it tastes similar to both olives and oysters. Traditionally, laverbread is eaten fried with cockles and bacon.

Prawn Cocktail Flavored Chips

British people really like eating crisps (potato chips, in American vernacular), and they come in all sorts of flavors. One such flavor is prawn cocktail, which is based on the very popular 1970s dish. Prawn cocktails are still served and eaten throughout the UK, and prawn cocktail crisps are a readily available and beloved flavor.

Prawn Cocktail Flavored Chips

Walkers are the most popular crisp manufacturer in the UK, and each year they run a campaign asking the British public to come up with new flavors.

Northern Irish Soda Bread

Many people forget that the UK is made up of four nations which all are technically British. People from Northern Ireland can have British and Irish citizenship, and their cuisine derives from both cultures. Soda farls are made from flour, baking soda, salt and buttermilk. They can be made quickly, and are fried up on the griddle.

Northern Irish Soda Bread

Filled sodas are a popular breakfast in Northern Ireland, where a farl is fried and filled with bacon, sausage, and a fried egg.

A Frozen Viennetta

Look upon this majestic item, the humble Viennetta. This ice cream comes in several flavors, including chocolate, mint and pistachio. For years, families around the UK have excitedly gathered so that they could crack the chocolate topping and slice into the delectable concertina swirls of ice cream.

A Frozen Viennetta

Viennetta can be found in the frozen section of grocery stores and corner shops, and transforms an evening with just one slice. However, the dessert’s official slogan is “One slice is never enough.”

Beautiful Butter Pies

This British food quirk comes from county Lancashire in North West England. Pies are eaten across the UK, with different fillings according to region. The butter pie has a potato and onion filling, and is sold in chip shops, corner shops and sandwich shops across the county.

Beautiful Butter Pies

Originally, this pie was made for Catholic workers who couldn’t eat fish on a Friday. You can hear former Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney, crooning about butter pies in his song “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey.”

Batter on Everything

Perhaps because the UK is full of fish and ship shops, British people love to batter things. During the First and Second World Wars, the British government protected the supply of fish and chips, so the dish holds a special place in the country’s heart. Fish is battered using a traditional water and flour batter, which contains a little vinegar to create bubbles.

Batter on Everything

UK chip shops also offer battered sausages, battered pasties (a Northern Irish delicacy), and battered Mars Bars (a Scottish specialty).

Toad in the Hole

We’ve talked batter, and we’ve talked Yorkshire puddings, and this next food quirk is a combination of both. Toad in the Hole is an English dish, where you place sausages into a tray of Yorkshire pudding batter, and cook them together so that the batter rises up around the sausage. You then eat the resulting dish with onion gravy and some veggies.

Toad in the Hole

Apparently, batter puddings like this came about in the early 18th century and were created as a way of making meat go further.

A Cheeky Vimto

Many British people have, at some point in their lives, indulged in a cheeky Vimto. Vimto is a purple soda, made from concentrated grapes, raspberries and blackcurrants. For some reason, it’s quite addictive, despite being rather sickly sweet.

A Cheeky Vimto

Vimto is what kids grab when they’re about to ride the school bus. The popular soda comes in cans and bottles, and has also been made into various types of candy. In the summer months, there’s even a Vimto popsicle.

Potato Farls, Scones and Cakes

Bread made from potatoes is eaten across the UK, especially in Northern Ireland and Scotland. This griddle bread is known as potato bread, potato farls, boxty, potato scones, potato cakes, tattie scones, or tottie scones. It’s usually shallow fried and eaten with a large breakfast, or toasted and eaten with butter.

Potato Farls, Scones and Cakes

Potato breads are still commonly homemade across the UK, and they can be purchased in grocery stores. For people from these regions, this type of bread is nostalgic and comforting.

Delicious Welsh Rarebit

Let’s turn to the nation of Wales for our next British food quirk – the Welsh rarebit. This is basically Wales’ version of cheese on toast, except taken up a few notches. This 18th century dish involves a cheese sauce made from cheese, mustard, Worchester sauce, and cayenne pepper or paprika. The sauce is poured onto slices of toast, and grilled until bubbling.

Delicious Welsh Rarebit

A Welsh rarebit served with a fried egg is a “golden buck,” and a Welsh rarebit blended with tomato soup is a “blushing bunny.”

A Dollop of Clotted Cream

When people think about British cuisine, they usually think about afternoon tea. These are dainty lunches involving china tea cups, finger sandwiches (with no crusts), scones, and miniature desserts. There are also cream teas, which are a scone-focused type of afternoon tea that take place in Devon and Cornwall.

A Dollop of Clotted Cream

The best part of eating scones is eating clotted cream. It’s thick cream that’s been heated and left to cool slowly, leaving creamy “clots” on the surface. It’s eaten on scones, with jam (jelly).

Roast Dinner With All the Trimmings

Sunday lunch, or a roast dinner, is a British tradition. While not everyone sits down to a full roast dinner with their family every week, plenty of Brits venture out to a local restaurant to enjoy a big plate with all the trimmings. As with most British foods, the details vary across regions.

Roast Dinner With All the Trimmings

A Sunday roast will include a roast meat (chicken, beef, lamb, or pork), some variety of potatoes (mashed, roasted, boiled), some type of roast vegetable (carrot, sprouts, cabbage, parsnip), and gravy.

Sealed Cheese Toasties

Americans love their grilled cheese sandwiches, and the French love their croque monsieurs. The British equivalent is a toasted sandwich made using a toastie machine. This produces sandwiches with sealed edges and piping hot fillings.

Sealed Cheese Toasties

When the Brits make themselves a toastie, they butter the bread on both sides, so that there’s a satisfying sizzle when it hits the hot machine. Ideally, you want the cheese to slightly ooze out the sides in order to create a crispy cheese crust.

Jelly and Ice Cream

Jelly and ice cream is a British food quirk that comes from children’s birthday parties. In this case, jelly refers to a Jell-O style gelatin dessert, and not the fruity spread (this would be called “jam” in the UK). Kids at a birthday would sit down to a bowl of ice-cream with a portion of jelly, and inevitably the two would combine to make a milky, multi-colored bowl of sweetness.

Jelly and Ice Cream

Jellies were hugely popular in 19th century England, and were usually made using elaborate molds.

Branston Pickle and Cheese Sandwiches

Branston Pickle was founded in 1922 in the village of Branston, England. It’s a dark, sticky chutney made up of diced root vegetables, along with some vinegar and spices. British people love pairing Branston with a strong cheddar cheese and eating it in a sandwich.

Branston Pickle and Cheese Sandwiches

Alternatively, you can include Branston pickle in a ploughman’s lunch, which is made up of bread, cheese, and whatever else is lying around. This popular pickle comes in original chunky style, or small chunk for more delicate sandwiches.

The Only Brown Sauce

While many countries praise Heinz tomato ketchup as their number one condiment, the UK has a competitor, in the form of HP sauce. HP – also known as “brown sauce” – is named after London’s Houses of Parliament, and has been around since the late 19th century.

The Only Brown Sauce

The sauce itself is vinegary with a tomato base. It is enjoyed in bacon sandwiches, with Irish stew, and with shepherd’s pie. You can also buy HP Fruity, which is a tangier version, and HP BBQ, which is the UK’s best-selling BBQ sauce.

Tinned Spaghetti Hoops on Toast

We already know that the British public enjoy eating baked beans on toast. As you might have noticed, British people aren’t scared of tinned foods – so far, mushy peas and corned beef have come from cans. And here’s another canned delicacy – spaghetti hoops on toast.

Tinned Spaghetti Hoops on Toast

This is pretty similar to beans on toast, except the pasta hoops come in various shapes. Of course, there’s alphabet spaghetti, and then spaghetti that looks like your favorite cartoon characters. Generally, this meal is enjoyed by kids.

Marmite, Toast and Butter

Love it or hate it, Marmite isn’t going anywhere. To most people in the world, Marmite seems like an inexplicable, dark brown paste. To the British folks who like it, it’s a bitter, savory treat in a jar.

Marmite, Toast and Butter

Marmite is a yeast extract, and is commonly spread on top of buttery toast. When eating Marmite, you only need a small amount because the taste is so strong. This means that you just add a smear to your toast, and the butter balances everything out.

Corned Beef Sandwiches

Corned beef is popular in countries across the world, but it’s slightly different in texture and taste in the UK. Usually, corned beef describes a salt-cured brisket of beef, but in the UK it’s finely minced corned beef with a small amount of gelatin. This is also known as “bully beef.” Sounds pretty gross, right?

Corned Beef Sandwiches

Bully beef with hard biscuits were the main field ration for the British Army from the Boer War to World War II. Now, it’s eaten in sandwiches.

Custard Creams and Tea

The British are always prepared for a nice cup of tea, and for that, you need to have a good selection of British biscuits. One of the most popular biscuits in the nation is the custard cream, a sandwich biscuit with a creamy, vanilla custard flavored filling. These biscuits have an elaborate design on them, which originates in the Victorian era.

Custard Creams and Tea

These little biscuits have been voted one of Britain’s top ten biscuits, especially for dunking into cups of tea.

Lasagna, Chips and Garlic Bread

Of course, lasagna is an Italian dish, made from layers of pasta, meat ragu, and a béchamel sauce. However, it’s a popular choice across the UK, from restaurants to cafes to the kitchen table. Admittedly, British lasagna isn’t authentically Italian, but it is a stodgy pile of cheesy, meaty, pasta that gives you lots of energy for the day ahead.

Lasagna, Chips and Garlic Bread

In the tradition of eating things with two carbs, lasagna in the UK usually comes with both chips and garlic bread.

Bacon Butty With Sauce

You can’t beat a bacon butty (a bacon sandwich) but your preferences might differ depending on where you live in the UK. Generally, Brits eat back bacon, as opposed to Americans who tend to opt for streaky bacon. Bacon butties can be eaten with regular sliced white bread, or in a soft white roll.

Bacon Butty With Sauce

Some people prefer to eat theirs with ketchup, while others insist that HP sauce is the only way to go. It’s simple, and it’s delicious.

Colin the Caterpillar Cakes

Here is a cake that looks like a caterpillar. Better yet, the caterpillar cake is named Colin. British supermarket chain Marks & Spencer is known for a certain standard of groceries. It brands itself as affordable luxury, and is beloved for many of its cult products (see also: Percy Pigs).

Colin the Caterpillar Cakes

Colin the Caterpillar cakes are chocolate sponge roll cakes with chocolate buttercream, covered in a chocolate shell. M&S claims it takes 38 people to assemble each cake.

Crumble, Custard, and Ice Cream

When it comes to desserts, British people are pretty into crumbles. These can be sweet or savory, but are most often sweet and made with fruit. Crumble toppings became more popular during World War II, as a cheaper alternative to pastry. They are made using flour, butter, and sugar, and occasionally with oats or nuts.

Crumble, Custard, and Ice Cream

Brits enjoy apple, rhubarb, plum, and blackberry crumbles, eaten with custard, ice-cream and fresh cream. They’re a popular homemade dessert – hearty, warming, and fulfilling.

Red Leicester Every Time

We’ve seen that British people enjoy their cheese, whether it’s on toast, in sandwiches, or in pies. Generally, cheddar is the go-to British cheese, but the Brits are also huge fans of red Leicester. This cheese is made in a similar way to cheddar, but is crumblier and reddish-orange.

Red Leicester Every Time

British people enjoy red Leicester on toast, on top of pasta, or inside a baked potato. Apparently, the cheese was initially colored with carrot and beetroot juice, though now it’s colored with annatto.

Chips With Gravy

We’ve talked about chips and curry sauce, and now we need to discuss chips and gravy. Again, this is a regional variation, but generally both gravy and curry sauce are offered as options in chippers across the country. This food quirk is just chips (fries) and gravy, which is a satisfying, bland, and salty combination.

Chips With Gravy

Gravy from a chip shop tends to be regular brown, whereas gravy from a Chinese takeaway is usually dark brown and quite thick. Both types are excellent.

Simply Delicious Scotch Eggs

We can’t deny that Scotch eggs look fairly unpleasant, but they’re really a handheld way of enjoying a hearty breakfast. A Scotch egg is a soft or hard-boiled egg coated in sausage meat and breadcrumbs and fried. When sliced in half, you should see a perfect cross-section of egg, meat, and casing.

Simply Delicious Scotch Eggs

More trendy versions of Scotch eggs are now available, using black pudding or chorizo in the sausage mixture, and quail or duck’s eggs in the center.