Neiman Marcus’ annual “Christmas Book” has become well known for its extravagant, over-the-top gift items that are largely unattainable for most holiday shoppers.
There are plenty of fancy food items—usually caviar tins and plenty of gold-leaf-encrusted sweets—but this year, one food item went viral for all the wrong reasons.
The luxury retailer is serving up a side dish of collard greens, a cheap leafy vegetable that’s a staple of Southern cuisine and soul food restaurants-- for $66. With a shipping fee of $15.50, the grand total of four 12-ounce trays comes to a whopping $81.50. To its credit, the upscale department store says the dish will serve up to 10 people, so that comes out to about $8 a serving. (A pound of collard greens that can serve about four people retails for less than $3.)
So what makes Neiman Marcus’ greens so special? According to the website’s description they’re “seasoned with just the right amount of spices and bacon.”
Many Southern food chefs were shocked by the dish.
“The food that was considered poor people’s food, or Southern food, or black food, is now being advertised and sold by a luxury brand,” Nicole Taylor, author of “The Up South Cookbook,” told the Washington Post. "I‘ve heard people from the South say that they were ashamed that their family cooked collard greens.”
As word of the pricey greens hit the Internet, the social media sphere had a field day with the “overpriced” side.
Neiman Marcus will now be selling collard greens for $66 plus $15 dollars extra for shipping! There must be GOLD flakes in those greens!
— Radio 103.9 NY (@Radio1039NY) November 2, 2016
Also…yes I saw the $66 collard greens. My recipe costs less than $15 to make & won’t get you cursed out. https://t.co/cZrxqE4BBn
— The Kitchenista (@MissAngelaDavis) November 4, 2016
They “better taste like unicorn tears and Prince’s bath water,” #gentrifiedgreens https://t.co/tnuYIag5Yt
— Don Willis (@dew_socio_logic) November 3, 2016
Some even accused the retailer of appropriatin