Each Friday afternoon (or evening), I offer up eight tasty links that have captured my food curiosity. Here are the links for this week!

1. Forbes Traveler has put together a list of what they consider to be the 11 Classic American Dishes. Included on the list are the Philly cheesesteak, pasta primavera and the overstuffed burrito.
2. Have you ever been challenged by the task of pouring the perfect pint of beer? For their feature, You're Doing it Wrong, Chow has put together a video the details all the nuances of the perfect pour.
3. The Illinois Food Bank has laid down a challenge to the residents of their state: Can you eat on just $25 a week? Citizens took on the challenge and respond. Amy, of Cooking with Amy, recently did a similar challenge and blogged her experience.
4. Elise of Simply Recipes reminds her readers how satisfyingly simple it is to make your own vanilla extract.
5. Just in for our current economic crisis! Depression Cooking with Clara! [via Vegan Lunch Box]
6. The Old Foodie ruminates on the history of toast.
7. Dinner with Julie offers up a recipe for bean-fortified oatmeal cookies.
8. Bacon Today lists ten other bacon sites you should be reading.

The most expensive beef in the world is wagyu, or Kobe beef. It comes from cows that are not only genetically predisposed to intensely marbled meat that is very high in fat, but that get fed a special diet that is meant to improve that marbling beyond anything that other beef can achieve. To keep the meat from getting tough, it is said that some producers massage the muscles of their cows, rather than let the cows exercise themselves. With meat like this available and gaining rapidly in popularity, it is hardly a surprise, all of the world's most expensive steaks, as selected by Forbes Traveler, feature wagyu beef. Without further ado, these are the places to go - and how much you'll have to pay - for some of the best and most-expensive steaks in the world:

• "103" Wagyu rib eye at Craftsteak New York (private order item), $2,800 for 20 pounds
• Charbroiled Kobe Filet, Aragawa, Tokyo, $258 for 8-oz.
• Select Special Kobe Filet at the Kobe Renga-tei Steak Restaurant, Kobe, $246 for 160 grams (5.6-oz.)
• Australian Wagyu Striploin at the Al Muntaha restaurant, Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai, $169 300 gm
• Japanese Wagyu Rib Eye at Wolfgang Puck's CUT at the Beverly Wilshire, Beverly Hills , $160, eight-ounce filet
• "Wagyu no sumibiyaki" at Zuma, London, $132 (no size indicated)
• Sendai Sirloin at the Ekki Bar & Grill, Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi The Price: $129 for 150g
• Australian Wagyu Fillet Mignon at the Polo Club, Marriott Royal Aurora, Moscow, $101 for 12-oz.
• Smoked Salt American Kobe Rib Eye Cap Steak at BLT Prime, New York, $95 (no size indicated)