The Mountain Steeped
Location
Required Items
Rewards
What the allowance actually buys
One allowance here buys 1,592,240 EXP, which places it 2nd of the 2 Lv 88 Culinarian tradecraft leves that record EXP. The best of them, Blast from the Pasta, returns 1,595,390 EXP for the same allowance, 0% more.
On whether to wait: the best Lv 90 Culinarian tradecraft leve returns 1,713,570 EXP per allowance, 7% more than the best on this rung, while the Lv 86 rung behind tops out at 1,471,010 EXP.
At Lv 88 this data holds 18 leves paying EXP across 2 categories: the 16 Tradecraft ones average 1,852,163 EXP per allowance, the 2 Fieldcraft ones 3,242,290 EXP, which puts this leve 14% below its own category's average.
Gil ranks it differently: 5,040 gil per allowance is 1st of 2 on the same rung against 2nd on EXP, with the best there paying 5,040 gil.
Tsai tou Vounou ×3 is a Lv 89 Culinarian recipe, 2 steps deep through 1 intermediate, costing 12 units of raw material and 24 crystals.
Handing that in returns 132,687 EXP and 420 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows.