The pho experience is anything but fancy, and that's just fine for all of us at SAFII. Tarnished napkin holders, murky ice water, tattered booths, decorations celebrating holidays of seasons past–we embrace it all for a piping bowl of our cherished Vietnamese noodle soup made with cheap yet soothing ingredients.
But we can't say the news of a $5,000 bowl of pho didn't have us dreaming of a more decadent meal where chopsticks must be held with pinkies up. Yes, you read that correctly. Five Gs. For a bowl of pho. Pho-king pimp.
The dish is a creation of the House of An, the group that owns Crustacean in Beverly Hills and AnQi at Bloomingdale's South Coast Plaza.
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From LA Weekly's Squid Ink:
This is pho of another caliber, and at a minimum cost of $5,000 per bowl, it's definitely meant to be savored. Made with A5 Wagyu beef, white alba truffles, a foie gras broth, hand-raised bean sprouts and “noodles” created, through some sort of gastronomic wizardry, from rare blue lobster meat, it's quite likely the world's most expensive bowl of soup.
According to Squid Ink, the bowl will be auctioned off at tomorrow's Bash Benefactor Dinner (a private event) at Tiato in Santa Monica, with a starting bid of $5,000 and proceeds benefiting the Children's Hospitals of Los Angeles and Orange County and the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital.
It will then sit on Crustacean's permanent menu, with proceeds continuing to benefit the Children's Hospitals. No word yet on whether it will make its way down here to AnQi, its namesake, but we'll keep you high pho-llers posted.
