World's Most Expensive Pho Goes on Auction Block

By Elina Shatkin Wed., May 11 2011 at 1:01 PM

Not the world's most expensive bowl of pho. A more affordable but still tasty bowl of beef pho from Pho Pagolac.

The AnQi Phở is no piddling bowl of broth, noodle and tendon, gulped down in some Westminster dive at 2 a.m. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) This is phở 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.

This staple of Vietnamese cooking, elevated here with luxury ingredients, will be auctioned off at the Bash Benefactor Dinner on Friday. Proceeds benefit the Children's Hospitals of Los Angeles and Orange County as well as the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital.

Bidding for the bowl of soup starts at $5,000, but will only go up from there. Don't worry if you can't attend the invitation-only dinner and auction, held at Tiato, a Vietnamese café opened last summer in Santa Monica as part of the House of An, the group that owns Crustacean in Beverly Hills. The $5,000 AnQi Phở will also be featured on Crustacean's permanent menu with proceeds continuing to benefit the Children's Hospital.

Tags:

Bash Foundation, Charity, Children's Hospital, Elina Shatkin, Fundraiser, Pho, Soup, Tiato

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Ryan

I pay $6.50 for a large bowl of pho in houston. They all taste the same to me, so $5000 is ridiculous. in the words of the mighty ducks and emilio estevez, "quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack"

Hai Tran

This isn't even Phở anymore? Just some fancified up bowl of noodles, IMHO. Is the Sriracha sauce infused with gold too?

Ian Chin

Blue Lobster (the rarest of the ingredients) tastes no different than the regular mottled red...

Thuydu55

People please, don't you ever ever forget, some years back, UNITED WAY and WORLD VISION chief executive officers pocketed millions and millions of donated money. If we could not trust these two charity organization giants, why should we trust anything else?

Thuydu55

It is quite preposterous for the owner of AnQi pho to have come up with the idea of ripping off the gullible public this way. Yeah yeah right, the money goes to Children Hospital!! Give me a break!!! For $5000.00 I could eat the best of pho at Kimmy Pho everyday for the rest of my life.

Cheekerz

People are starving in the world... I hope this does something miraculous!

Thuydu55

The only miracle is, The AnQi owners can "miraculously", rip off the gullible public!!!!!!!!!!

LifeDust

If ya gonna put foie gras, overrated jap beef, truffle and you claim that's a bowl of Pho then you can go and fuck yourself. That's more like a bowl of noodle with fancy shits in it and that aint Pho you ignorance morons..

RandomSaigonite

Pho is a Vietnamese version of 'Pot au Feu' inherited from the french about 100 years back, like the italian bollito misto it can contain some kind of protiens in some kind of broth with some kind of veg. As they had their beginnings in the countryside, you would use whatever is to hand... which is why from north to south of Vietnam (where I have lived for the past 7 years) you can find Beef, Chicken, Pork and even (only in the north around Hai Dung) Dog... So what is the "REAL" Pho??

MyView

Pot au Feu serves meat saperate, may be the way of cooking is the same like boiled beef bones for hours.... then again, so other countries on earth.. Pho was originate from North of VietNam, the most time it spearded South would be in 1954 when the north Vietnamese pled communist. Now this is why Pho only have 2 Versions : The "Pho Bac" (Northen Style) (Original) is used to ditingused with later styles in the South.

Pho goes as far as "Pho ga" (chicken Pho) but never with pork nor anything else. And the borth of either on should came from its bones soup. Meaning you can't use beefsoup for a bow of chicken Pho.

Some says "Pho" is a loan word of Chinese, or even originated from southern China, But as far as most documented of "Soups" the Chinese soup base cooked with fish, not beef bone.

Alextc78

overrated jap beef? have you ever had real wagyu? (not the american "wagyu" or american kobe crap). it has no equal. i don't know about the merits of this bowl of noodles and i have no interest in trying this, but wagyu is not overrated.

Angel Jolly

Sorry, but we asked for a representative from Americans Against Illiteracy.

Anthony Cao

DU MAAAAAAA!

John

After reading the describe of the pho(lobster, foie gras, truffle)It isn't even pho anymore!!! seafood, duck or mushroom doesn't mix with with it. It should be either chicken or beef and i agree w.one of the reviewer. I would pick pho kimmie over Anqi anyday. The only benefit is it is for a good cause.

Realist

Torture and kill a duck to get its liver, and give the "proceeds" to charity.

fail

Jesse

Apparently you've never been to a "real" Foie Farm. Happiest ducks on the planet. Stop reading your PETA flyers, go check out the real world, and see what the reality really is. you've never been to a "real" Foie Farm. Happiest ducks on the planet. Stop reading your PETA flyers, go check out the real world, and see what the reality really is.

Tam

Total cost to prepare this bowl of soup is less than 3 bucks. Let go down Little Saigon town, on Bolsa St. at the corner of Bushard, try a bowl of "pho" there to compare the taste. "Kimmy Pho".Total cost less than $8.00. Cheap price but it is a real "pho".TongPGI Construction

sygyzy

Did you even read the description? Do you know what foie gras is?

Cheekerz

Foie Gras is not worth it no matter how its caged or packaged...

Latonya "Keed" Bunn

That should make for some interesting yelpster-monials. "[One star.] So my bf wanted to order the $5,000 phở and I'm like fine but really I couldn't get over the fact that the girl at the next table was wearing exactly the same shoes as me! The little bitch."

Dannybboy114

"[One star.] You know you're paying too much for pho when: - the food takes more than 5 minutes to prepare - you see white people eating without an asian chaperon - you actually get service with a smile - there's NO smell of mop and chlorine when you eat near closing time"

Cheri Weeks

Mop and chlorine, I love it!