$100 DOLLAR Pho & $100 Bánh mì in Saigon Vietnam

This is like the utmost luxury in the world of pho. All right, I'm gonna get ready for my $10 bite. Hey guys, it's Mike Chen here in Saigon. Now before I came to Vietnam, I asked you guys to give me suggestions on food places I should try once I was here and a lot of you suggested I go try the $100 bánh mì and $100 bowl of pho. Now, of course, bánh mì and pho are a couple of things I look forward to the most when I got to Vietnam and I had some great ones since I was here. A bowl of pho is usually around $3, bánh mì is like a buck, but $100 seems a bit much. So I am curious to see what actually goes inside a bowl of $100 pho and what goes inside a sandwich that cost a hundred bucks. So I am at An An Saigon and we're gonna go try it out. This is the place. It's around 2 p.m. right now and this place, I think it only opens for dinner. But to eat the $100 pho or bánh mì, you gotta reserve ahead of time. So I did. So I think right now the whole restaurant is closed and I'm gonna be the only one eating here. They got a little global customer. Well, I'm gonna add to this. Hey, how are you? We have the local baguette. This is a black truffle mayonnaise, French style pâté, French foie gras. It's all the fat from the foie gras we're gonna put on the sandwiches or two for flavor. All the different layers there, the pâté, the pork, the foie gras, a bit of the pork fat and the herbs all mixed together. This is the beef broth. It's very clear, very clean. It's like tea color. First thing we put in is right now a beef rib just to warm up the meat. Onsen egg with black truffle, a little bit of beef inside. This is a side dish for this bowl. Wow. Look at this. This bowl of pho is not only hot, it's not only simmering, it's absolutely boiling. I mean, this is the degree you would expect a hot pot to be. It doesn't smell quite like what you think pho would smell like. It has a strong hint of star anise and a lot of different spices are in this. It smells a little herb-ly. I can almost like, I almost feel like if I just put my head inside the steam that it'd be pretty therapeutic. This, of course, is no common bowl of pho. First of all, the bowl is not a common bowl. This is a stone bowl and it's gonna retain a lot of the heat and it has to be boiling because I got cuts of Australian Angus beef here that's covered in peppers and ginger and the condiments are not common either. So I do have the hoisin in the sriracha, but also I have a little dish of truffle. The noodles, I've actually never had handmade pho noodles before, but these are handmade Hanoi pho noodles. And the chef tells me they only last one day. Finally, poached egg. Never had a poached egg before that came with pho. And the chef said to eat the poached egg first, so let's do that. The poached egg, it's literally just floating in this thick broth, kind of like a planet just floating effortlessly in space. Look at it. This broth is thick. It smells very truffle-ly. Tastes extremely truffle-ly. Wow, it tastes like beef and some truffles sat in a sauna together. A delicious sauna. Hmm, the poached egg, here you go. I'm gonna just break it open. Oh, oh my, oh ho ho ho. Oh, that is beautiful. There you go. That might be the smoothest egg I've ever had. I mean, have you guys seen this? You see how delicate this egg is? Look at this. I'm slightly shaking the spoon. It's jiggling. I've never had egg in such a beautifully beefy broth before. There's also some organ meat inside, I think. Yep, some organs, some tendon. This broth is not simple, my friend. That was a fantastic start. Next up, look at this broth. This, this is, I've never had a bowl of pho before where the bowl is like 70-80% meat. Oh, yeah, this is, oh my god. I'm barely able to lift this out. This is beef belly. Look at that. If I put a little more pressure on it, you see this? It's just so ridiculously tender. There's beef balls, here's the piece of the tongue, and this, look at this, this is a massive piece of beef ribs. To me, it has overtaken the bowl of pho. And guys, that's the way I like it. All right, so before this cools down, let me put some of the Australian Angus in there. This is gonna work on your chopstick skills right here, because, oh, it's so delicate. Even before it's boiled, look at this thing. It's just falling apart already, and it's about to go on the most delicious swim of its life. In just a few seconds. I put this in for about four seconds. Oh, that's done. Whoa. Yeah. That did really good things to my tongue right there. Literally barely able to pick up this meat, because it's just falling apart. Just the meat itself in this broth, it's enough for me. Like, the flavor has infused the meat enough just to eat it like that. But I got this massive chunk of truffle. So again, this goes in. I feel like this is so cool, because I feel like I'm eating a bowl of pho, and I'm eating hot pot at the same time, which are two of my favorite things in the world. So this is doubly exciting for me. Ah, here we go. Wow. How do you not love just the most tender meat cooked slightly in such an aromatic broth, and then made friends with some truffle? How do you not love that? I don't know. This broth, usually pho, it doesn't come with like that many different types of like cuts of beef, but this has seven cuts of beef in here, and I just want to drink some of that heavenly beefy elixir. Oh, it's boiling hot. This, you know what this reminds me of? This reminds me of that bowl of beef noodle soup I had in Taiwan, where the beef flavor is just so incredibly strong and so present. By far, this is the beefiest bowl of pho. Like seriously, usually, usually pho, I mean the beef flavor is there. It's pretty, you know, it's already pretty beefy, but this, this is like a typical bowl of pho soup times a hundred in beefy flavor. I don't feel like you can fit any more beef in here. I think we are at the maximum beef capacity. Any more, this thing would just start running out eating grass. All right, with, with every great bowl of pho, you gotta dress it up a little bit with some herbs and onions. That is gonna change the flavor profile of the soup a bit. And also, I gotta put lime in my pho because I just love that citrus flavor with my beef. Give that a nice mix. Mmm. Wow. Wow. The soup has become a little bit more herby. It's so good. Now, the noodles here, this is really neat. This is handmade pho noodles. First thing already that's different is that when I picked it up, it's not clamping together. And I'm just gonna take some of the noodles, put it inside my broth, let it swim around, touch the broth, get some good experience. I'm gonna take the meat and dip it in some sriracha because I want to ruin this soup. Maybe a little bit of herb. Here we go. That beef ball, that thing's got a huge amount of beef flavor in there. I've been waiting, waiting to try a piece of the beef belly. A little sriracha, a little truffle. How about that? Why not? I never had truffle flavor and sriracha flavor in the same bite before. Oh my good god. Look at this thing. This thing must have just watched a Disney movie because it is all sorts of falling apart. That beef basically coated around every single strand of noodles. The brisket. There you go, brisket. Meat truffle. Wow, I love the fat that's inside the brisket. Oh, that thing is so melty. The shank is what I've really been looking for. Look how big this thing is. I didn't even touch this and the bone fell out. Look at all the meat on this beef monster. Those of you, um, sitting at home who thinks this might be like a little beef overkill, I want to ask you a question. But really, can that really be a thing? I mean, can you really have too much money or, I mean, can a person be too pretty? I don't think so. This is my favorite after the Australian beef. I feel like a lot of flavor of the soup comes from this, this giant piece of meat right here. All right, I'm gonna leave this alone for just a second because there's something else on my table of equal importance that I've been neglecting and I feel bad. So let me introduce you to, to this. The hundred dollar bánh mì. Now, like I mentioned in the beginning of this video, um, there are a couple things I really wanted to try so, so much when I came to Vietnam. One is pho, the other is bánh mì. And I'm just so excited to try this. I mean, look at this. This isn't just your simple run-of-the-mill bánh mì. Besides having, uh, lemongrass pork chops and it also has a layer of foie gras. I just, I gotta try this. Wow, there's truffle in here as well. The pork, that fat just rendered completely on my tongue. It's a beautiful smoky charred flavor. Foie gras, oh, it's buttery. I've eaten foie gras on a couple occasions. I just never thought I'd have it in a bánh mì. This thing still retains a lot of the characteristics of a traditional bánh mì. The bread, crispy on the outside, ginger on the inside, the crunchy sweet vegetables, big pieces of pork. But this one is just so much more smoky and buttery. Also, huge truffle flavors here. And there's a couple of different, um, different sauces that comes with this. One of them is caviar, which I don't really eat much of because I'm not that fancy of a guy. And also, um, the only eggs I really like comes from chickens. And then some more black truffle sauce. So I'm gonna take some of the caviar because, you know, it's here. Let's try it. Put it on my bánh mì. Words I thought I would never say in my life. I'm still not quite sure what caviar tastes like right now. Let me, let me just taste some on its own. I have no idea what caviar is supposed to taste like. That's interesting. They, it literally just tastes like super gentle briny fish pellets. It's actually really creamy. There's like creamy little ocean bubbles. I can't really taste it much when it's on the bánh mì because the flavor of this is really, really strong. And the caviar, I feel like it's really gentle. But the flavor is definitely overwhelmed by this. Okay, I'm gonna add some truffle mayo here. And guys, one thing I definitely know I will not leave behind at all, is the caviar, truffle mayo, and truffle sauce. Because just like at a buffet, you gotta know where your value is. That I love. This also has a little wasabi in here. That wasabi element is absolutely brilliant. I mean, you're getting so much fat in the sandwich from the pork itself, from the truffle. That wasabi just makes every single ingredient dance. And you know, not this type of dancing, but like this. Actually, the combo of the bánh mì and this mayo has a huge highlight. Also, it comes with some sweet potato chips with cayenne pepper. Delicious, sweet, and spicy. Actually, you're supposed to dip the fries in the mayo as well. That goes great with everything. Man, this is awesome. I'm also supposed to dip the fries in the caviar. This feels to me like driving a Civic through the neighborhood of Bel Air. Because yeah, as good as these sweet potato fries are, I mean, I'm dipping fries in caviar. That's only something I thought Bill Gates and Ronald McDonald did. Now guys, do I think that this bowl of pho tastes, what, like, I'm so bad at math. Why am I, how am I even Asian? Does it really taste, I don't know, 12 times, 13 times better than a regular bowl of pho? And does this taste like, I don't know, 100 times better than a traditional regular bánh mì? And guys, as delicious as both of these items are, I feel like it's more about the experience of eating them. Because you're not going to eat $100 bowls of pho every day. But I love the creativity that went into both of these dishes. Because it's so interesting to see a food item that as delicious as it is, and I love pho and I love bánh mì, they're considered pretty economical foods. And it's just really interesting to see foods that people would normally consider pretty cheap being transformed into something, well, like this. So I am really glad I came here and tried this. And there's a reason I order both of these at the same time. Because when I eat pho, I always want some bánh mì to dip in it. So I'm going to take my $100 bánh mì, and it's going into my $100 bowl of pho. So is this going to be like a $200 bite? Wait, that's not how the map goes. I told you, I'm really bad. So exciting. That might be the most decadent, delicious, over-the-top bite of pho and bánh mì, or pho mì, in all of Vietnam. The buttery, truffle-y, charred, smoky flavor of the bánh mì, combining with just, with just the most intense, beefy broth flavor. You know what? Let's take it up a notch, throw some truffle mayo on that bite, and some caviar. I'm sorry. That was the greatest pho mì bite ever. By the way, that is a word now, pho mì. Couple more bites. Let's do it. All right, last thing I want to do is something really, really, really important. You have to do it when you're eating something delicious. You gotta share. So if you watch my vlog, you know, I traveled here with some friends, and they also got to try this. Hey guys, so I brought more food. Now it's just my turn to watch. Like, I can't even, I mean, I finished my food already, and it's kind of sad. Now I know how, like, other people feel. That was really strong. By the way, guys, some of you asked me to introduce these guys. So this is Jennifer. She does a lot of editing. She does a lot of writing. Brenda does a lot of editing, and we can't speak Vietnamese, so she's acting like our interpreter here on this trip, and Ben's our camera person. Oh, it's so hot. It's so hot. Yeah. And this is definitely one of the funnest eating experiences I had in Saigon, and as you can see, it's pretty good. Anyway, thank you for watching, and until we all eat again, I'll see you later. Thank you so much for making my stomach feel the happiest it's been feeling for a while. It's what I do. It's my pleasure. So, well, I gotta ask a couple things. All right, so I just had, that was, that was like an experience. You know, that wasn't just a food. It was more like an experience. Yeah. How'd you come up with that? Well, you know, I think when you think of Vietnamese cuisine, there are two things that people think of. Pho and banh mi. Yes. It's like, these are the national dishes and associated with Vietnamese cuisine, and we wanted to do something that was special, unique, and different for people to, as an experience, and what a crazier way to do it, to take something that you can buy on the street out here, for a dollar, basically about twenty thousand dong, and we basically increase it by a hundred times to a hundred dollars. So, it's a bit of a crazy idea to do, but it's something that it was a challenge that we wanted to take on, just a bit of fun for us to do in the kitchen, and just to create something that's gonna, it's an interesting experience for people. Yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty incredible. So, what, what is next? What, what is the, what is, what is after a banh mi in the front? Well, you know, one of the interesting things, we do it at An Nang Saigon here, and we open now for about six months. It's, we want people to really see Vietnamese cuisine, number one, not just being cheap, but it's something quality, and also up to the level of, let's say, French or Japanese. So, the second thing is, we didn't want people to really think it's only about pho and banh mi. So, that's why, when we come to the restaurant here, it's actually, pho and banh mi is not anywhere on the menu. So, uh, when you think about the Vietnamese cuisine itself, what would be the third dish that people would? Uh, well, top of my head, I'm thinking, like, either, like, spring roll, or, I mean, I'm just being very stereotypical here. Yeah, right, yes. Number three, four or five, they're kind of like, yeah, could be Bun Bo Hue. Some people from the north, they think it's Bun Rieu, or something like, which is a crab soup. Yeah. Uh, but I think the, the spring roll is probably the, the third one. So, we're gonna tackle this one next. So, what we've been playing with now, we've taken a whole lobster, like, basically, one kilogram of lobster. And then, as a side dish, with the head, we're gonna split into two. Yeah. All the good stuff inside, we're gonna grill this. So, this is a side dish. So, uh, you can expect this to come up sometime soon. Well, it's, uh, I'm already full, but I'm salivating the way you're describing that. I cannot wait to come back and try. Well, thank you for coming, and, uh, we're happy to have you. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. When you launch the lobster spring roll, um, you know, I'm gonna be back for that. That sounds really exciting for me. And yes, lobster and butter, they're like the closest friends. Yeah. Thank you again so much. Thank you guys so much for watching. Until we meet again. You're welcome. See you later.