Vietnamese is one of my favorite forms of Asian cuisine and this is a classic to go with pho'.
Follow These 5 Steps to the Best Banh Mi
A foolproof formula for building this uniquely Vietnamese sandwich.
People often act as if there is a holy grail of
banh mi authenticity. But like a lot of Vietnamese dishes, these sandwiches are very casual and flexible, hard to mess up or interpret too loosely. You can stuff practically anything in one, which is more or less how they were invented: Good bread, butter, pâté, and Maggi Seasoning (a European umami-laden condiment) came to Vietnam with French colonists; porky fillings like
char siu crossed the border from China; and local cooks ran with these new ingredients, adding their own vegetables and herbs to create something uniquely Vietnamese.
You might already know the classic
dac biet (or “special”) banh mi, a sandwich that originated in Saigon and is sold by many street vendors today. It features pâté, cold cuts like the mortadella-style
gio lau sausage or a chewy-tender pork shank, mayonnaise, Maggi Seasoning, some pickled carrots and daikon, cucumber, chiles, and cilantro. It’s sensational, but it’s far from the only sandwich that can be called banh mi.
So, what can? I came up with a loose formula for my book,
Vietnamese Food Any Day. With a combination of these five things, you’re on your way to a proper one.
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A foolproof formula for building this uniquely Vietnamese sandwich.
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