Not sure if you’re aware of the latest fad taking food lovers by storm – Banh Mi sandwiches. I find this “fad” quite amusing since BanhMi sandwiches have been around for a long, long time. But to be fair, I didn’t actually try eating one until recently. What the heck was I waiting for? I have no idea.
I had a couple of friends over for dinner, and one of them suggested that we make BanhMi. While we were assembling our sandwiches, they kept referring to themselves by L and S, trying to predict what I would write in this post. And just because of that, I’m going to say their names. 
So Liz was gracious enough to pick up some bauguetts for us from Almondine Bakery in Brooklyn. I’m so happy that she did because this baguette was frickin’ amazing! It was perfectly buttery, chewy yet soft on the inside! So delicious!
What was not perfect, however, was the pork. I was afraid that it wasn’t the right cut of meat, but it is all I had access to. If I make this again, I will definitely go elsewhere for a thinner cut of pork. For a pound of pork shoulder, I added 2 tbs of fish sauce, 2 tbs of sugar, and 5 cloves of minced garlic to marinate overnight. Then I cooked it until well done.
The carrot and radish are supposed to be matchstick thin. Forgive me; I got lazy! The cucumbers should be pickled a few hour beforehand, just because it gets discolored easily and has a lot more water content than the other vegetables. I salted the sliced vegetables, to drain it of its juices. Rinsed and squeezed out the water. Then threw a splash of vinegar and a sprinkle of sugar to all of the vegetables and let it sit overnight (see a theme here?). I also added ribbons of red leaf lettuce and fresh cilantro.
Feel free to adjust to your own condiment preferences, but I loooove them all. Here is Hoisin sauce, mayo mixed with fish roe, and Sriracha sauce. They were so fat that it was hard to eat!
We all made fun of Liz’s sandwich cuz it was soo green:
Susan’s sandwich, cilantro-free(she says when she asks for no cilantro at the Bahn Mi place, and the writes “no SLT” on her sandwich!!!):
Here is my sandwich, fully stuffed and ready to be devoured:
Then I decided to make a Vietnamese rice noodle bowl by adding noodles to the ingredients and a little bit of fish sauce for another meal the next day. Super delicious!
Just so you know, we had dessert as well. But that will be another post for another day.
June 16, 2009
yummmmm. Actually there is one place that I trek over to for banh mi, on Lex & 26th Street – baoguette. All the way from my office at Grand Central! But I do hear that Brooklyn is the place to go.