My Banh Mi

I am just crazy about vietnamese food, and hope to be able to visit Vietnam one day. It seems to me a place of unique beauty and interest , viewed in films and photos. I've been intrigued by vietnamese history and culture (about which I nonetheless know next to nothing) since I read Fire in the Lake , when I was in college during the War in Vietnam.

I had my first tast of vietnamese food when I was in Paris in the seventies, on summer break from college. I was very lucky, because my friend J. and I were staying with E. and his father, who had a left bank apartment. E.'s father was a doctor who was doing some sort of research sabbatical at a Paris hospital, and he had conjured up a summer job for E. as an orderly. Neither E. nor his father were up to much in the cooking department. So when J. and I showed up for a week's visit, and started producing regular meals, we were made more than welcome. Needless to say, we mostly "ate-in." This suited our student level finances very well.

J. spoke French fluently; I not at all. She was very shy and soft-spoken, though. When we went food shopping , J. whispered our requests, and I crudely amplified them, painfully conscious of how totally clueless I was and wishing she could bring herself to speak up. This in no way impeded us from having a wonderful time. I wish I could remember in more detail what we bought and cooked. I do recall that a homemade chicken soup, followed by the poached chicken and market vegetables was a particular hit. I also recall very vividly that this was prepared with a chicken which still had its feet on.

When it came time for us to move on, E. and his father took us out for a "thank you" treat, to a local vietnamese bar. (Can you believe they thanked us for staying in their apartment in Paris?) There we all got pleasantly loaded, and ate these really great sandwiches.

Since that time I've had a few fancy vietnamese meals, and many family-style meals at Tram's in Bloomfield here in Pittsburgh. I have also had quite a few Banh Mi, enjoying these excellent sandwiches as street food in the strip district, and in other cities, wherever I can find them.

I am an inveterate lover of sandwiches. As a bread freak, I find them appealing. I also enjoy their pared down, portable quality, and the endless opportunity they furnish for spontaneous flavor combinations, which may or may not be worth repeating. I had done some research on Banh Mi, including reading John Thorne on the topic ( in one of his books not now on my shelves, it would seem.). I had kind of decided that the botheration factor was probably be too high for sandwiches. But when I read an article in this month's Food and Wine magazine, with Chef Phan's recipes for vietnamese dishes made from ingredients purchased at his local supermarket, the Bahn Mi recipe caught my eye.

I respect, and in many cases agree with those who insist on finding the exact correct ingredients for foreign foods, so that you know what a dish really tastes like (the wonderful and meticulous Paula Wolfert comes to mind.) In this situation, though, I jumped on the chance to try an accessible version. I made these sandwiches using Chef Phan's recipes for the pork and carrots, and the pate recipe I recently adopted. I am very pleased all around. You can find the brined pork, pickled carrot and banh mi recipes at the moment on the Food and Wine website I linked to above-I don't know if they keep them permanently available. If they disappear, and you want them-let me know. I bought the magazine and will keep it.

Although this worked out well, and was not at all hard, the planning ahead of meals 3 days in a row is perhaps not something I want to do really often. I was beginning to feel a bit snarky and rebellious. I will be repeating the sandwiches soon, as I now have lots of thinly sliced leftover pork in the freezer. I expect my snarkiness will be cured by having fresh corn, tomato, basil, arugula and watermelon several days in a row, without much in the way of prep. Can't beat that August food.

Comments

[courtney]

Even though I work primarily with Indian-ish food at my spice blog, I am learning so precious much about other culinary cultures in the process.
My biog-comrade Trina's fiance is half-Vietnamese, and from him, I learn so much about a Vibrant way of eating so different from how I grew up...

[Lynn D.]

Believe it or not I had my first banh mi yesterday in Portland. I had been wanting to try one for years. We met our son for lunch and he suggested an Asian place we ultimately couldn't find. I spotted a banh mi place along the way and in desperation we gave it a try. It was absolutely first rate. They had about 12 different kinds and lucky for my son two vegetarian options (egg and tofu). The tofu was great; I had the more classic kind with pork and pate, my husband the lemongrass chicken.Subsequent research tells me that we accidentally stumbled upon the best banh mi in Portland. They make their own bread. Can't wait to go back.