Banh Mi Incarnations

Vietnamese banh mi is a sandwich that's constantly being reinvented and reinterpreted. For example, at David Chang's acclaimed Momofuku Ssam Bar in Manhattan, there's a version that sells for $9. The bread was a bit too crusty hard for me, the pickles rather flaccid, and the three-meat terrine was unfortunately nondescript that evening. Nevertheless, I appreciated his interpretation as a sign that Vietnamese food is part of the current gourmet hipster food culture. Chang has a Viet-American chef among his staff to boot, which perhaps explains Momofuku's roasted Brussel sprouts tossed with nuoc mam fish sauce --  an addictive salty-sweet-spicy-pungent treat. (Note: When I used the Gourmet recipe (linked above), my cooking time was half of their estimate. The oven is hot so keep an eye on the Brussel sprouts or they'll be toast.)

Sunset Magazine's November issue included a post-Thanksgiving version of banh mi that was essentially a spicy turkey and cabbage salad stuffed into a toasted roll. Their Vietnamese-style turkey subs called for chili garlic sauce (tuong ot toi) and no mayonnaise to soften the blow so watch out for the heat and vinegar blast!

If you've eaten banh mi these days -- either in Vietnam or abroad - there's a meatball version called banh mi xiu mai. Check Noodlepie's page on banh mi in Vietnam and you'll see that there are many fans of that version.  I'm not one of them, and have never made one myself, though there's a xiu mai recipe on the Viet World Kitchen main site should you want to try it out!

Regardless, why deny people who love the Vietnamese-Chinese-Italian blending. Blake Killian at the Serious Eats website, recently posted on a banh mi sao [sic] mai that competed in the  New Orleans Po' Boy Preservation Festival for best po' boy.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a link to Brigitte Nguyen's $2,000 Vietnamese pork burger, which was a Vietnamese sandwich in a bun.  Inspired by Brigitte, Chuck created and posted a spectacular looking Vietnamese pulled pork recipe on his Sunday Nite Dinner blog. He topped a burger bun with the tasty-looking pork.

Now how about putting that pulled pork in a baguette or bolillo roll with all the usual banh mi  suspects. Here's what you'll need and how to do it: 

• nice light baguette, split, toasted and insides gutted
• whole egg mayonnaise (don't skimp on the fat), smear the inside of the toasted baguette with mayo
• soy sauce or Maggi Seasoning sauce, give the bread a shot of the brown condiment of choice for savory depth

Then add the meat and tuck in the following:

• daikon and carrot pickle (do chua, see recipe below)
• cucumber strips (seeds removed)
• cilantro sprigs
• thinly sliced jalapeno (resist chili garlic sauce because it overwhelms)

Cut it in half and eat. Delish.

If you have banh mi inventions of your own, let us know!

Everday Daikon and Carrot Pickle
Đồ Chua

Makes about 3 cups

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into thick matchsticks
1 pound daikons, each no larger than 2 inches in diameter, peeled and cut into thick matchsticks
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons plus 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups distilled white vinegar
1 cup lukewarm water

1. Place the carrot and daikons in a bowl and sprinkle with the salt and 2 teaspoons of the sugar. Use your hands to knead the vegetables for about 3 minutes, expelling the water from them. They will soften and liquid will pool at the bottom of the bowl. Stop kneading when you can bend a piece of daikon so that the ends touch but the daikon does not break. The vegetables should have lost about one-fourth of their volume. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold running water, then press gently to expel extra water. Return the vegetables to the bowl if you plan to eat them soon, or transfer them to a 1-quart jar for longer storage.

2. To make the brine, in a bowl, combine the 1/2 cup sugar, the vinegar, and the water and stir to dissolve the sugar. Pour over the vegetables. The brine should cover the vegetables. Let the vegetables marinate in the brine for at least 1 hour before eating. They will keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks. Beyond that point, they get tired.

From: Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors (2006, Ten Speed Press)

Comments

[Chuck]

The pulled pork would definitely be good in banh mi... next time! I just need to find a good source for Vietnamese style baguettes.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Well, you can try making the bread yourself. I just added a link in the posting to the baguette recipe on this blog, which you'll find at:

http://vietworldkitchen.typepad.com/blog/2007/05/vietnamese_bagu.html

[steamykitchen]

working on a pulled pork recipe that includes fish sauce, orange, star anise. the slow cooked pulled pork will end up in a banh mi. tastes delicious but needs just a little more testing and tweaking.

[chip]

Thanks for this rundown, Andrea. Earlier this year, we experimented with some banh mi-ish variations. Here's a recipe for an anise pork sandwich:

http://cookthink.com/recipe/5286/Anise_Pork_Sandwich_With_Carrots_And_Cilantro

Daikon would sit well on it, too.

[Andrea Nguyen]

For banh mi, you need a lot of flavor in whatever meat you put in there. The pulled pork, Jaden, may need just a light sprinkling of salt to make it pop.

Chip's recipe posted at Cookthink.com has you sear a pork loin so the meat has a flavorful outer crust. Nice work, guys.

[Nate]

I like banh mi but really can't take it on a baguette like the normal ones you get at Lee's sandwiches - the bread is just too chewy for me. I prefer a big buttery croissant instead. Sonny's Cafe on Cottle Rd is near my workplace so whenever I go there I get one of their steamed pork sandwiches on a croissant. It is great.

[Simon Bao]

Andrea, about the vegetable "tuck ins" added to a Banh Mi... When the sandwiches are going to be eaten right away, I like to tuck in watercress, and lots of it. The fresh peppery flavor goes well with any of the meat fillings that might be used. If no watercress is on hand, arugula works too. Not a common practice, but one worth trying, it's really good, but it doesn't have the same nice textures that watercress does.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Croissants and watercress -- you guys really like to doll up the old banh mi. What's next? A brioche roll? Just kidding, those are both superb ideas.

Nate, Lee's Sandwiches has not impressed me with their terrible rendition of baguette. The bread for banh mi isn't the star. It merely encases all the goodies and shouldn't challenge much. A light crunch is all you need. Trader Joe's sells an Il Fornaio regular baguette that's nice for banh mi.

Simon, do you add the cress instead of all the other stuff?

[Andrea Nguyen]

Amy Sherman over at Epicurious.com recently did an Epi Log banh mi round-up too and pointed to an interesting Hanoi rendition called Banh My [sic] Doner Kebab that was reported on the Last Appetite blog. My friends, the bread looks like pita.

Amy's round-up:
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2007/12/vietnamese-eats.html

Banh My [sic] Doner Kebab
http://www.lastappetite.com/banh-my-doner-kebab/

[Simon Bao]

Andrea, I heard somewhere about those Doner Kebabs. Misspelled, but named after the famous Donner Party, I was told.

With the watercress or arugula in Banh Mi, I sometimes omit the cucumber and get the green crunch from the leaves instead. That's not suitable for a Banh Mi that's going to be wrapped, toted around, eaten much later - but if they're being eaten as they're made, then either leaf works very well.

I am pretty conventional with Banh Mi, except with respect to the meats. I have filled them with all kinds of grilled meats, American "cold cuts," slices of leftover roasted meats... Not quite as flexible as a Philadelphian might be with a hoagie - I haven't made a fish Banh Mi yet, nor a cheesesteak Banh Mi. But I'll let you know if I do. :-)

[Andrea Nguyen]

Ohhhhh noooo, Donner Kebabs would be awful. What a cruel joke. Those of you who are unfamiliar with the Donner Party, they were a bunch of American settlers who were heading for California when they hit a terrible snow storm in the Sierra Nevada mountains. In desperation, they resorted to cannibalism.

Vietnamese people love double entendres, and Simon, you're quite good at that, aren't you.

In all seriousness, doner kepap is Turkish roasted meat cooked on an upright turning spit that's sliced off to order. It's the precursor to shawarma and gyro.

[Annie]

Hi Andrea, Do you know what kind of pate they use on Vietnamese sandwiches? I've tried a few kinds and they never make the sandwiches taste like the ones I've bought. Maybe there is a recipe where I can make my own. Thanks for any advice you can give!

[Andrea Nguyen]

Hi Annie,

It's usually a pork liver pate with lots of garlic and Chinese 5-spice. Don't skimp on the fat. If you have a copy of "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" (Ten Speed Press, 2006), the recipe is in the charcuterie chapter. You could try liverwurst but that's kind of off, huh?