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On Bánh Mì, the Vietnamese Sandwich
In New York City, sandwiches are a big thing: from Italian subs, to chopped cheese, to lox and cream cheese on a bagel. All of these are great in their own right, but I humbly believe that Vietnamese sandwiches are unmatched when it comes to flavor and texture. There’s something so comforting and satisfying about bánh mì that reminds me of home.
During my decade at Paris Sandwich, I learned how to bake bread from scratch for our bánh mì. While that’s a topic for another book, what we’ll teach you here is how to assemble a proper at-home bánh mì—the iconic Vietnamese sandwich created after the French introduced bread to Vietnam. The sandwich is believed to have originated with street vendors during the 1950s in Saigon, which was the capital of French Indochina at the time. (For a broader discussion of French influence on Vietnamese food.)