Love me a Banh Mi

A banh mi is a Vietnamese sandwich. They differ among regions but are traditionally made with a baguette roll that is a combination of rice and wheat flour. The bread is nice and light with a crunchy, golden crust.

Most commonly, a banh mi is filled with sliced pickled carrots and diakon radishes, cucumbers cut lengthwise, chili peppers, pate (mixture of ground meat and fat minced into a paste), and a variety of meats.

They are often topped with salt, pepper, and either soy sauce or hot sauce. Many banh mi carts will also spread chicken liver paste on the sandwich as well.

(Some of you are probably reading this thinking, Stacia is eating this stuff??? haha... no, no... read on...)

While reading up on banh mi, I read about breakfast banh mi filled with scrambled eggs... mmmm... I might check tomorrow morning to see if the banh mi cart on the corner near me has one of these sandwiches.

I've started going to the banh mi cart near me for a quick dinner. The first time I asked for a banh mi an chay (vegetarian). The ladies behind the cart looked at me as if to say, "An chay?? Then what are we going to put in it??" haha.

I stuck my ground with the an chay idea... at first she tried to hand me just the baguette... but they ended up making one for me by loading on the meats as usual... which I promptly took off at home.

The second time I went to the banh mi cart and asked for an chay, she did put in only the carrots, diakon, and cucumber... but they put just a bit on of each. At home, I added more cucumber and tomato slices - delish!

NOW... tonight I went back for my third time and I am a regular! She saw me coming, told the girl making the sandwiches something with an chay in it and loaded on the veggies! It was perfect.

Here's my delicious banh mi:

BUT the best part is the price... a regular banh mi is either 12,000 or 15,000 dong (depending on which meats you put in it I guess??)... my banh mi an chay costs just 3,000 dong (less than 20 cents). 3,000 dong is what the plain baguette cost... I love that she's charging me as if it is just the roll... she probably thinks it's pretty silly.

Sarah and I also had a banh mi a couple weeks ago that had cucumber, tomato, hot sauce, and hardboiled eggs that were marinated in coconut milk (sounds super weird but was super delicious).  :)

Interesting fact from Wikipedia: The Oxford English Dictionary added, banh mi, on March 24, 2011.