Dish · vietnamese

Banh Mi

A short, thin-crusted baguette split and filled with a pork protein, pate, pickled carrot and daikon, cilantro, and chili, eaten as a handheld lunch.

Banh Mi, illustrated

Where it comes from

The baguette and pate came from French colonial rule in Vietnam; after the French left, Vietnamese cooks lightened the bread and added local pickles and herbs, turning a colonial import into a distinct dish.

What cooks argue about

Cooks argue over the bread: a rice-flour-blended baguette with a thin, shattering crust and airy crumb, versus an all-wheat loaf, which is denser and holds the fillings without going soggy as fast.

Versions

Nobody has published a banh mi here yet. When somebody cooks one from a video and publishes it, their version appears in this list, with a link back to the original.

What goes in it

Each one opens everything else made with it.

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Vietnamese kitchen