Bánh mì
A sandwich where a French baguette meets Vietnamese ingredients — not coincidence but a legacy of French colonial rule. The Vietnamese baguette differs from the French: it has a thin, crackly crust and a light, airy crumb (sometimes baked with some rice flour), so it does not overwhelm the filling. The construction is deliberate: fat at the bottom, acid in the middle, herbs on top, and every layer has a job.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Pickles 60 min
- Marinating the meat 30 min
- Grilling 15 min
- Assembly 15 min
Step by step
0 / 7 donePickle the carrot and daikon
Dissolve the sugar and salt in the warm water, add the vinegar and pour over the julienned carrot and daikon. Leave an hour — the pickles are ready when the vegetables soften but still crunch. They keep three weeks in the fridge.
Ingredients: 2 pcs carrots · 200 g daikon · 150 ml rice vinegar · 4 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp salt · 150 ml water
An hour is enough — soft but still crunching.Marinate the meat with lemongrass
Mix the fish sauce, soy sauce, palm sugar, crushed garlic, finely chopped lemongrass and pepper, coat the meat slices and leave 30 minutes. The palm sugar gives the meat a dark caramel edge in the pan.
Ingredients: 500 g pork shoulder · 2 tbsp fish sauce · 1 tbsp soy sauce · 2 tbsp palm sugar · 3 cloves garlic · 2 pcs lemongrass · 1 tsp black pepper
Grill the meat over high heat
Cook the slices on a very hot pan, 2 minutes a side, in batches — about 15 minutes in all. Do not crowd the pan — the meat starts stewing in its own juices instead of caramelising, and the caramelisation is the flavour here.
Ingredients: 500 g pork shoulder · 2 tbsp fish sauce · 1 tbsp soy sauce · 2 tbsp palm sugar · 3 cloves garlic · 2 pcs lemongrass · 1 tsp black pepper
In batches on a hot pan — the meat must caramelise.Warm the baguettes
Warm the baguettes 5 minutes at 200°C, so the crust is crisp and the crumb warm. Split them lengthways, not all the way through, and pull out some of the crumb to make room for the filling.
Ingredients: 4 pcs baguettes · 4 tbsp mayonnaise · 100 g chicken liver pâté · 1 pcs cucumber · 1 bunch coriander · 2 pcs chillies · 1 tsp soy sauce
Spread with pâté and mayonnaise
Spread the bottom half with pâté and the top with mayonnaise. The fat on both surfaces is not incidental: it forms a barrier that slows the vinegar from the pickles soaking into the bread.
Ingredients: 4 pcs baguettes · 4 tbsp mayonnaise · 100 g chicken liver pâté · 1 pcs cucumber · 1 bunch coriander · 2 pcs chillies · 1 tsp soy sauce
Pâté below, mayonnaise above — a barrier against moisture.Layer in the right order
Lay the meat at the bottom, drained pickles over it, then cucumber, and top with whole sprigs of coriander and sliced chilli. The order makes sense: heavy things below, herbs on top so they do not wilt from the heat of the meat.
Ingredients: 4 pcs baguettes · 4 tbsp mayonnaise · 100 g chicken liver pâté · 1 pcs cucumber · 1 bunch coriander · 2 pcs chillies · 1 tsp soy sauce
Drizzle with soy sauce and serve
Drizzle the inside with a little soy sauce and press the sandwich together. Eat straight away — bánh mì is street food, and after half an hour the pickles start soaking the bread despite the layer of fat.
Ingredients: 4 pcs baguettes · 4 tbsp mayonnaise · 100 g chicken liver pâté · 1 pcs cucumber · 1 bunch coriander · 2 pcs chillies · 1 tsp soy sauce
Before you start
The baguette should be light
A Vietnamese baguette is lighter, with a fluffier crumb than a French one. If buying French, choose the lightest — a heavy, dense baguette overwhelms the filling and the sandwich is hard to eat.
Filling variants
Beyond grilled pork the classics are: meatballs in tomato sauce (xíu mại), Vietnamese cold cuts, grilled chicken, sardines in tomato, or an omelette. Pickles, herbs and mayonnaise stay the same throughout.
Pickles in advance
Make a double batch of pickles — in a sealed jar in the fridge they keep up to three weeks and suit sandwiches, grilled meat and salads. After a few days the daikon develops a noticeable sulphurous smell — that is normal; open the jar a little before serving.
