A few months ago, I tried a Vietnamese sandwich, bánh mì. All I can say is where have I been? And why didn’t anyone tell me about them before! If you’re like me and wondering what is a bánh mì, well then, let me tell you so that you too may be enlightened.
Originating from Vietnam, the bánh mì combines French influence with Vietnamese ingredients and flavors. Consisting of a crusty French baguette and filled with some type of meat, pickled carrots and daikon, cucumbers, cilantro, jalapeños and mayonnaise. These can of course be varied according to individual taste.
What I find so appealing is the many flavors and textures – the spicy and the sour, the savory, the crunchy and the chewy – it’s all there. Inspired to try it at home, I made mine with sliced smoked seitan with pickled carrots and daikon, fresh cilantro and mint, spicy vegan mayo on a toasted sourdough micro baguette, served with sweet potatoes fries.
I don’t have much of a recipe, after all it is a sandwich. And I basically bought most of the ingredients ready-to-eat except for the pickled carrots and daikon. For that, I just took a vegetable peeler to the carrot and daikon to get the extra thin strips and dunked it into a mixture of 1 tablespoon salt, 1 1/2 tablespoon sugar and a 1/4 cup of rice vinegar. Let chill for about an hour until ready to assemble the sandwich.
Oh my gosh that sounds heavenly!
Gorgeous! I can almost smell the cilantro.
Awesome, I was wondering how long it would be before someone veganized this!
My 11 year old son tried this sandwich in a San Luis Obispo restaurant, they had vegan options and I was surprised he picked this one. He loved it, and I as well. His taste buds are really changing to try new things. Yours looks really good.
Hmm. I hate reading food blogs at night. I always have the urge to start cooking.
Thanks everyone for your comments! :-)
dreamin’itvegan – That’s so funny – I first tried it in SLO too, at Big Sky. It had tofu instead of seitan, it was great. That’s so cool your son tries new things. :-)
Ooh, that looks amazing!
wow this looks delicious!
I’m not usually one to link to my own site in a comment, but I made a banh mi recently and thought it was over the top delicious. I’ve never tried it with seitan – that would be great too. http://danatreat.com/2009/07/vietnamese-tofu-sandwich/