Bánh mì

Ingredients

• Baguettes — short, about 20 cm4
• Pork shoulder — thinly sliced400 g
• Chicken liver pâté120 g
• Mayonnaise4 tbsp
• Carrot — julienned1
• Daikon — julienned200 g
• Rice vinegar100 ml
• Sugar2 tbsp
• Fish sauce2 tbsp
• Cucumber — in long strips1
• Corianderto taste
• Fresh chillito taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Stir the vinegar, sugar and a pinch of salt into 100 ml of warm water until dissolved. Pour it over the carrot and daikon and leave for an hour at room temperature.

   60 min

2. 2

   Marinate the pork in fish sauce with a spoon of sugar for twenty minutes, then sear it over a high flame for three minutes a side, until the edges caramelise.

   26 min

3. 3

   Warm the baguettes at 200 °C for five minutes so the crust crisps again. Split them lengthways, not all the way through.

   5 min

4. 4

   Spread pâté on one half and mayonnaise on the other. Layer in the pork, the drained pickles, cucumber, coriander and chilli. Press it shut with your palm and serve at once.

About the dish

Bánh mì is a direct trace of the colonial past, but what came out is neither French nor Vietnamese — it is a third thing. The baguette here is lighter than a European one: rice flour goes into the dough, the crust is thin and shatters, and the crumb is nearly air.

The whole thing rests on contrast. Rich pâté and mayonnaise on one side, sharp pickled carrot and daikon on the other, and coriander cutting through both.

Make the pickle an hour before assembly — not much earlier and not much later. Left overnight the vegetables soften and lose the crunch the sandwich was built around.

Worth knowing

• — Drain the pickles properly, or the baguette goes soggy from the inside within five minutes.
• — The pâté can be swapped for liver butter or even a soft cheese, but without a rich layer the sandwich falls apart into separate flavours.
• — Keep the pickling liquid afterwards — it makes an excellent salad dressing.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

560 kcal

Protein

28 g

Fat

24 g

Carbs

58 g

More from Vietnam

• Phở bò — A clear beef broth with charred ginger and whole spices, rice noodles, and beef that finishes cooking in the bowl.