Recipe: Home-made Vietnamese Baguettes - Banh Mi — Uyen Luu Recipe: Homemade Vietnamese Banh Mi (2024)

FAQs

What is the best bread for Banh Mi? ›

A French-style baguette works but so does a Mexican bolillo or hoagie-style roll. What you'd use for a po'boy would work too! Nothing fancy, nothing pricey is required. Banh mi is people's food.

Bánh Mì (pronounced BUN-mee) is the Vietnamese term for “bread”, but it also refers to a special kind of sandwich: a culinary fusion of two cultures and a prime example of how food is always tied with history… The story begins in the mid-19th century when Vietnam fell under French colonial rule.

Baking method: Vietnamese baguette is baked in a steam oven, which creates a softer texture and a thinner crust, while French baguette is usually baked in a regular oven with a hot, dry atmosphere, which creates a thicker and more robust crust.

In Vietnamese cuisine, bánh mì or banh mi (/ˈbɑːn miː/, /ˈbæn/; Vietnamese: [ɓǎjŋ̟ mì], 'bread') is a short baguette with thin, crisp crust and a soft, airy texture.

Served on soft French baguettes, they're a delicious hybrid of French and Vietnamese cuisine. Typically, they contain pickled carrots, daikon, chiles, cucumber slices, cilantro, mayo, and a protein. Popular proteins include marinated pork, chicken, and paté, but I use tofu in this recipe to make it vegetarian.

Mayonnaise: Use real mayo. Traditional Vietnamese sandwiches have more of a yellow aioli style mayo used from dark chicken yolks but Hellman's original mayo or salted butter are also great substitutes.

Then there's a thin white strip of meat, which is cut from a pork sausage roll called cha lua, seasoned in anchovy paste and fish sauce. Together, these provide the meaty heart of the banh mi. Yet in proportion to the rest of the ingredients, they're not dominant, as the meat might be in most American sandwiches.

If you see them wash the bowls or plates in tap water and they are still wet when putting your food in it, maybe this isn't the street stall for you. For this very reason, “banh mi” (Vietnamese sandwich) is one the safest street stall foods you can eat because there are no vessels or utensils involved!

In Vietnamese, the term bánh (Hanoi: [ɓaʲŋ̟˧˥] or Saigon: [ɓan˧˥], Chữ Nôm: 餅) translates loosely as "cake" or "bread", but refers to a wide variety of prepared foods that can easily be eaten by hands or chopsticks.

Rather than the gentle, repetitive folding technique that produces the tender texture of Parisian-style baguettes, Vietnamese bakers develop their gluten by vigorously whipping the dough with a machine mixer for a short amount of time, then rapidly slapping the loaves into shape before a long proof, Nguyen says.

What meat is traditionally in Banh Mi? ›

Most contain Cha Lua, a cooked pork roll lightly seasoned with fish sauce, and traditionally steamed or boiled in a banana leaf. Thit Nguoi is a Vietnamese salami containing cured pork layered with fat; ham or headcheese are also acceptable substitutions.

the perfect make ahead: banh mi can be served hot or cold that's why they are great to make ahead. with the correct bread these things can hold assembled an entire day that's why the crust on the bread is important it keeps it from getting soggy. SIMILAR INGREDIENTS TO: SPICY BEEF AND BRUSSEL SPROUT SLAW SANDWICH.

Pho is a type of Vietnamese soup that usually consists of bone broth, rice noodles, spices, and thinly sliced meat (usually beef). Though “pho” technically refers to the noodles and not the soup itself, most people consider the dish a singular unit.

Banh mi is the most popular street food in Vietnam, loved by many people not only in the country but also around the world. Bread has a long history, originating from the French baguette. However, under the talented hands of Vietnamese people, bread has been transformed into a dish imbued with national identity.

At Tet, a diverse array of dishes – from sticky rice cakes and spring rolls to boiled chicken – graces family food trays everywhere, symbolizing prosperity, luck, and familial unity.

Baguettes from a supermarket, torta or cubano rolls, or even kaiser rolls are good substitutes.

The Vietnamese street food favorite originated in Saigon in the early 20th century during the period of French colonization, and the typical components—including mayonnaise, pâté, and the all-important baguette that holds it all together—clearly show that Western influence.

Vietnamese baguette is more hollow, the inside is soft while the outside is crispy. This is also the feature that creates the unique identity of Vietnamese bread compared to its Western counterpart.