And by a lucky coincidence the Nom Nom Truck was parked behind work today and my lunch meeting was canceled.
It was yummy.
I would wait half an hour at the Nom Nom Truck thanks to the name alone.
Bánh mì actually just means bread, but I know the sandwiches you mean. I used to eat them in Saigon for 2000 dong, about 15 cents at the time. I noticed the shops have been popping up here until now they’re almost as popular as the phở places. The ones I’ve been to slice the jalapeno though!
The white vegetable was probably pickled jicama. If you ask them what it is, I could probably translate it for you. Jicama is either củ đậu or củ sản depending if you ask a northerner or southerner, but I forget which is which.
Boba, bubble, or what they call pearl (trân châu) tea is something I never got the taste for. It got popular here before Viet Nam, but it’s definitely there now.
It’s really cool to see Vietnamese food getting popular. It’s delicious and mostly really healthy too!
I am gussing the word bánh comes from the French word for bread, pain. Google translate tells me mì means wheat.
In Sydney a lot of bakeries are owned by Vietnamese immigrants and they sell these things too, but they call them pork rolls. It was my quest to find the perfect pork roll and I must have tried dozens of different ones. The Sydney version seems to use slightly different vegetables - cucumber instead of lettuce maybe? And sliced red chillies. I think the sauce (fish sauce with sugar?) and pate are the key ingredients though, assuming the bread and vegetables are fresh.
I bought one from a lady on the street in Saigon and it was wrapped in her son’s maths homework, which I thought was a nice touch. There is a Lao version too that is very similar.
I am gussing the word bánh comes from the French word for bread, pain. Google translate tells me mì means wheat.
In Sydney a lot of bakeries are owned by Vietnamese immigrants and they sell these things too, but they call them pork rolls. It was my quest to find the perfect pork roll and I must have tried dozens of different ones. The Sydney version seems to use slightly different vegetables - cucumber instead of lettuce maybe? And sliced red chillies. I think the sauce (fish sauce with sugar?) and pate are the key ingredients though, assuming the bread and vegetables are fresh.
I bought one from a lady on the street in Saigon and it was wrapped in her son’s maths homework, which I thought was a nice touch. There is a Lao version too that is very similar.
Sounds like you have access to authentic Vietnamese food, I am really jealous.
I love these sandwiches too! A tiny little take-out restaurant selling them recently opened nearby my house, in Tokyo. The owners appear to be Japanese, so I wonder about their story, but regardless of how authentic the sandwiches are, they are delicious! The baguettes are fresh baked, feature lots of cilantro (which sadly most Japanese hate), pickled daikon and carrots, and the one I always get has a kind of marinated and fried thin sliced beef (yakiniku). They also have a more traditional pate one but I’m not a huge fan. They cost about $5, which is very cheap for non-Japanese food in Tokyo. I get one every week.
Yep! I haven’t found better banh mi in the Bay Area. I usually order the fish cake sandwich.
Authentic enough that they ignored me for ten minutes until I said, “hey, give me a fucking sandwich!” (or words to that effect). 
My family chooses it over Indian, Thai and Chinese when we go out now. It’s lighter and just as flavourful, but since it’s cooked, we can avoid the complaints that come up about sushi from people like my dad (gah! We lived in Japan for 8 months eons ago and he went there all the time and still hates it). Personally, I think it’s a really elegant cuisine.
Mostly we keep mum about asking where the broth comes from and choose the non-red meat options. There’s enough seafood that it keeps everyone on my side of the family happy and enough red meat options that my brother-in-law doesn’t whine about having nothing to eat.
Our favourites are:
Pho Ga
Canh Chua Tom
Shrimp Paste and Grilled Shrimp Bun Noodles
Banh Xeo
Shrimp Paste appetizer that you wrap up in lettuce
And all the lovely lemongrass scented stir fries.
I was supposed to go to Vietnam/Laos/Thailand/Cambodia this summer but had to cancel because of job related stuff :(. I’m aiming for 2012, when school gets out.
Northern Virginia has had authentic Vietnamese food, including banh mi sandwiches, for quite a while now. I didn’t know that it’s becoming a nationwide trends.
Fantastic stuff.
I work in San Jose, California, which has a very large Vietnamese population. There are rather Americanized chains selling banh mi’s, like Lee’s Sandwiches, and there are far more authentic joints as well. I like the non-Americanized versions, and scan Yelp and Chowhound to track them down. I haven’t had one for awhile, as I try to avoid carbs as much as possible, but this revived thread is making me crave one for lunch. I like them with grilled pork and pate. And I wish I could have one of their superb limeades with it, but there’s like a third of a cup of sugar in one of those.
Banh mi are incredibly cheap at restaurants, but it doesn’t hurt to try making your own.
Dry rub a cheap cut of pork like “country style ribs” with Noh brand “Char Siu” powder or your own xa xiu recipe, let marinate for up to a day in the fridge. Put in the oven at 275 for three hours. Toward the end, slice it up into small quarter-sized pieces. Include nuoc mam if you like that sort of thing.
Slice some combination of carrots, cucumbers, radish or similar vegetables matchstick-size, immerse in a cup of water, a tablespoon of sugar, a tablespoon of lemon or lime juice, a pinch of salt and as much hot sauce as you like.
Chop up some cilantro
Split and bake your favorite crusty sub roll until toasted. I find that the rolls used in restaurants tend to be overly chewy and crusty and using a softer American-style bakery roll makes for a less traditional but more enjoyable banh mi.
Slather roll with butter or mayo (yes, mayo), add meat and veggies and there ya go. If you get enough liquid from the cooked meat you can put that on too. Lots of liquid makes a sloppy “Chicago Italian beef” style sandwich that can be quite nice. Endless variations are possible, go crazy. I’ve seen restaurant versions that have sardines, weird types of ground meat products, stuff you don’t want to know about. There’s no secret ingredient or technique; this recipe is from my Vietnamese in-laws.
We make these a couple of times a month. My incredibly picky kids will eat these right up.
My experience with Vietnamese cuisine is limited to eating Pho a couple of times (I don’t care for the tripe, but otherwise liked it), but I’ll have to check out this Banh Mi if I ever see it.
As an aside, Banh Mi would be a very amusing poster name, assuming it’s not already.
Just had my first one about 3 weeks ago. Loved it!
I think they came out of the Vietnamese only food category relatively recently; I lived right in the middle of the big Vietnamese community in west Houston (Alief), and had pho’ along with a bunch of other stuff in the late 80’s and early 90’s, but never a Banh Mi until recently.
[Blondie]
Bánh mì your bánh mì, baby
Bánh mì your lunch
Bánh mì your bánh mì, darling
I like you a bunch
Come up off your bánh mì menu
I know where you’re coming from
Bánh mì with thịt nướng
Bánh mì any, anytime
Bánh mì, my love, you can bánh mì any day or night
Bánh mì
[/Blondie]
One year later, I am reporting back. 
The Nom Nom truck was very tasty, but awfully expensive for food that came out of a truck. They were also selling some interesting basil lemonade at the time.
I now get my banh mi from the improbably named Super Pho and Teriyaki on Venice Boulevard in Culver City. It’s basically a hole in the wall with a mostly pho menu, but they do have beef, chicken, and pork banh mi. I would rate it not quite as tasty as the Nom Nom truck, but cheaper and stationary.
Now where can I get some decent Vietnamese bun (as in noodles)?
I really love these sandwiches too. Lee’s is the chain in Orange County (CA). You can also get really big and expensive moon cakes there.
Are other “Little Vietnams” super Republican like Westminster is?
It’s not so much the particular community as the age of the immigrants you interact with–but because West Minister is kind of surrounded by Orange County Republicanism, it stands out more.
Besides, how do you get into politics by ordering a banh mi? There are all kinds of placed in the San Gabriel Valley where you can get great, cheap banh mi and where no one’s even going to know who you’re talking about if mention Michelle Bachman’s name.
The Vietnamese-American community in the Northern Virginia area is heavily Republican too, I believe.
I love banh mis, but only get them once in a long while, not having a local source. Instead, figuring that banh mis are already ridiculously fusion and won’t hurt from a little more mixing, I make banh mi clubs at home: toasted whole wheat, sliced turkey, bacon, basil, cilantro, whatever other vegetables we have around, and either mayonnaise plus hot chiles, or mayonnaise mixed with lots of sriracha. They’re tasty.