Why would we ban you? This is a great post.
I groaned reading this. Well done!
Never had banh mi before, so no idea how authentic this is. It’s kind of a double version of it, because I couldn’t decide what toppings I wanted. The right half is vegan meat balls and mushrooms, the left half is fried tofu and calamari.
It doesn’t look very authentic but it’s within tolerances. Even a bad banh mi is still a good sandwich.
Carrots, onions, cilantro, mayo/butter on a baguette. That’s the essential base line. The savory components can be highly variable. Maybe some hot or sweet peppers.
The greens are cilantro and mint. The sauce is a chili mayonnaise. The vegetables are carrots and radish marinated in a sauce made from lime juice, sugar, fish sauce, and chili. The bread is a baguette. My girlfriend can’t eat onions, so those are out of the picture.
In my defense, I did try to follow recipes that claimed to be authentic. I just never had the real thing, so I can’t tell.
Looks good but none of the bahn mi places I go to use mayo. Sub some pate instead of mayo. And add fresh sliced jalepeno instead of the chili to get your heat. I’m sure it’s tasty.
I would love to know what the pate is like, it was the main thing I didn’t know how to substitute with a non-meat alternative. What is it like?
Hard to describe. It’s like the texture of hummus with the viscosity of peanut butter, and it tastes like duck liver.
Maybe an olive purée would get a similar texture with the salty/savory pungency. It wouldn’t be typical, but it might work as a substitute.
Yeah, they typically make a homemade pate spread. Which I always pay more for extra lol. There’s different banh mi creations now as it’s gotten so popular, but for me the OG version has to include pate!
I would swap the mint for thai basil, but I’m kind of a fool for basil. Oh, and maybe add some extremely thinly sliced jalapenos, with the seeds and core removed, though this is up to your spice tolerance. It definitely looks the part, though. Hope it’s tasty!
I think next time I will do just that (and choose flatter toppings to leave some space, the ones I used made the sandwich huge already).
I’m not an expert, but looks good to me! I would load up some more on the carrots and radishes and tone back on the herbs.
Still looking great. I should probably make some myself. I have all the ingredients and just need to make the bread.
Either way, that sounds really fucking delicious.
Looks absolutely top notch!
The greens need to be a lot more limp, and possibly on the turn, for proper authenticity :-P
Yours looks nice though
I’m not a mod, so I can’t ban you on request, but that’s a pretty dope looking sandwich.
One of the tastiest things on earth.
One of the things I miss about living on the East Coast was the plentitude of Asian shops, little groceries, and of course, the loverly H-Mart supermarket. I used to get banh mi takeout on a regular basis, in which the ‘meat’ was typically prepared tofu. (baked? fried? I don’t remember)
The prices were usually incredibly low at almost all these places, too, which rewarded constant experimentation.
That bread looks nice and crusty, btw. That there’s the bomb, for me.
I can feel the cuts on the roof of my mouth from that bread.
That’s how you know it is quality.
banh mi irl
If im seeing this correctly, there’s no pate, correct? So I dont love being a pedant, but I totally am one lol so id say this is a thai inspired veggie sandwich to keep people like me at bay lol. Without pate its just really not a banh mi. But! Im sure its tasty af which is clearly the most important aspect. And now you’ve made me think of making a mushroom paste to stand in for the pate to make a delish veg stand-in, char the fuck out of em and blend with some alliums, almost a duxelles…yum! At any rate, thanks for sharing! Looks super yum!
Correct, no pate. I have no idea what Vietnamese pate tastes like, so I didn’t know what to substitute for it in a non-meat version.
To my knowledge, their cuisine is super french influenced, so its just a super minerally fatty flavor like traditional french pate. Honestly, I think a duxelles adjacent spread would be much tastier lol you’ve def inspired me to give it a go with some mega charred shrooms. Much appreciated! I bet it was super yummy!
