Country 14: Banh Mi from Vietnam

Bahn Mi's are this great combination of the French baguette that became common in Vietnam due to French ocupation, and local meats and toppings. I love Banh Mis and it used to be a common meal when I worked downtown as there was a place walking distance from my work (V sandwiches, unfortunately closed down now :( ).

I again followed the recipe from one of my favourite food youtubers for this one, and made a crispy pork belly Banh Mi (https://youtu.be/2tQnBphNFlU). I would recommend this recipe for anyone for the pork belly part alone because it turned out so well.

Essentially a Banh Mi consists of some kind of filling, I made mine with pork belly but I've had brisket and chicken ones before, with toppings like cucumber, pickled vegetables, cilantro and peppers, all on a french baguette often spread with mayo. The Banh Mi I made was a crispy pork belly with cucumbers, cilantro, pickled carrots and daikons, fresno peppers and kewpie mayo. For those who haven't had kewpie mayo its this Japanese mayo thats super eggy and rich, went perfectly one this!

I was so happy with how the pork belly turned out: crispy skin and then tasty melt in your mouth meat. To be honest, after the pork belly, the rest was pretty easy, quick pickled some carrots and daikon raddish and assemble.

Overall this turned out exactly how I was hoping and reminiscent of any other Banh Mi I've had, fresh toppings like the peppers and cucumber, sour pickled vegetables, rich flavour meat, what more could you ask for on a sandwich?

Thank you again for reading my post and hope you enjoyed enough to wait around for the next one. Almost halfway!

Please see below for more photos, a video of the crispy pork belly (sound on) and an updated map.

Cheers,

Brandon