Bahn Mi- Take One

Bahn Mi- The most delicious sandwich of all time.

When the Mad Scientist and I were first married we lived just three blocks away from a part of Minneapolis known as Eat Street.  As the name suggests, the street is filled with restaurants for every ethnicity and every budget, and with the fierce competition only the best survive.

Prior to our marriage, the Mad Scientist lived off of Eat Street for nearly four years and never eaten at even one of the restaurants (such is the addictive nature of Jack's Frozen Pizza). Being a good wife, I sought to change this truly detrimental behavior by suggesting insisting that he take me out to dinner on eat street.

Of course, to make it seem like I wasn't actually trying to change him (since all the books and our premarital counselor said don't try to change him), the first time he finally capitulated to my incessant requests, I told him, "You can pick the restaurant, but a friend from work said that Quang's is really delcious."

At first he hesitated, not knowing Vietnamese food very well, but the low price points and ample parking (by ample, I mean we walked) got him in the door the first time, and the Bahn mi and Spring Rolls converted him.

After that first trip to Quang's, whenever I failed to have a dinner plan, the Mad Scientist was quick to suggest Quang's, and who was I too disagree.  My plan to eat at every restaurant on Eat Street was foiled but it was soon replaced by a desire to eat every item on the menu at Quang's (I failed at that too, since there are hundreds of items on the menu and I could not get enough of that Bahn Mi).

Now that we live in Raleigh, I'm not really sure where all the Vietnamese people live, ergo, I'm unsure where I am to get good Bahn Mi.  This picture is one of my attempts to recreate it, but the flavors are not good enough to be released yet.

The key components to a delicious Bahn Mi include a baguette, meat (or pate) that is absolutely exploding with flavor, mayo (bonus for homemade or flavored), cilantro, and pickled veggies.

So far, I've got the pickled veggies, cilantro, and mayo figured out.  I've been pretty dissatisfied with my meat attempts so far (my sweet lemon ginger chicken is a little too sweet for this, and backing off on the sugar throws the flavors out of balance), and my baguettes (using this recipe) are still hit or miss (as you can tell from the picture above, they were a big miss on the day I made these, so I resorted to hot dog buns).

Yes, I've got a ways to go, but my hope is that more food blog surfing will yield just the right recipes for a killer Bahn Mi.  Stay tuned for a great recipe at some point in the future.

And as a reward for reading this, here's a picture of Littlest and I at a nearby lake on Easter Sunday.