When people ask what my favorite sandwich is — as they often do — I can never really pick a favorite. But one of my standard answers is a chicken banh mi from Saigon Sandwiches in San Francisco. Because when it comes to the ratio of price to deliciousness, the $3 banh mi is pretty much the best sandwich ever. A tasty tribute to the benefits of colonialism, this piece of Vietnamese street food combines unusual Asian flavors like cilantro and rice vinegar with delectably crusty French bread.
A story in this week's New York Times profiles banh mi makers who are turning the sandwiches into cross-cross-cultural delights, using the French-Vietnamese platform for unlikely fillings, like Polish sausage and sloppy joe. Given that a favorite banh mi filling is pork meatball, I can imagine such meaty fillings working well against the hot peppers, crunchy carrots, and Asian mayo that typically dress a banh mi. Much the same way that po'boys and heroes have expanded beyond their origins, the boundaries of a banh mi could be pushed pretty far as long as you maintain the basic definition of the sandwich.
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