Stand Báhn Mì!

A recent article in our local paper inspired us to take on one of our favorite dishes: Vietnamese báhn mì sandwiches.  Not only delicious, these bad boys have become quite trendy as of late.  But we totally liked them way before they were cool!  Austin is blessed with several báhn mì eateries, both brick and mortar and food truck, but the ultimate for us will always be Tâm Deli and Cafe in North Austin.

 

It all seems so simple, right? Wrong, juggalo.

 Step 1:  Making the pickle.

This ain't yo daddy's pickle.  This is pickled daikon radish and carrot, staples of Vietnamese cuisine.  I'd seen pickled carrot many a time when ordering bun, or vermicelli bowls, at Vietnamese restaurants, but I had no idea what daikon was or looked like.

 So luckily, our HEB came through for us.  That big white sucker is the daikon.  Raw, it is pretty bitter (as you might expect from a radish) and a little smelly after we cut it up.  The next step was to figure out what to do with it exactly.  To the INTERWEBS!  This was definitely the first time we ever pickled anything, but it was super easy.  Cue the cuisinart for the bulk shredding!  Spaceballs wish they had one of these things!

Presto....

...chango!

They never stood a chance

The pickling agents: salt, sugar, rice wine vinegar.

Heat with water to dissolve

This is definitely a do-ahead step.  Pickle at least a day.

Step two: The Meat

 Báhn mì can come with a variety of fillings.  Pâte, cold cuts, ...anything really.  Typically, I'll get the char-grilled pork or lemongrass beef if I'm out at a restaurant, but one time my wife and I visited a food trailer in Austin named Lulu' B's.  They had chinese-style BBQ pork as a filling option, and it was fantastic.  

I was determined to figure out a way to make that as my filling.

As some of you may have noticed, we're pretty big fans of Americastestkitchen.com.  Their recipes are really well vetted, but their website is not completely free.  The Chinese BBQ pork recipe, unfortunately was one of the pay recipes... luckily, some fellow blogger typed the whole thing up for us!

Along with the pickle, you'll want to start your marinating a day in advance.  Heck, you probably want to cook the meat in advance.  Its a bit much to do on a weeknight after you get home from work.

The marinade ingredients

  It seems like every chinese recipe we make can be made with the above ingredients (and ketchup.)

Pork shoulder: a great cut for low and slow cooking.

After marinating, cut into strips, and into the oven

Out of the oven, brush with sauce made from marinade- similar to BBQ sauce

A couple rounds under the broiler... keep a close eye!

The meat was the most time consuming part of this recipe, particularly baby-sitting it under the broiler,... but it was worth it! The Chinese BBQ sauce has turned into a sticky, charred, crispy glaze.  The meat is still super tender.  It still has some pretty fatty patches, so watch out for those when slicing it up.

Part Three: the sandwich

Putting all the good stuff together is the easy part.  We have some baguette, cucumber, mayo (i'm not generally a fan, but its good on this sandwich), sriacha sauce, fresh cilantro, sliced jalapeno, and sliced cucumbers.  Also, the ultimate piece d'resistance: a fried egg.  Not all báhn mì places will offer this, but it is a sinful treat when they do.  Shame on Bite Mi, a báhn mì place on the drag, who only offer to put a scrambled egg on their sandwich.  Not the same at all.

We can rebuild it.  We have the technology.

Jalapenos.. sliced and de-seeded

You know you want it

Assembly

the aerial view.  You can see the daikon-carrot mix.  Surprisingly good stuff!

the cross-cut shot.  all the runny, spicy goodness.

I'm skeptical of having a sandwich for dinner, but if there was ever a candidate, it is the báhn mì. Chock full of veggies, pork..and a fried egg.  Our only complaint was the quality of the baguette, which didn't have the crispiness on the outside that you'd want.

And then, cause this is Austin, a venerable taco town, and cause I wanted more deliciousness, I made a báhn mì taco, sans egg.  Oh yeah, that works too!