Friends, I think I’ve done it.

I’ve cracked the code.

You know those mysterious vietnamese sandwiches we’ve been stuffing ourselves incessantly with? I’ve found what makes them tick. I know a lot of us have tried this and failed. I know I have. Smiling knowingly, we put a little fried tofu, cilantro, jalepenos, mayo & sriracha into a french roll, and…

…it tastes nothing like Bahn Mi Chay. Why? What’s going on in there that makes these sandwiches so irresistable?

Recently I’ve taken more detailed mental notes while eating these things, really noting what’s making it special. The first element (and the first ingredient to prep) is: Pickled Vegetables.

Not having any carrots around, I julienned a jalepeno and roughly chopped half of a small purple onion, and doused each little pile in rice vinegar. I let these lovelies sit for around 20 minutes. If I had included carrot matchsticks in the mix and sweetened the rice vinegar a bit, this would have been a bit more authentic, but it worked!

I then split two french rolls and sent them on a short tropical vacation in a warm oven to limber up and get a bit crispy around the edges.

Next: The sauce!

I knew I needed a creamy sauce, so I used a tablespoon of Veganaise as my base. I added a splash of Maggi sauce, a liberal wholloping (wholloping = 1.5 tablespoons) of Sambal Oolek chili paste, a bit of rice vinegar, and a squeeze of Sriracha. This came together into an orange-tan sauce that was both creamy and spicy, but didn’t have that stank, er, *cough*, I mean, depth of flavor a good vietnamese sandwich has.

Not having any Marmite (normally my #1 choice for stank) in the house, I used Nahm Prik Pao instead. NPP is a pungent thai sauce filled with roasted chilies, shallots, and shrimp, so it effectively de-vegetarianized the sandwiches. Oops. Use Marmite if you’ve got it- it’ll work well.

In any case, with the addition of Nahm Prik Pao, the sauce immediately took on the exact flavor I was looking for. Score! For the filling, I cut up a king oyster mushroom and a few Layonna veggie pepper steak rounds into matchsticks. I stir-fried them with a chopped shallot in a bit of sesame oil, Braggs and rice vinegar until nicely browned. I kind of had to get a restraining order on myself to keep from eating all the filling before it even met the bread.

Finally, the sandwiches were ready to assemble. I painted the interior of the french rolls with the sauce, filled them up with the pepper steak mixture, and layered the pickled vegetables, fresh cilantro and mung bean sprouts on top. A squeeze of fresh lime finished them off.

Et voila:

I ended up wishing the rolls I’d used were better, but by and large, this was easily the best Bahn Mi I’d ever eaten. My girlfriend concurred. We were set adrift on sandwich bliss.

*da da da dahh, da da da dah…*

…in any case, because this weekend was all about new horizons and recreating my favorite out-of-reach dishes, I put together a DY-NO-MITE Shahe Fen dish, (known to westerners as Chow Fun) on Saturday. A post on that is forthcoming, but suffice it to say, it kicked the living ass out of the rather tepid (but still addictive) version I eat all too regularly at a place near my work. I couldn’t find the real camera in time, but here’s a preview:

Mmm mmm mmm… So good. I love summer

Filed under: Recipes
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