I decided early in the week, to tackle my favorite sandwich, the Vietnamese Bahn Mi. I don’t have any local Vietnamese restaurants, and since I’m not traveling to DC anytime soon. why not give it a shot. I’ll never forget my first Bahn Mi sandwich. Deirdre Bird introduce me to them in a Vietnamese shopping center in Falls Church VA, when we worked together at Gannett. We bough 2/3 sandwiches each and a bubble drink (yes first time for that too). OMG this was one of the best things I’d ever eaten. There was an amazing contrast of flavor and texture, and the warm meat and cool crunchy vegetables makes it so fun to eat. The sandwich is a combination of cultures – the French, who colonized Vietnam, introduced the idea of Vietnamese baguette, and the southerners in Saigon added Chinese pork, picked veggies.

The exciting part has been the lead up, to this weekend’s foodie adventure. I found a few different recipes and modified each slightly for my own: Pickled Daikon and carrots, Marinated Pork, Andrea Nguyen video. Some ingredients were harder to find – mom finally found the daikon in her Whole Foods, and I found the Chinese 5 spice in Acme. I tackled a few things on Saturday: pickled veggies and pork marinade. Fortunately neither was too difficult. Who knew that massaging the daikon and carrots with sugar and salt would release so much liquid.

I brought the ingredients over to mom’s house. Even she got excited about this new sandwich (she never had one before). The toppings were all ready, so all I needed to do was cook the pork and assemble. The pork was more mild than I thought it would be. It could have handled a little more heat. Next time, I’ll make sure the pork was sliced thin. But it looked and tasted like “the” actual Bahn Mi sandwich. Mom enjoyed it and would eat it again.

Would I make it again – yes, absolutely and I might use chicken next time. I have leftovers, for this week, so there’s another sandwich in my near future.