Vietnamese Sandwiches – Bahn Mi
In Hawaii, there is a popular Vietnamese shop called Ba-Le Sandwiches & Bakery. They specialize in serving bahn mi, 
which is essentially a Vietnamese sandwich. Bahn mi are served on a french bread or baguettes, and are filled with pickled carrots and daikon (Japanese radish), cucumber, onions, and a choice of meat. Lemongrass chicken was always my favorite. These unique sandwiches had amazing flavor and such a range of textures. The bread was crisp on the outside, but fluffy on the inside. The chicken was warm and spicy, but the vegetables were cool and sweet. Since moving, I have been trying to find all of the ingredients to make my own bahn mi, and it has been a long process. I think I finally found the recipes and the ingredients though, so here is my version of the Vietnamese Sandwich. >>
To make the pickled carrots and daikon, I started a day ahead. I mixed together sugar, white vinegar, and salt until it was somewhat dissolved and then I added julienned carrots and daikon. Daikon, which looks like a giant white carrot, is a very mild Japanese radish. Sometimes I can find them in the Asian produce section of the grocery store, but the speciality food store in town always have them in stock. For the carrots, I cheated and bought a bag of already shredded matchstick carrots. It saved a lot of time! I left the mixture sit in the refrigerator over night, mixing it up once or twice.
I couldn’t find lemongrass to marinade the chicken, so I settled for five-spice chicken instead. I mixed together soy sauce, minced garlic, chopped onion (instead of shallots), fish sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, and five-spice powder and then added chicken breast (instead of thighs) to the marinate. Five-spice powder is a Chinese spice that is a combination of cinnamon, cassia, star anise, ginger root, and cloves, and it incorporates the 5 basic flavors of Chinese cooking – sweet, sour, bitter, savory, and salty. I can generally find the spice, along with the oyster sauce and fish sauce, in the Asian food section of the grocery store. I let the chicken marinate for about 2 hours in the refrigerator.
When I was ready to make the sandwiches, I placed the chicken a foil lined baking sheet and put it under the broiler for 12 minutes, flipping it once. I let it rest while I prepped the rest of the ingredients. I thinly sliced an English cucumber into long strips, and thinly sliced a red onion, which I then rinsed under cold water. Rinsing the onion takes away some of the bite. For the bread, I uses mini french loaves. A french bagette would also work – pretty much any dense hoagie shaped roll. I split the loaf in half and put it under the broiler for about a minute, until the cut side was just crisp. I spread each side with mayo, then piled on the cucumber, red onion, chicken (which I sliced), and the drained pickled carrots and daikon. I drizzled on a little soy sauce, placed the top of the loaf on, and pressed down to compact everything.
The sandwich looked perfect, exactly like one of the sandwiches at Ba-Le. The flavor wasn’t quite as strong as I would have liked, but it was still good. I think the chicken is what was lacking the taste. The marinate was good, but I think next time I will make extra and toss the chicken in it after it’s broiled and sliced to give it a flavor boost. The sandwich was still very satisfying and delicious though, and for a moment, I was back in Hawaii enjoying the culture.