Travel guide book Lonely Planet recently listed banh mi as one of the most lip-smacking street foods around the world.A typical Vietnamese banh mi filled with ham, carrot and coriander“As you cruise the elegant French colonial vestiges of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), stop off at a streetside stall for the Vietnamese take on its former colonisers’ simple salad sandwich – heavenly banh mi is a piece of history wrapped in a baguette,” the book writes in an introduction to banh mi.
“Tender chunks of grilled pork swaddled inside fluffy French bread combine with Vietnamese mayonnaise, coarsely chopped pickled daikon radish and carrot, together with a touch of eye-watering chili sauce, to create the best East-meets-West moment you’ll ever taste. Close your eyes, take a bite and be transported back to the grand imperial days of old Saigon,” it continues.
Other dishes to make the cut were chouriços from India, kushari from Egypt, dosas from America, and arepas from Colombia.
At Vietnamese bakeries in the United States, Canada, Australia, and France, the term banh mi refers to a type of meat-filled sandwich. But in Vietnam, it is used for all kinds of bread. People usually add words to describe the fillings, such as banh mi ga (bread filled with chicken) or banh mi pâté thit (a sandwich with pâté and pork).
The term banh mi also joined the Oxford English Dictionary in March 2011.