Today’s Lunch is the Classic Banh Mi from the Baoguette in the West Village, located at 120 Christopher Street (between Bleecker and Bedford).  Baoguette is in our Honorary Street Food category, which are storefronts or small restaurants with few or no tables that serve what is commonly considered street food in their country of origin.

The Classic Banh Mi had pate, pork, pickled daikon & carrots, cucumber and cilantro.  The first bite tasted of cilantro and pate, and was wonderful.  Subsequent bites emphasized the pickled daikon and carrots.  The sandwich was juicy and a bit messy.  The bread was just right, crunchy on the outside but soft inside.

All-in-all, an excellent choice for Today’s Lunch, and at $6, it was a pretty good deal.  We know banh mi can be had for $3-$4 in Chinatown, but in the West Village and Midtown, it’s a good deal.

Banh mi at Mon Me stall in London's Brick Lane

Looks like banh mi, one of NYSF’s favorite street foods, is catching on in London.  According to Tim Walker in The Independent, “Like a lot of street trends, this one has been appropriated from the developing world, popularised by urbane New Yorkers, and is now finally reaching our shores.”

I’ve never been called an “urbane New Yorker” before, but I’ve certainly been called worse.

“For some time, the only place in London to serve this delicious south-east Asian snack was the Loong Kee Café on Kingsland Road in Shoreditch. But in the past few months a number of the capital’s establishments have added it to their menus: Viet Baguette in Fitzrovia; Banzi in Surrey Quays; Café Bay in Denmark Hill; and the Banhmi11 and Baguette+More stalls in Broadway Market and Greenwich respectively.”

I generally get to London around once a year, and have stayed on the edge of Shoreditch, so now I have a new place to try.

Here’s a little banh mi history from Mylo of the Mon Me stall in Brick Lane: “Bánh mì has its origins in the French occupation of Indochina from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century.  Like all countries in that part of the world, Vietnam’s staple dish is rice. But when the country was colonised by the French, it was introduced to bread and pâté. Vietnamese culture revolves around food, so they took that palate and added Vietnamese elements to it: pickles were common because it’s a poor country and uses a lot of food preservation processes; the Vietnamese also eat a lot of pork, which is the filling for the original bánh mì.” [The Independent]

Now that banh mi is put in it’s proper historical context, I STILL LOVE IT!.

Num Pang Grilled Mackerel

Miche and her friends had a banh mi taste-off and posted the results over at Midtown Lunch.  There was no clear-cut winner, but there were some favorites – Banh Mi So 1 and Sau Voi for the cold cuts, An Choi for the crispy pork belly, and Nicky’s for the grilled pork.  Most of the places are in the Chinatown area, but I see they included Num Pang, one of my favorite places in the Village. [Midtown Lunch]

Just today, I had Num Pang’s five spice glazed pork belly with Asian pear for lunch.  I also love their grilled king mackerel with leeks and thai basil infused olive oil, pictured above.