Banh Mi

Banh mi is a Vietnamese sandwich built on a light, crisp-crusted baguette. The classic filling layers rich pork and pate with pickled carrot and daikon, cucumber, fresh coriander, chilli and a savoury drizzle, balancing salty, sour, sweet and spicy in every bite.

Fast, portable and endlessly varied, it is sold from street carts and bakeries across Vietnam and by the Vietnamese diaspora worldwide.

Banh mi is a direct legacy of French colonialism in Indochina, which introduced the baguette, pate and mayonnaise to Vietnam. Vietnamese cooks made the bread their own — lighter and airier, thanks to rice flour — and filled it with local herbs, pickles and grilled meats.

The modern sandwich took shape in Saigon in the 1950s, and later waves of emigration spread it globally. In 2011 the word 'banh mi' was added to the Oxford English Dictionary, a nod to its worldwide fame.