The food truck craze has taken the world by storm. There is a food truck for every cuisine, prevalent in every city, in most every street corner and food-truck assemblies so their disciples can pinpoint their location.
BANH MI– Vietnamese deliciousness that can be complicated or easy in preparation, because anything done with passion is a labor of love. There’s a plethora of different interpretations of BANH MI from food trucks and restaurants alike, each have compiled trendy and traditional takes with exotic ingredients to create a culinary umami Disneyland of flavors.
BAHN MI is the Vietnamese word for bread, more specifically baguette, which was introduced by the French during the colonial period in Vietnam. The popular take in the US, has a cut of pork butt or shoulder, which has marinated, preferably overnight, and experienced a slow roast to render perfection. The meat rests for a few hours after it has braised and then it’s shredded. Similar to our infamous BBQ pulled pork sandwich, but with distinctive and superlative Asian flavors. The standard line-up is a split, crusty baguette, smothered with an umami sauce, the shredded meat, piled with pickled vegetables on top, finished with a flourish of cilantro.
The traditional name is BAHN MI BI, but it’s been simplified here to BAHN MI, and the main contender is typically pork or spare ribs, but sausage, meatballs, chicken and even tofu is prepared to accommodate the vegan palate.
1-1½ LB Pork Shoulder – fat trimmed and cut up in pieces
Chinese 5 Spice rub
BRAISING LIQUID
1 large chopped onion
1 TBSP garlic/ginger Paste
1 cup of Hoisin sauce
1 TBSP of Sriracha
¼ cup of Soy Sauce
1 cup of chicken stock
PICKLED VEGGIES
(The pickling of these veggies needs to be done before roasting the pork – as they need to pickle for at least 48 hours)
Shredded carrots
Shredded Daikon
Apple Cider Vinegar – ACV about ¼ cup
Salt and sugar about 2 TBSP each
SRIRACHA MAYO
Mix some mayo with sriracha sauce with a pinch of 5-spice powder to desired spiciness
Rub the pork all over with the 5-spice mixture, salt and pepper. Make the braising liquid and in a large Dutch oven or casserole heat up some oil and sear the pork pieces evenly on all sides. Transfer to a deep oven roasting pan.
In the same pan with the pork drippings, brown the onion and add some salt and cook till starting to look translucent. Add the garlic/ginger paste and cook a minute or so. Add all the other ingredients of the braising liquid and heat through. Cool down and pour over the pork pieces. Cover the dish tightly with foil and cook in a 350F oven for about 2 to 4 hours. Cool and then cooked shred, reserving the liquid.
Pickled Veggies
In a bowl, place the shredded carrot and daikon and sprinkle liberally with salt and sugar to allow them to soften and draw out the moisture. In a small bowl add ACV, ¼ cup of sugar and a ¼ cup of warm water, to dissolve the sugar. Pour over the carrots and daikon and allow to pickle for at least 48 hours.
On hoagie rolls or miniature French baguettes split through the middle, drizzle both sides with the Sriracha mayo and a pile the shredded pork on one side, top with picked veg and lots of fresh cilantro and some sliced green jalapeño slices for additional heat if desired.
NOTE
Umami, a funny word that’s got tongues wagging and it’s in every every chef and foodie’s vocab. We’ve heard it, may have even used it but, seriously what the heck does it mean? An Asian expression for explosion in flavors. It’s basically the fifth state on your palate after bitter, salty, sour, and sweet. An expression when something has reached utter deliciousness and we are using it because “yummy” just doesn’t cut it.
There are certain foods that take umami over to that fifth state of flavor. Demi-glace enhances sauces and stews sending them barreling; anchovies is the secret weapon used in most pasta sauces; Parmesan rind adds roundness and creaminess in flavor to stews and soups; dulse (powdered seaweed) is added to certain Asian broths, chowders and butters to create a cacophony of flavor.
It also refers to the glutamate, a type of amino acid which occurs when foods break down – such as when cheese ages (aged Parm) and tomatoes, dried under the sun become intensified in flavor.
After bleats of discovery, which might well haunt you for days, your trained palate will discern that certain foods have singular tastes which don’t fall under the salty, bitter, sour or sweet category.
