Written by Alvin Tang | Photo Cred: Wendy Chan
Memories of childhood family road trips come to mind when I think of the classic Vietnamese banh mi. While friends at school told tales of their fast food stops and gas station munchies, I recall bags of fresh banh mi made from the local Vietnamese bodega and a large back of shrimp chips. The ironic part is I HATED them. I absolutely dreaded the sack o' banh mi because we just had them so damn often! I often dreamt of my friends with their families chicken McNugget in one hand, happy meal toy in the other. Foodies abound would probably be thinking, "what an ungrateful brat, you should be so lucky to try such authentic and exotic food." I was a kid in the '90s what do you expect! And banh mi was such a common thing in my household, it was the equivalent of your ham and cheese sandwich. Once I fled the nest and off to college banh mi had become a meal of the past for me. I didn't see a single one for years until I became a full-fledged adult and my tastebuds matured and my nostalgia got the best of me. I never thought I'd say it, but I missed banh mi!
When I first moved to New York residing in Manhattan I was watching the local network show that was interviewing a chef named Ratha Chaupoly who was talking about his tiny sandwich shop in Union Square called Num Pang. He talked about getting started and showed his kitchen which was just small enough to have two people in it standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Then she showed some of his sandwiches for taste testing. Immediately I was struck with excitement. His sandwiches looked like beautifully reinvented versions of the Vietnamese banh mi! Of course, that made sense due to how close the countries were geographically and both were ruled by the French at one point, but damn these sandwiches were different. The bread looked shiny and crisp on the outside and filled with thick slabs of juicy pork belly slathered in tons of sauce along with the traditional fixin's (i.e. cilantro, pickled carrots and fresh cucumber slices). They were the banh mis of my dreams.
Shortly after seeing Num Pang on TV, I visited the shop to try one of those sandwiches for myself. At the time they only sold a few sandwiches including their signature five-spice glazed pork belly. I took one bite and was went to heaven and back. The bread was crispy on the outside, soft and light on the inside inviting a gush of a salty, sweet, savory five-spice sauce and melt-in-your-mouth pork belly. At that moment I was instilled with a love for banh mi that I never knew I could have. I strongly believe that Chef Chaupoly inspired a banh mi movement in the states and Americans have begun to gain greater exposure to its deliciousness lending to innovations of the sandwich style and flavors. One of which Wendy found about a year and a half ago for a friend's potluck. It was a banh mi burger.
The theme of the potluck was "All the Small Things" meaning appetizers, small plates, hors d'oeuvres and Blink 182 (not really...). But creative name all the same. So Wendy had a brilliant idea to take the banh mi burger recipe she found and make our own version as a slider. And we all know in our hearts that everyone likes a slider slightly more than a burger. In this recipe I used some tips from my mom on how she used to make her fish sauce and pickled veggies that I didn't see in any other recipes I saw circulating online. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 6 mini potato rolls
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp & 1/4 cup fish sauce, separated
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- white pepper
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp sriracha
- cilantro leaves
- 1 carrot, julienne
- 1 cucumber, half julienne, half thinly sliced medallions
- t tbsp lime juice
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 fresh jalapeño, thinly sliced
- canola oil
Directions
- In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup fish sauce with the lime juice and sugar. Then submerge the julienned carrot and cucumber, cover and pickle in the refrigerstor for 30 min (preferably overnight).
- In a large bowl, mix ground pork with soy sauce, sesame oil, 1 tsp fish sauce, garlic and white pepper.
- Form thin patties slightly wider than the Hawaiian rolls.
- Pan fry them on each side in a little canola oil on medium high heat until browned and cooked through (~2 mins each side).
- Meanwhile, slice the rolls in half and toast them.
- When all patties are cooked and buns are toasted you can assemble.
- Place a dollop of spicy mayo on the bottom bun, then place the slider patty, then top with a slice of cucumber picked carrot and cucumber, a couple of cilantro leaves, a couple slices of jalapeño and a small squeeze of sriracha.
- Finish with the top bun and enjoy!