Nguyen Huong - Banh Mi

I discovered the Banh Mi a few years back, it's simply a Vietnamese sandwich made on a crusty French style baguette. There are many variations, the common theme is they contain a meat (or tofu), cucumber, pickled daikon, carrot and cilantro. The cold cut version usually has pate and mayonaise, others may have a soy sauce on them. The great thing about banh mi (over more traditional sub shops) is that sandwiches range from $2-$3, that's it. I have no idea how these places stay in business.

A banh mi is an awesome sandwich, it's remarkably light and fresh tasting even though the cold cuts, pate and mayo are heavy/fatty. The buns are also light, crispy outside and airy inside. We can thank the French colonization of Vietnam for that.

Not far from my house is Nguyen Huong, I have been going here for a few years. I am a fan of two of their sandwiches, the assorted cold cut (with pate and mayo) and their grilled chicken. You can ask for them to be made 'spicy' but I believe they use Thai chilis and they are very spicy. I think they overwhelm the sandwich so I always ask for 'not spicy'.

The subs aren't loaded with meat (which I assume helps keep costs down) but still have a lot of flavour, both from the meat and the veggies and cilantro.

Below we have a grilled chicken on the left and an assorted cold cut on the right, total cost? Five dollars, a bargain.