ROUSES_JulyAug2019_Magazine

Today, the term for the bread and the term for the sandwich are synonymous, with the crackly exterior and light, porous interior of a banh mi loaf a necessity for soaking up the sandwich’s rich condiments and juices. DINNER: BUN OC Often served as a street food — and a favorite of the late, great Anthony Bourdain — bun oc is a vermicelli rice noodle soup with a rich, pork-fat-dappled, tomato-based broth that features snails ( à la the French love affair with escargot) and a wide range of local accou- trements: shredded banana blossom, bean sprouts, curdled morning glory leaves, strips of fried green banana — you name it. Snails have, of course, been eaten across Southeast Asia for centuries, but the French inspired new ways to prepare and enjoy the gastropods, from the aforementioned bun oc (which is, according to many, best enjoyed with an ice cold beer) to oc hap nhoi thit, a buttery, stuffed, baked snail preparation that closely resembles something you’d find on a menu in a Parisian bistro. DESSERT: VIETNAMESE BÛCHE DE NOËL Ah, dessert — you’ve reached the end of your French-Vietnamese food crawl! But now it’s time for, wait, a Christmas confection? While you almost assuredly will not find a bûche de noël on any bakery shelves outside of the holiday season, the Vietnamese adaptation of this charmingly twee French cake is too fascinating not to explore. A tubular chocolate cake shaped like a yule log (hence, its name) with an interior that somewhat mimics a higher-end, massive-scale Little Debbie Swiss Roll, bûche de noël is a wintertime delight across France and Francophone countries, with modern bakers going to extremes, blinging out the cake’s traditional woodland-like details (like mushroom-shaped meringues and frosting foliage) with every- thing from gold foil to non-traditional flavors, including strawberry and pistachio. Records of French-style cakes being advertised in Vietnamese metropolitan areas date back to the turn of the 20th century and, by 1941, a newspaper ad in the French-language L’Echo was offering bûche de noël-making lessons in Saigon. Known as banh khuc cay giang sinh (Christmas stick cake) or banh bong lan cuon (rolled sponge cake), it’s a central component of modern Christmas activities in the country, which take the holiday celebrations very seriously — even though less than 10 percent of the country identi- fies as Christians. “Kinh Do Bakery, a chain in three Vietnamese cities, reported in 2010 that they made 140,000 cakes in 50 different varieties, including a slew of different flavored logs,” writes Thu-Huong Ha in a 2016 article for Quartz about Vietnam’s bûche de noël affection. “In 2007, the bakery’s celebrations included gifting a 22-meter- long version of the log, and the following year they served 50,000 people with their 4-ton cake.” Try capping off your French-Vietnamese dining adventure by making a bûche de noël with Vietnamese flavors. Sure, it might be a little out of season, but a coconut-coffee-flavored log on a hot summer day is just quirky — and tasty — enough to be worth the trouble.

Le Bakery & Café, Biloxi "A lot of the local restaurants get their French bread from this family-owned, French- Vietnamese restaurant and bake shop on Oak Street. They also make croissants, cakes and pastries, both sweet and savory. The turnovers are to die for. I get the lemongrass-garlic grilled pork banh mi topped with house-pickled vegetables and a bubble tea. Check out Kim Long in Biloxi — another family-owned spot — for more great Vietnamese food." - Jeremy, Customer

milk into the cup where the phin drips hot coffee, and then the marriage of coffee-and-milk is poured over ice, creating a more caramel-like beverage. And in Hanoi, a creamy, eggnog-like treat known as Vietnamese egg coffee brings together egg yolks, sugar, condensed milk and full-bodied, locally grown Vietnamese coffee for a multilayered edible exploration that’s become something of a local culinary touchstone. Today, Vietnam is one of the world’s largest producers of coffee, second only to Brazil. LUNCH: BANH MI For lunch, what else would be quite as satisfying as a banh mi — a sandwich that some (myself included) would rank among the world’s greatest? “With banh mi, for a modest amount of money, you get to ingest Vietnam’s delectable history and culture,” writes James Beard Award-winning author Andrea Nguyen in her 2014 book, The Banh Mi Handbook: Recipes for Crazy-Delicious Vietnamese Sandwiches . “The bread, the condiments and some of the meats are the legacy of Chinese and French colonialism. The pickles, chiles and cilantro reflect Viet tastes for bright flavors and fresh vegetables." Creating the perfect bánh mi filling is, of course, a matter of personal taste. There’s the mayonnaise or salted butter; the chiles, cilantro, pickled carrots and cucumber; the Maggi seasoning or hoisin; the pâté; and then the filling: cold cuts or lemongrass pork or gingery tofu — the sky’s the limit. (It’s a real “choose your own adventure” of delight.) But at its core, the sandwich starts with the bread — literally, the banh mi. “The French, who officially ruled Vietnam from 1883 to 1954 but arrived as early as the seventeenth century, introduced baguettes to Vietnam,” Nguyen explains. “At first the Viets called the bread banh tay (Western or French bread; banh is a generic term for foods made with flour and legumes). By 1945, the bread had become commonplace enough for its name to switch to banh mi, literally meaning bread from wheat (mi). Dropping the Tay signaled that the bread had been fully accepted as Viet food.”

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JULY•AUGUST 2019