[攝影隨筆] 越南食記 -- 越南的國民美食越式三明治 Stumbled upon great Banh Mi shops in Ho Chi Minh City

越南遊記之四 —— 今天跟大家分享在胡志明市找到的好吃的越式三明治

Today I'd like to share some photos of a few Bahn Mi street vendors in Ho Chi Minh City.

越式三明治就好比日本的拉麵，是國民美食，料理本身的構成很簡單，但簡簡單單的拉麵，從麵條到配料到湯底，變化卻有成千上百種，越式三明治也是如此。三明治由蔬菜、醃菜、醬料、肉和法式麵包組成，但每家攤子賣的口味都不同。

Banh Mi to Vietnamese is like Ramen to Japanese. They both have a simple composition but with thousands of variation. Ramen's Umami comes from the combination of broth, noodles, and toppings. Banh Mi's Umami comes from the combination pickled vegetables, sauce, choice of meat and baguette.

越式三明治的法國麵包是改良過的，用麵粉和米穀粉作成，所以外酥內軟，很適合做成三明治，吸收內餡的湯汁。

Vietnamese baguettes are made of regular flour and rice flour so they have thinner crusts and are soft on the inside. This makes them perfect for making sandwiches, soaking up all the flavors.

越南人大概把三明治當點心或晚餐吃，而不是早餐，因為上網查了幾家店都是下午三點後才開門。但我們實在是太想吃了，就在小巷子裡鑽，結果也被我們找到了一家。以為隨便買吃起來應該普普通通，誰知道隨便買隨便好吃，不知道是不是我們運氣好？後來發現，我們找到的這家小店可能是專門賣法式麵包的，賣給越式三明治的小攤子。店後方像麵包店一樣擺著一條條的法式麵包，還不時會有人來一袋一袋的買。

Vietnamese people probably don't eat Banh Mi as breakfast because most of the sandwich shops open after 3pm, but we really craved it the day before our departure so we walked around the city, searching for Bahn Mi in alleys. We stumbled upon a shop, thought their sandwich was going to be just okay. Well, they proved us wrong, leaving me wondering if every vendor's sandwich tasted this good. It turned out that this shop sells baguettes to Banh Mi's vendors. We saw bakery in the back and people buying bags of baguettes.

可惜我們忘了記下這家店的地址了，只記得他距離CCentral Hotel Bui Vien步行只要五分鐘，巷口有家韓式咖啡廳...

Too bad we forgot to bookmark the name and location. I only remember it's within walking distance from CCentral Hotel Bui Vien, about 5 minutes, and there's an Korean style coffee shop at the intersection leading to the alley.

我們後來晚上去了另外一家比較有名，本地人和外國人都愛的攤子Banh Mi 37 Nguyen Trai。兩個攤子比較之下確實是不一樣，早上的用的是豬五花肉，晚上的則是烤肉排。這家攤子也是在一個小巷子裡，在巷口就可以看到有人在排隊，我們排到一半，他們賣的太好，麵包竟然用完了。好險店家早就設想好，早就讓人再送一袋來，我們才不至於等太久。

We later went to another more famous Banh Mi stop, Banh Mi 37 Nguyen Trai. The shop is also located in an alley. There's always a line so it's easy to spot. Half way through the line, they ran out of baguette. We waited for about 5 minutes for a fresh batch of bread to arrive. Unlike the first shop, which uses pork belly, this one uses grilled sausage patty.