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What to eat this morning? In Saigon, on lazy weekends, when you don’t want to think too much, you just go out and buy a hot loaf of bread, come home and dip it in butter and sugar, add a cup of iced milk coffee, and you’re done. At the beginning of the week, if you’re busy, you just have pate sandwiches, meat sandwiches, sausage sandwiches, pork skin sandwiches, meatball sandwiches…
According to one document, it was the Egyptians who made the world's first bread. They ground wheat, added water, kneaded dough, and baked it on stones. The bread at that time was flat and round, and was rough but filling. But later they discovered that if the dough was kneaded for a long time, it would puff up, and the baked product would be more fragrant and delicious.
Banh mi was introduced to Vietnam by the French around 1910, according to Erica J. Peters, a food historian and author of “Appetites and Aspirations in Vietnam.” At that time, banh mi was small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, unlike the early days when each loaf was as big as a pillow and as long as an adult’s arm. At that time, Hanoians spread pate on their sandwiches, while Saigonese sandwiched them with all sorts of things, from pate, butter, meat to cucumber and lettuce.
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Bread is usually made from a dough ball split in half lengthwise, with three slits in the middle, two diagonal cuts at the ends, and baked in a traditional brick oven. The loaf is more delicious, crispy, and fragrant than the ones baked in an electric oven today. But baking in a brick oven is very hard work, because the baker has to stand guard to prevent the bread from burning.
All the steps of baking, mixing dough, and rolling out the bread were initially done by hand. Each “district” of baked bread (as it was called at that time) would be placed in large baskets lined with burlap. Later, more modern, people used electric ovens, then barrel ovens – which many people jokingly called “field ovens”, taking advantage of available barrels. The bakers at that time, worked and bonded like a big family, had a high professional conscience and loyalty, not just higher salaries or better treatment could attract them.
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The bread of that day was of special quality, and could be considered a representation of the skill and intelligence of a baker. Every child loved bread dipped in condensed milk. The bread was freshly baked, still fragrant with the smell of baking powder, the outer layer was crispy, the inner layer was soft and spongy like clouds, and when torn open, you could feel the faint steam rising up. Adults spread butter on their bread and dip it in milk coffee. The rich liked to eat roast duck bread, buying a 60cm long loaf, adding roast duck and sauce, and it was a feast.
Nowadays, banh mi has become one of the ten most attractive street foods in the world. Banh mi is easy to put in anything, and it is delicious with anything. The most familiar is mi khac thit cha. The hot, crispy loaf is spread with a layer of unsalted butter and pate, accompanied with a few slices of cha lua, pork, pickles, cucumber, cilantro, chili, drizzled with homemade sauce, or simply sprayed with soy sauce and chili sauce.
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Grilled meat sandwich, made from minced pork, mixed with spices and marinated in sauce, rolled into balls and grilled on the grill. The golden, fragrant grilled meatballs attract everyone who passes by. The pork skin sandwich has nothing nutritious, just chewy pork skin mixed with a little diluted fish sauce with garlic and chili, yet many people remember it forever.
Banh mi is not only sold in small glass carts on street corners, but also in luxury and famous shops and has many new variations. In English dictionaries, people do not translate banh mi into bread like in the past, but keep the original word banh mi, defining it as a type of Vietnamese bread.
And whether it appears in a "popular" style or is more elaborately transformed on high-class dining tables, bread remains the same, still a small, simple, pleasant, golden brown loaf that goes with anyone and is delicious with anything.
Article: Phan Cac Truc | Photo: Vietnam House
