54: A tale of two bánh mì chay
With a bonus tale-ette of two bánh bao chay
Welcome to my little dining out project. Its purpose is to get more acquainted with Vietnamese cuisine while I have the privilege of living in Vietnam. A tale of two… will see me try the same dish at two different restaurants. Trying something once is great, but two tries, hopefully in quick succession, should offer me (just slightly) more insight into the dish.
Whether it’s something I’ve had before or one that is brand new, my hope is that the small comparison will help me better understand the dish, what variations might exist, and what I generally think of it. I want to become less ignorant when writing about Vietnamese food and a less ignorant resident of Vietnam.
I am also a recovering picky eater and still on the journey of understanding what my more mature palate is. I hope this project will help with that, too.
Previous tales have been on phở, bánh cuốn, and bún mọc.
If you follow me on Instagram or are a paid subscriber, than you know that the type of Vietnamese food I eat the most is vegan and more specifically, vegan mixed rice plates known as cơm chay. In paid posts, I’ve already done some comparisons of a few cơm chay spots, so I have no plans to do something similar for these tales. What I thought would be fun is comparing some bánh mì chay spots. Partly because I knew I would get to eat something I know like (Vietnamese chay) but also because it would force me to eat something I know I don’t really like: traditional Vietnamese bread. It’s too light/airy/crispy for me.
But I still love a sandwich, and I have enjoyed all of the vegan meat products I have tried. On a cơm chay plate, I will often receive vegan products that are stand-ins for things such as pork belly, pork ribs, sardines, or beef. What I don’t often receive are the vegan products that are stand-ins for Vietnamese charcuterie, such as all the forms of sausage/chả. Bánh mì chay is the domain for those. When I first moved here, I tried a couple of spots (Bánh Mì Chay Vạn Phước, Fingerprint Chay), which are on my restaurant list. But I don’t remember much beyond liking them. At that point, I didn’t have the time to analyze or consider their contents beyond tasty sustenance.
But I do remember them being noticeably different from each other, so the menus at just these two shops alone represent how bánh mì chay varies. It might just be a vegan version of the most traditional bánh mì, with the faux meat made from soy, seitan, mushrooms, or a mix. Or it might be a sandwich with fillings made from sautéed tofu, mushrooms, or tempeh.
For this project, I wanted to focus on trying the (almost always) industrial fake charcuterie, so I sought out shops that had a chay version of a typical bánh mì thập cẩm/đặc biệt.
Shops
No apologies for doing delivery for this tale as it’s not a dish that will suffer in transit, and because many bánh mì shops don’t even have a place to sit. I thought about ordering from Bánh Mì Chay Vạn Phước again, but I slapped myself on the wrist for not remembering that part of why I’m doing this project is to try new places. Bánh Mì Chay 1 (BM1) is a place that’s close to where I work, which means it’s also pretty close to home. Bánh Mì Chay 2 (BM2) is a chain that actually has two locations close to home.
Both have decent Google and Grab delivery reviews and both have vegan versions of the traditional sandwich with a mix of vegan sausage, tofu, and veggies. BM1’s was half the price, but it was also nearly half the size.
Bread
I’ll start here because I was surprised at how different the two rolls were. Traditional Vietnamese sandwich bread is so airy that it almost seems like someone has asked for their bread to be “scooped” like some people (heretics) ask for when placing their NYC bagel order. It’s just a crispy shell to hold the fillings. Little chew. Little acknowledgement of gluten. BM2 was textbook. BM1 was shockingly not. You can see from the picture that the crumb is denser. It was softer and chewier than I’ve experienced before. BM1’s exterior clearly showed grill/toasting marks, which did little to the flavour or texture. You can also see from the photos the ratio of filling to bread was very different between the two sandwiches. The flavour and texture of BM1’s bread played a much bigger role than in BM2, where it was truly just a shell. As much as I may have preferred the bread of BM1, I didn’t want to taste it as much as the fillings.
Fillings
Volume differences aside, both contained two to three variations of vegan sausage. BM1 also had vegan pork floss, while BM2 had sautéed tofu. BM1 had cucumbers, herbs, and pickled daikons and carrots. BM2 had cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, and herbs. Both had a thin layer of a more sweet than spicy chilli sauce. BM1 had a very thin layer of vegan paté. BM2’s paté substitute is peanut butter, which I had removed because of an allergy.
I tried a bite or two of the sausages on their own from each sandwich, and they were flavourful and adequately salty. The pink one from BM1 was even a bit smoky. But obviously when eating, I could taste the filling from BM2 much more based on volume alone. BM1’s filling was overpowered by the flavours of both the pickled veg and the bread. So even though the sausages had flavour, I couldn’t really taste them. While with BM2, the tofu had a salty-sweet sauce on it, which meant it was the the filling I tasted the most. But with all those veg in BM2, they tried to steal the show, too. I loved that there were so many herbs, so I won’t complain when a bite tasted mostly of one. The tomatoes were the low part for me; they were flavourless and made it all too wet. I don’t think the peanut butter would have added much, honestly, and it likely would have been sweetened, so I’m happy for its omission.
I think this is a perfect example of “you get what you pay for” in terms of size or amount, but I do think BM1 was unbalanced and really just a pickle and bread sandwich when it came to flavour. BM2 could also be more balanced with more faux protein or a reduction of the veg.
Takeaways
This project is not about picking winners, but this tale demonstrates how clearly one version of a dish can be more enticing than another. I don’t question the good reviews of BM1. I think I need to refocus my view of bánh mì by looking at them as a small meal or snack rather than something that is supposed to sustain me like a full meal.
BM2 offers a large version of their traditional bánh mì, which is on a larger roll and has a greater volume of fillings. In pictures it reminds me of an overstuffed American hoagie—but that’s the pictures. I am interested to try it just for shits and giggles. But I think the wiser move when ordering from them again, which I’d do, is just to get two regular sandwiches. With no tomatoes!
I think I enjoy the greater creativity and texture variation I’ve experienced with mock meats than the mock charcuterie of bánh mì chay. This tale confirmed my enjoyment of Vietnamese vegan cuisine and how, in my experience, it is underrated and harder to find outside of Vietnam.
A tale-ette of two bánh bao chay
Speaking of snack-sized, I knew going into this that one sandwich wouldn’t be enough. I initially thought I would order two at each place, but then I noticed that both offer bánh bao chay. This fluffy steamed bun stuffed with vegetables, always dominated by mushrooms, is probably one of my favourite discoveries since moving here. Stupidly simple and a little one note, but I think they’re perfect.
SO. Instead of a second sandwich, I ordered a bao. I knew they were going to be smaller than the ones I usually eat based on a “mini” moniker, but I didn’t know by how much. Definitely should have ordered two to overall feel full, especially from BM1.
I know that most, if not all, of the bánh bao chays I’ve eaten are frozen from a factory and then reheated and kept warm at the restaurant. I have no problem with that. If I had more freezer space, I would buy the ones I see at the supermarket. The exterior shots below of my two mini baos show the mark of a factory with their top knot formation, but clearly two different factories.
This was underscored by the difference in their fillings. The BM1 bao was mostly mushrooms, but I think there was also some radish. BM2 had those fillings and some carrots, too, but the bao had less filling overall. BM1 definitely had the better bao mostly for this reason, the other being the bao dough being fluffier.
But I much prefer regular-sized bao to these minis. The ratio of filling to bread is better, enabling you to enjoy the flavour much more. They were cute, but they can’t compete with their bigger sibling.
All the sammies forever!