I came back to Taiwan about a year ago and have noticed one or two stalls in and around Tong Hua nightmarket selling bahn mi, which is a Vietnamese sandwich (I think). I’ve heard that this type of sandwich is pretty good and want to give it a try, I was just a bit put off by the stalls that were selling them. One was near the bottom end of the nightmarket - closer to An He road - just round the corner from Family. It looks very small and basic, and I don’t ever see any one buying stuff from it. There’s another stall half way down the main section of the nightmarket, but that one looks pretty grim.
I guess my main question is - has any one tried the bahn mi from these stalls, or can anyone recommend any other places that sell good bahn mi (preferably somewhere near Tong Hua nightmarket/An He road? Failing that - anywhere in Taipei? The sandwiches I’ve seen on the internet look good and all the foodies seem to be banging on about them.
Banh mi is as far as I know pretty much the standard Vietnamese sandwich: baguette with a mix of paté and more Southeast Asian vegetables and sauces inside (pickled carrot/cucumber/daikon, sriracha, fish sauce). These days they’re basically everywhere in Taipei - any Vietnamese place will probably sell it. I think the Chinese is often simply 法國麵包 (Fàguó miànbāo), but I’m not sure of that - I think on some menus that’s just the bread, whereas on others it’s the sandwich.
Hungry Girl in Taipei strongly recommends Yue Yuan Pho, although the link on Hungry Girl’s page doesn’t seem to work, and at the moment I can’t find any recent links proving the place is still around.
I remember I’ve had a great one somewhere - possibly Yue Yuan Pho. I’ve had decent ones at many places. The main issue may be the meat quality and the risk of encountering little lumps of bone.
Oh, and the default banh mi is often full of cilantro, which may or may not suit your taste. I usually remember to ask 不要香菜 (Bùyào xiāngcài, which maybe I’m about to discover is now hopelessly rude.)
Is that the restaurant, Pho, next to the Diner that’s round the corner from Carnegies?
The cilantro doesn’t bother me, but bones in a sandwich would. I didn’t know there was paté in it, I thought it just had two or three kinds of pork. It just looked bright and colourful. Still, I’ll go to that Pho and see if it does it.
Been to both many times, like the one by the Family Mart better, never been sick, always been fresh, but the alley the other one is in (off the main part of the nightmarket) is gross and off putting.
Hah, I’ve just back from the one near Family and as you’ve said it seemed fresh. It was pretty good and I can’t complain for 60NTD either. Just thought I’d get something else besides the sheng qian bao from the top of the nightmarket and the gua bao things.
“Pho” is just the name for the Vietnamese noodle soup, and the word appears in almost every Vietnamese restaurant’s sign here. Unfortunately I’ve found it very difficult to keep track of the Vietnamese places by name.
Different kinds of pork, paté, yeah, it varies. As your first post indicates, in recent years it’s somehow become known as one of the World’s Great Sandwiches, but I don’t think there’s really a definitive version.
So far I’ve only had one, but the one from the store near Family seemed to be a bit different from a regular french baguette. It seemed lighter and more crisp, so it might have been the real thing.
The one near Anhe I go to frequently and think it’s very good. It has pretty good business. That lady is quite busy a lot of the time. I like the banh mi but I go for the pho, it had a more authentic Vietnamese taste than other places in Taipei.
Thanks! I’ll be sure to give the noodles a try. I saw a noodle dish being prepared tonight, it looked like beef - is that right? I just got the bahn mi again. But I did notice some shrimp pancake role things (which she carefully made for the customer before me), they looked good as well.
That place does have its fans. I found the meat they use however to be excessively fatty.
To my taste, I prefer Bich Loan which also does roaring trade in the Gongguan night market (located in the alley perpendicular to Roosevelt / Tingzhou immediately north of the Shuiyuan Public Market building).