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April in Paris, bánh mì in blossom
By Kristen | February 21, 2007
I wish I could remember how I stumbled on it, but I recently found RK Chin’s excellent list of all the various bánh mì joints in town. On the list, I saw the recently opened Paris Sandwich, and I was intrigued enough to send my husband off to track it down.
Well, it was so good I made him go back again a couple days later. And, realizing it had been quite some time since I did a restaurant review, here’s the resulting photo spread:
First, bánh mì with meatballs (exterior).
You can see they’re pretty generous with the vegetables, but they just lack the pickled snap of the vegetables in my favorite bánh mì from à Châu Deli. (Wow, this post is truly an exercise in learning all the foreign characters on my keyboard.)
And now, the bánh mì with meatballs (interior). I haven’t had a meatball bánh mì before, so I don’t have much to compare it to. Anyway, not great, but still pretty good.
Right after that photographed bite, I got a couple bites with chilies in them. I’m not a spicy food pansy, but goddamn, this was OW OW OW OMG MAKE IT STOP hot.
After I picked the last peppers out and polished off that half a sandwich, I moved onto the barbecued pork one.
Oh, yeah; that’s what I’m talking about.
The BBQ pork is a little sweet, chewy, a little smoky — a perfect contrast to the vegetables and bread. And speaking of the bread, it’s excellent. It’s smaller than what I’ve gotten elsewhere, but it’s crispy without shredding the roof of your mouth (something Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwiches could stand to learn) and extremely fresh; definitely the best on that score.
As good as all that is, the thing that will keep me coming back to Paris Sandwich? The desserts. Last time, I had banana with coconut milk and cream puffs, both of which I recommend. This time…
Éclairs. Pretty good ones, in fact. You can see they’re not filled with the usual cream; it was… well, I don’t know what it was, but it was kind of coffee flavored. I still prefer the regular cream, but this was good.
I have to say, I generally don’t like flan. It’s too sweet, or too eggy, or both, but this was fantastic: sweet, not overwhelming, not too eggy, perfect.
The only not-so-good thing: the salted lemonade.
I think this was mostly due to the fact that I was expecting fresh lemons with salt and I think these were preserved lemons, which had a very different flavor from what I was expecting. Also, when asked if he wanted it with sugar or without, my husband opted for for the latter, which, in retrospect, was not the right answer.
Oh, and I think this is ingenious — the back of their business card is a map of how to get there:
Topics: Restaurant Review |
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February 21st, 2007 at 10:17 am
YUM! We can’t get bánh mì easily in lowly Baltimore.
I love that business card. Such a Manhattan thing to do.
February 21st, 2007 at 11:00 am
I should really develop this into its own post, but my husband and I were obsessed with bánh mì after we heard (I think) a ‘This American Life’ piece on them, and it took a couple years before we found out where we could go to actually eat one.
February 21st, 2007 at 11:36 am
That bread looks perfect. I want to go just for that!
February 21st, 2007 at 11:52 am
Their baked goods are really great. They also sell these… waffles, I guess, that I think are made with coconut milk. They’re fantastic.
February 22nd, 2007 at 12:20 am
AHH! MY EYES:
http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/10997360.html#cutid1
June 16th, 2007 at 12:54 pm