08 January 2009

Bahn Mi


Before we left for the holiday's, Zach and I had to run some errands in an area of suburban hell called Seven Corners. While I hope I haven't offended anyone who lives there, I don't feel that bad as it is a literal intersection of at least 7 roads, is completely pedestrian unfriendly and always takes about 3 times as long to drive around as you expected. Generally, I end up going in the exact opposite direction as my destination and have at least two fits of road rage before I end up getting to where I am going.

That might explain why I have only been to the Eden Center a sort of little Vietnam in a strip mall in the suburbs only once... Before we left I remembered reading about Bahn Mi, a kind of Vietnamese-French fusion sandwich in the Post food section ages ago so we decided to give it a try for lunch.

We ended up at Song Que, a huge bakery/deli/market that had 6 or 7 types of Bahn Mi for under $3.25. Zach chose meatball and I picked braised pork and we looked around at the French style breads, durian fruits, unknown sweets and prepared foods while we waited for our sandwiches. As you can see from the pictures, the Bahn Mi is served in a fresh (still warm) baguette, with thin slices of meat and pickled vegetables on top. It looked so good that I couldn't wait to take a bite. The bread was crisp, the veggies had the perfect amount of tartness and the meat, well, I know a lot of people find pork fat to be delicious, but I am not one of them.

The braised pork was mostly slices of pork fat and I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I pulled them off the sandwich and left only the small pieces of meat on the bread. Even so- the Bahn Mi was delicious with just the pork flavor and the veggies and I am already thinking of heading back to try another kind... Zach's meatball Bahn Mi did look good.

Song Que Bakery
6773 Wilson Blvd., Falls Church, VA 22044
Open 9am-9pm

2 comments:

Apples and Butter said...

Bahn Mi! I have been dying to try this since the LA Times did a piece on them last year. Glad to hear they're worth the effort to find.

glamah16 said...

My forst grade school was in Seven Corners! HA! Ineed to go up north and get some Banh Mi. Last time I had one was years ago in Paris. A lot of Vietanemese there of course.