Banh mi Huong
Except for the little houses with little gardens, and with cars replacing motorcycles, San Jose resembles Binh Thanh District in Saigon. I don’t know the demography of the city, or even of the state of California, but I saw Vietnamese everywhere when I was there. Palo Alto doesn’t breathe exclusively Vietnamese, but it has Asian everywhere. Gas stations, restaurants, office employees at Stanford, ladies walking by your dorm in the morning, the mall… But Palo Alto doesn’t have banh mi. San Jose does. And it has good banh mi. Mudpie found Thanh Huong’s Sandwich from Google (the sign on the building says Huong). Two out of three times we went to San Jose when I was in Palo Alto, we went to Thanh Huong’s. The other time we went to another banh mi place which didn’t have it as nicely as Thanh Huong’s does.
Here’s my hypothesis of how banh mi came about: the French colonized Vietnam and brought with them some baguette for breakfast, the Vietnamese looked at the French baguette, thought “what’s the point for being so long?”, made it shorter and lighter, kept the pâté and to heaven the cheese, cut it vertically, stuffed in some homemade grilled pork and pickled vegetable, added some soy sauce. Voilà. A banh mi – a banh (made of) wheat. Actually I don’t know what people originally ate banh mi with, I just know that it’s an all-day food. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, after school snack, late night snack. The stuffing can be hot meat, cold meat, eggs, banana, sardines, tofu, pate. We always choose grilled pork when we get our banh mi.
It’s not the best quality pork, but the flavor is top notch. The right mixture of salt, sugar, garlic, onion, a little bit of time to sit and soak, and some hot grill. We always had too much food to eat banh mi right after we bought them, so we had it for lunch the day after. The fridge did a fine job preserving the taste. The oven helped bringing back the bread’s crunchiness, which meshed well with flavorful pork, pickled carrots and daikon, a thin spread of liver pâté (not the infamously bitter foie gras), a couple shooks of soy sauce, one or two sprigs of cilantro. I take out the cilantros, Mudpie likes them.
For $2.75, would you rather a couple of double cheese burgers from McDonald’s, a 6-inch sub from Subway (I think the price was raised not long ago and no longer less than $3?), or a banh mi thit nuong? I’d go with banh mi thit nuong every time.
Address: Hương Sandwiches (near San Jose State University)
404 S 2nd Street Ste A
San Jose, CA 95113
(408) 287-8688
Hello there, I found your site via Google while searching for a related topic, your web site came up, it looks good. I’ve bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
1Hey! I know this is kinda off topic but I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in trading links or maybe guest authoring a blog post or vice-versa? My website covers a lot of the same topics as yours and I believe we could greatly benefit from each other. If you happen to be interested feel free to send me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you! Fantastic blog by the way!
2Your house is valueble for me. Thanks!…
3Excellent post. I was checking continuously this blog and I am impressed! Extremely helpful information specially the last part 🙂 I care for such info a lot. I was looking for this particular info for a long time. Thank you and good luck.
4You should take part in a contest for one of the best blogs on the web. I will recommend this site!
5Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You clearly know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your site when you could be giving us something enlightening to read?
6This is the right blog for anyone who wants to find out about this topic. You realize so much its almost hard to argue with you (not that I actually would want…HaHa). You definitely put a new spin on a topic thats been written about for years. Great stuff, just great!
7Simply wanna comment that you have a very decent website , I love the pattern it really stands out.
8very nice post, i certainly love this website, carry on it
9Thank you, I have just been searching for info approximately this subject for ages and yours is the greatest I have came upon till now. But, what in regards to the bottom line? Are you positive about the source?
10Hello There. I found your blog the usage of msn. That is an extremely neatly written article. I’ll be sure to bookmark it and come back to learn extra of your useful information. Thanks for the post. I will certainly comeback.
11I am glad to be one of several visitants on this great website (:, regards for posting.
12of course like your website however you have to take a look at the spelling on several of your posts. Several of them are rife with spelling problems and I in finding it very bothersome to inform the reality however I’ll certainly come again again.
13fantastic points altogether, you just gained a brand new reader. What would you recommend about your post that you made a few days ago? Any positive?
14Hey! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this website? I’m getting fed up of WordPress because I’ve had problems with hackers and I’m looking at alternatives for another platform. I would be fantastic if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.
15I have been browsing online more than three hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It is pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all website owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the internet will be a lot more useful than ever before.
16I am not sure where you are getting your information, but good topic. I must spend some time finding out more or working out more. Thank you for fantastic information I was in search of this info for my mission.
17This web site is really a walk-through for all of the info you wanted about this and didn’t know who to ask. Glimpse here, and you’ll definitely discover it.
18Glad to be one of the visitants on this awe inspiring site : D.
19You have mentioned very interesting points! ps nice website . “Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.” by Conan Doyle.
20I have been checking out some of your posts and i can state pretty good stuff. I will make sure to bookmark your website.
21I am not certain the place you are getting your info, but great topic. I needs to spend a while studying much more or figuring out more. Thanks for wonderful info I used to be looking for this info for my mission.
22Thanx for the effort, keep up the good work Great work, I am going to start a small Blog Engine course work using your site I hope you enjoy blogging with the popular BlogEngine.net.Thethoughts you express are really awesome. Hope you will right some more posts.
23Well I truly liked reading it. This information procured by you is very constructive for proper planning.
24I got good info from your blog
25Thanks for sharing superb informations. Your website is so cool. I’m impressed by the details that you’ve on this web site. It reveals how nicely you perceive this subject. Bookmarked this web page, will come back for extra articles. You, my pal, ROCK! I found just the info I already searched everywhere and simply couldn’t come across. What a perfect web-site.
26I really appreciate this post. I’ve been looking all over for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You’ve made my day! Thx again
27I went over this website and I think you have a lot of superb information, saved to bookmarks (:.
28I love it when people come together and share opinions, great blog, keep it up.
29Usually I do not learn post on blogs, however I would like to say that this write-up very pressured me to check out and do so! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thank you, very great article.
30Hey! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be okay. I’m absolutely enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.
31Definitely, what a great site and instructive posts, I definitely will bookmark your blog.All the Best!
32Hmm is anyone else having problems with the pictures on this blog loading? I’m trying to determine if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. Any feed-back would be greatly appreciated.
33I believe this internet site has got some very wonderful info for everyone :D. “Anybody who watches three games of football in a row should be declared brain dead.” by Erma Bombeck.
34Way cool, some valid points! I appreciate you making this article available, the rest of the site is also high quality. Have a fun.
35Simply desire to say your article is as surprising. The clearness to your publish is simply cool and that i could suppose you are a professional on this subject. Well with your permission let me to grab your RSS feed to keep up to date with forthcoming post. Thank you one million and please continue the rewarding work.
36I’m really impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself? Either way keep up the excellent quality writing, it is rare to see a great blog like this one these days..
37Hello there, just became aware of your blog through Google, and found that it is truly informative. I’m going to watch out for brussels. I will appreciate if you continue this in future. Many people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!
38I have been exploring for a little for any high quality articles or weblog posts on this sort of space . Exploring in Yahoo I at last stumbled upon this site. Studying this info So i’m satisfied to show that I have an incredibly just right uncanny feeling I came upon just what I needed. I such a lot undoubtedly will make certain to do not forget this web site and give it a look regularly.
39That is really fascinating, You’re an overly skilled blogger. I’ve joined your rss feed and sit up for in quest of extra of your fantastic post. Additionally, I’ve shared your site in my social networks!
40I just couldn’t depart your website before suggesting that I really enjoyed the standard information a person provide for your visitors? Is going to be back often in order to check up on new posts
41I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good. I don’t know who you are but certainly you are going to a famous blogger if you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!
42Hey! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any tips?
43he blog was how do i say it… relevant, finally something that helped me. Thanks
44I carry on listening to the news update speak about getting free online grant applications so I have been looking around for the most excellent site to get one. Could you tell me please, where could i acquire some?
45I am perpetually thought about this, thanks for putting up.
46It is perfect time to make a few plans for the long run and it’s time to be happy. I have learn this put up and if I may I desire to suggest you few attention-grabbing things or suggestions. Maybe you could write next articles regarding this article. I want to learn even more issues about it!
47Wow! Thank you! I continuously needed to write on my site something like that. Can I implement a portion of your post to my site?
48Unquestionably believe that which you said. Your favorite justification seemed to be at the internet the simplest factor to keep in mind of. I say to you, I definitely get annoyed even as folks consider concerns that they just do not realize about. You managed to hit the nail upon the highest and also outlined out the whole thing without having side effect , folks could take a signal. Will likely be back to get more. Thanks
49Really good info can be found on web site.
50