“A Vietnamese snack consisting of a baguette (traditionally baked with both rice and wheat flour) filled with a variety of ingredients, typically including meat, pickled vegetables, and chilli.”
This is the definition of banh mi from the Oxford English Dictionary that in 2011 included the word in the English canon. A powerful indication of the popularity of this Vietnamese sandwich.
In Vietnam, you can find it everywhere and won’t cost you more than 1 USD. In Ho Chi Minh City there is a restaurant now serving a 100 USD banh mi: it is Anan Saigon, the braichild of chef Peter Cuong Franklin.
The visit
To get to Anan you will need to walk through a traditional Saigon’s market, Cho Cu Old Market, where a little bit of everything, from t-shirts to imported biscuits, is for sale. It is not a large market, but a mostly authentic one. It is worth a quick tour.
In the middle of the market you will notice the Anan sign on a traditional narrow building. This is where the eatery is located with the main dining room downstairs.
They also have some tables on the terrace upstairs.
Finally they have an area for cocktails on the roof top. The banh mi show took place on the ground floor.
I had made a reservation via email and pre-ordered the special banh mi. No deposit was required.
They were pretty quick in delivering the gargantuan sandwich that came cut in four parts with truffle fries, truffle oil mayonnaise, and a portion of caviar. Also a glass of prosecco was included, but I opted for a bottle of water that was not charged.
So, what is special about this banh mi? According to an interview to Franklin published on the website Munchies, this is how they go about:
We start out with a mayonnaise that has truffle inside of it and spread a layer on both sides of the bread and plop it on the grill… Then, we add a layer of pâté. We’re using pâté made by a French charcuterie guy based in Da Lat… We use a cut [of pork belly] that has a good amount of fat-to-meat ratio… It’s almost a whole pork chop inside [that has been slowly cooked and finally char grilled]… For this sandwich, we do about four pieces [of fois gras]. Each one is about 40 grams… We sauté it so when the fat comes out as it’s cooked… we’ll then use it to make the sauce. We season it and drip it on all of the sandwich afterwards.
Definitely, it not your regular banh mi where the ingredients are sliced inside the baguette in a few seconds…
Apart from the pork, the fois gras, etc, the Anan’s banh mi also has its share of vegetables.
How is it? Eating it was a nice sensation as each bite revealed a crunchy texture, both from the bread and from the pork. It held itself pretty well bite after bite. I finished it alone. But this should really be shared among a group of 2-4 people.
The caviar was a nice touch especially because it is a local brand: Caviar de Duc. The story of this caviar is quite remarkable as nobody believed that sturgeons could be farmed in the warm waters of Vietnam. It is also an affordable caviar. 10 grams should be around 15 USD.
The check
The final check was, as expected, exactly 100 USD at the exchange rate of 23,000 VND for 1 USD.
What to say? This was clearly a splurge. In a way I do not think it is a good illustration of Anan Saigon’s menu that actually seems to offer a lot of reasonably priced and interesting dishes which I shall try next time I am in town.
Is this decadence or a metaphor of modern Vietnam? Probably just a good marketing gimmick for the restaurant (that also has a 100 USD pho, the Vietnamese noodles).
I would recommend it only if you are in a group of four people and very hungry. Or if you are a food blogger/vlogger.
Where in Saigon:
89 Tôn Thất Đạm
Website: http://anansaigon.com/
Tip: make a reservation.
I want to try it. I didn’t know there was such a resto in Cho Cu. Thanks for the review. Very inspiring, as usual.
Thank you!
I try it already. Nothing special