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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  4067 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: National Sandwich Day map: Hubskiers in the US, do you agree with the choices from this Slate piece?

Best I can reckon for Oregon is that Falafel sandwiches have become a staple of the crunchy vegetarian crowd, of which there's a large contingent especially in the Portland area. Banh mi is actually spot-on for WA- there's a huge Vietnamese community here, especially surrounding Seattle. The neighborhood I live in is pho joints as far as the eye can see. Oddly enough, I have yet to find a decent banh mi that I haven't made with my own grubby mitts. This map makes me want one bad, though.





humanodon  ·  4067 days ago  ·  link  ·  

There's a big Viet community in the 'burbs of Boston too, though not as big as in Washington or California. I have to say, I haven't had a bánh mì in the U.S. that tasted like the real deal yet. For one, the bread generally isn't cheap or crappy enough. In fact, part of the problem is that the ingredients are too nice. Also, the flavors are tweaked for non-Viet consumers, which I understand. It's like getting a burger outside of North America: it might look like what you know, but there's something about it that just doesn't quite match up.

user-inactivated  ·  4067 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Or like when restaurants try to make Philly cheese steak sandwiches with provolone and good beef instead of cheez whiz and thin steak leavins'. Just not the same, and not as good.

Although the best American fast food style burger I ever had was in Switzerland. So I'm holding out hope for good banh mi at some point in our corner of the globe.

humanodon  ·  4067 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yes, exactly. That's interesting that you had a good burger experience in Switzerland. I'd love to be proven wrong about bánh mì in the U.S. but it might be a long time coming, since I don't go looking for them.