"Saigon bread, especially delicious" - the sale is so familiar that it has become an unforgettable tune in the minds of Saigonese people for over 100 years.
The cakes are golden, hot, fragrant with the smell of butter, milk and mixed flour. Such characteristic flavor spreads all over the streets and corners of Saigon, creeping into the bunch of city people's childhood memories. Looking back a century, in the "name" and "price" of Saigon bread there is a package of "love".
There is no need to discuss how the Vietnamese bread making is different from the recipe compared to the French bread making, only knowing that bread made from flour is easy to buy for many people, so Saigon people just invited to buy food, buy gifts, and kept calling it "Saigon bread".
In the memories of the elderly, from the 1940s to 1950s, when Saigon did not have too many streets, the population was small, there were people selling bread every morning. Someone who used to eat French bread said that the bread from the oven Vietnamese made had a different taste with the crust and soft crust. People who have never eaten French bread are very happy when they have a little money but can eat the long, large, similar cakes Westerners use in the restaurant, even if it's just bread, no sausages, ham, Pate.
The way to put the bread in a burlap sack and put it in a bamboo basket is that the Saigon people think up to keep the bread hot and crisp for a long time, and the buyer in the end can still eat the bread warm enough and not soft. So, in the morning, the seller loaded the bread in the car through each street and alley, saying: "Hot crispy bread!" waking everyone up happily, before washing their faces, rushed to buy bread as if afraid to lose their part.
"Saigon Bread" has become famous, no need for Saigon people to speak up.
Eat sandwiches that are separate sandwiches, ham, eggs, pâté or cheese separately. In the 50s of the twentieth century, banh mi (also called burgers) began to come to Vietnamese diners, this way of eating from Saigon, like the new trend of bread, was Most enthusiastic reception by far.
The loaf of bread is sliced vertically, the part received (sandwiched) is cold meats, pies, eggs. The southerners often like something with a little vegetables, so the loaf of bread gets a few slices of fresh cucumber, a few coriander stalks for aroma, a little sour food to stimulate deliciousness and topped with soy sauce or water fish sauce to taste enough bread. When you are tired of meat, you will receive canned fish sandwiches, fried eggs, grilled pork, and squid, skin. As you like.
The Western Saigon people eat bread, it is unbelievable that the bread has enough starch, protein, vegetables, spices, enough energy for a meal, whether it's morning, noon, afternoon or evening. . As for the bread seller, he said very "love": "For the meat to be cold, the pate is on a separate plate with the bread as Westerners eat it, so the people who are well-off have to sometimes eat. And people who have tight money could not order half a plate, it's strange. Receiving all of the bread, just enough for the food, while keeping the face for the person with little money, he can accept a little meat and eggs to pay and still have delicious bread like anyone ”.
Whether it is a bakery for more than half a century, a bread cart on a street corner of several decades, or a new store of ten years bright with signs, decoration, service in a modern style, the vendors Bread in Saigon has held that sentiment, kept its own brand name to contribute to promoting to foreigners about Saigon bread, Vietnamese bread - a unique street food, no place also can get!
Cuisine is born from life, created from need. The Saigon people have made meat sandwiches to become one of the typical dishes in urban cuisine in Vietnam, which is seen as a specialty of Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City. This is confirmed as more and more "Saigon bread" shops of Vietnamese expatriates continue to make an impression in many countries. The Guardian's travel site (UK) has voted Saigon bread among the 10 most delicious and attractive street food in the world.
"Banh mi" became a noun added to the Oxford dictionary as it confirmed that this was a Vietnamese dish, not a Western version.
