Have you ever had a Banh mi? I hadn't until today, when I went on a hunt for them in Boston's Chinatown. I was inspired by a conversation about them with my friend, Annie, who I just went to Portland with. We were talking about charcuterie, and Banh mi came up. She was waxing on quite poetically about them, and I was embarrassed that I had never heard of them before. She filled me in that they are Vietnamese sandwiches that are made with various lunch meats, pates, mayonnaise, pickled vegetables, and cilantro. In fact, you can fill them with a myriad of all sorts of different delicious things. They were invented when the French occupied Vietnam as a result of the two cultures coming together to make possibly the most delicious lunch you'll ever hope to eat.I took the T down to the Boylston street stop and walked a couple of blocks to the intersection of Beach and Washington where there are three Banh mi places on a single block. I picked up a sandwich at each of them for comparison and took them to work as a surprise for my friends. Annie, Beth (the pastry ninja), and I all ate them together at family meal and compared notes. I cut each sandwich into three parts and put a piece of each on separate plates. It was fun talking about them together and we ended up liking each one for different reasons.
