Anywhere, when the words 'banh mi' pop up, you immediately know that people are talking about Vietnamese bread. It is a dish that foreigners who want to enjoy must speak in Vietnamese.
Vietnamese people eat bread all year round without getting bored, beauty queen H'Hen Nie (in the photo) is no exception - Photo: DUYEN PHAN
Vietnamese people eat rice and sticky rice, Vietnamese civilization is a civilization of thousands of years of rice. Before that, we didn't eat bread.
Banh mi followed the French to Saigon, to the six provinces of Cochinchina, to the North and then "fell in love" with this whole nation. Now there is nowhere without bread.
On March 24, we just celebrated the 3th anniversary of "banh mi" entering the Oxford dictionary as a proper noun, to refer to Vietnamese bread and only Vietnam has this type of cake.
Cultural barcodes
Although of European origin, Vietnamese bread is very different from the loaf of bread in its birthplace.
That's why when talking about Vietnamese sandwiches, foreigners who use the word "Vietnamese sandwich" still find something... wrong, so the two words "banh mi" were added to the Oxford dictionary. besides baguette, sandwich...
The famous Vietnamese burger, The Guardian does not hesitate to call this "the most delicious sandwich in the world".
Not in Rome, Copenhagen or New York, but on the streets of Vietnam.
On the rankings of the best street food, bread is never absent.
Is it cool yet? From a dish that was once prepared by the elders, typically Nguyen Dinh Chieu - in Liturgy of Can Giuoc martyr – criticize:
"What's the point of living among soldiers, sharing wine, munching on bread, it sounds even more shameful" - considering bread and wine as foreign cultures.
Now bread has become a feature of Vietnamese culinary culture and goes to the world with the proper noun "banh mi". “Banh mi” along with “pho” (pho) and “ao dai” (ao dai) in Oxford have become the “cultural barcode” of Vietnamese people.
In addition to traditional sandwiches, the world of Vietnamese sandwiches is rich and interestingly sophisticated, in the photo is shumai sandwiches - Photo: DUYEN PHAN
Traditional burgers are nothing
Bread is a product of cultural acculturation. Researcher Huynh Ngoc Trang said in 2018: "It is cultural acculturation that makes the cultural structure more mature, diverse and rich."
Maybe the first stage of acculturation is a tumor, making us uncomfortable. But subsequent history has proven that it blends perfectly into our body.
The Western loaf of bread "breaks in" and "makes a big noise" in Vietnamese cuisine and then calmly and straightforwardly "goes back" to the world with so much excitement and invitation.
It's like eating a loaf of bread, inviting you to Vietnam - a place that is not the homeland of bread but coming here, you will enjoy the most delicious bread in the world.
But the beauty is that we Vietnameseize it according to our own identity. The quality of "optional" and "entering the family according to custom" is clearly seen. Use whatever you have, eat whatever you have, use whatever is convenient...
In a loaf of bread is a whole world of Vietnamese people's views; There's pate, there's meat, there's pork sausage, there's sauce and herbs - Photo: DUYEN PHAN
Traditional Vietnamese bread is often sandwiched with pâté, meatballs or roasted meat, pork rolls with herbs, cucumbers... then sprinkled with a little salt and pepper or drizzled with a little rich sauce. If you like, you can add thinly sliced chili.
But the traditional burger loaf mentioned above is nothing.
If you don't know, foreigners can easily get confused when exploring the world of Vietnamese bread. It is rich and sophisticatedly "multilingual".
Even the traditional bread in the North, Central, and South is not completely the same. Therefore, in Saigon you still see signs of Hanoi bread and vice versa in Hanoi you still see Saigon bread sold.
As for bread in the Central region, typically Da Nang or Hoi An, the bread has a richer filling, served with laksa leaves.
Many international tourists coming to Vietnam have to eat bread to get by - Photo: QUANG DINH
Each region has its own unique style of bread. For example, in Nha Trang, people often eat fish cake sandwiches... It's not necessary to have meat sandwiches, there are places that serve fried eggs and pate. Still delicious as usual.
Not stopping at burgers, Vietnamese people are now extremely quick to produce vegan sandwiches with tofu, mushrooms, vegetarian pate, vegetarian sauce or fermented grapefruit peel...
This is very popular with diners who tend to eat vegan. Once again, Vietnamese bread scores points.
Just like that, it travels around the world of many senses and flavors, from Asia to Europe, to America, bringing a "Vietnamese landscape" through the stomach.
Tieu Tung – Tuoitre.vn
