Banh Mi Footscray Phuoc Thanh appears as a signature dish in 1 Australia cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Pork Banh Mi at Phuoc Thanh · Melbourne
Footscray's banh mi is Melbourne's other great Vietnamese sandwich: a baguette stuffed with pate, sliced cold roast pork, pickled daikon and carrot, cucumber, fresh coriander and a swipe of fresh chilli, eaten on the kerb outside Phuoc Thanh.
Banh mi arrived in Melbourne with the post-1975 Vietnamese refugee wave and rooted in the western suburbs around Footscray and Richmond. Phuoc Thanh on Hopkins Street in Footscray is the city's longest-running banh mi specialist, operating from the late 1980s as a counter-service bakery turning out the sandwich at A$7 a piece. The Melbourne format is distinctly Southern Vietnamese: a soft-rice-flour Vietnamese-style baguette, slightly shorter and crispier than a French loaf, packed with cold cuts (gio cha pork roll, sliced char siu, pate), pickled carrot-daikon do chua, cucumber spears, coriander and chilli sauce. Lines run down Hopkins Street at peak Saturday lunch.
Where to eat in Melbourne:
- Phuoc Thanh
- Footscray Market