Footscray Market ★ 4.6
Footscray Market on Hopkins Street is Melbourne's best multicultural food market: Vietnamese grocers, African spice traders and Phuoc Thanh banh mi inside.
History
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.
Common allergens: Gluten, Soy, Egg (in mayo)
Make it at home
Ingredients
- 4 short Vietnamese-style baguettes (or small French baguettes, lightly crisp-shelled)
- 300g cold roast pork shoulder, sliced thin (Cantonese char siu works too)
- 150g good pork pate or chicken liver pate
- 200g gio cha (Vietnamese pork roll) or quality leg ham, sliced
- 1 large carrot and 200g daikon, julienned, salted 10 minutes, drained, then mixed with 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar and 2 tsp sugar for 30 minutes (do chua pickle)
- 1/2 cucumber, cut into long thin strips
- Small bunch coriander, leaves and tender stems
- 1 long red chilli, very finely sliced
- 3 tbsp Kewpie mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp Maggi seasoning or light soy sauce
- 1 tsp fresh lime juice
Method
- Warm the baguettes in a 180 degrees Celsius oven for 4 minutes until the crust is crisp but the interior is still soft.
- Slice each baguette lengthways without cutting all the way through; pull out a little of the soft crumb to make room.
- Spread a generous layer of pate on the bottom inner face and a layer of Kewpie mayonnaise on the top inner face.
- Lay the cold roast pork slices on the pate, then the gio cha or ham slices over the top, fanning them along the length.
- Top with a generous tangle of the drained do chua pickle, then cucumber strips, then a bushy handful of coriander and chilli to taste.
- Drizzle Maggi seasoning and squeeze fresh lime over the herbs.
- Press the sandwich closed firmly to compress the layers; cut in half on the diagonal and eat immediately while the bread is still warm and crisp.
Tip from the editors. True Vietnamese baguettes have a much thinner crust and softer rice-flour-blend crumb than French. If buying from a Vietnamese bakery, ask for them just out of the oven; if not, refresh a French baguette in a 200 degree oven for 3 minutes wrapped in foil to soften the crumb.
Where to eat pork banh mi at phuoc thanh
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