History

The Vietnamese refugee community that settled along Nicollet Avenue (now 'Eat Street') from the late 1970s established Minneapolis's banh mi tradition. Quang Restaurant has anchored Eat Street since 1989 and remains the canonical Minneapolis operator. The Minneapolis banh mi follows the Saigon template: French baguette with Vietnamese fillings, sold for $5 to $9 across the city. It remains Minneapolis's classic cheap-eats lunch.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Egg, Soy

Make it at home

Yield 4Hands-on 30 minTotal 4 hrDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 4 small Vietnamese-style baguettes (or short French rolls with crackly thin crust)
  • For the pickled vegetables: 1 daikon julienned
  • 2 carrots julienned
  • 60ml rice vinegar
  • 60ml water
  • 60g sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • For the grilled lemongrass pork: 500g pork shoulder sliced 5mm thin
  • marinated 3 hours in: 3 lemongrass stalks white parts minced
  • 4 garlic cloves minced
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 200g good pork pate at room temperature
  • 4 tablespoons Kewpie or homemade mayonnaise
  • 1 small cucumber, sliced into long thin spears
  • 1 large bunch cilantro, picked
  • 2 fresh jalapenos, thinly sliced
  • Maggi seasoning sauce and soy sauce to dress
  • Black pepper to finish

Method

  1. Make the pickle: whisk vinegar, water, sugar and salt until dissolved. Add daikon and carrot, press to submerge. Pickle 2 to 4 hours.
  2. Marinate the pork at least 3 hours.
  3. Heat a heavy skillet or grill pan to high. Cook the marinated pork slices in batches, 2 minutes per side, until charred at the edges.
  4. Split each baguette lengthways without cutting through. Toast briefly under the grill for 30 seconds; the crust should crackle.
  5. Spread the bottom with pate, the top with mayonnaise.
  6. Layer the grilled pork on the bottom.
  7. Top with drained pickled daikon and carrot, cucumber spears, cilantro and jalapeno.
  8. Shake several drops of Maggi seasoning and soy sauce over. Grind black pepper.
  9. Close, press firmly, wrap in paper.
  10. Eat within an hour.

Tip from the editors. Vietnamese baguettes are essential: light, airy, with a thin crackling crust. Find them at Vietnamese grocers along Nicollet Avenue.

Where to eat minneapolis vietnamese banh mi

Minneapolis Vietnamese banh mi in Minneapolis

Quang Restaurant ★ 4.7

$ VietnameseEat Street

Quang on Nicollet has poured James Beard America's Classics 2024 pho in Minneapolis since 1989. Located in Eat Street. At 2719 Nicollet Ave.

TryPho tai

Directions

Hai Hai ★ 4.6

$$$ Southeast AsianNortheast

Christina Nguyen's Hai Hai on University NE has run Southeast Asian street food in Minneapolis since 2018. Located in Northeast. Priced at $$$.

OrderBanh xeo turmeric crepe and the khao soi northern Thai curry noodles.

TipSaturday lunch dim sum cart pulls hot bites from a steamer. Tiki-style cocktails on the back patio in summer.

Directions Book

Mercado Central ★ 4.4

$ MarketEat Street

Mercado Central on East Lake Street has packed Mexican shops and food counters in Minneapolis since 1999. A worker-owned cooperative of small businesses.

Directions

Midtown Global Market ★ 4.6

$ MarketEat Street

Midtown Global Market on East Lake Street has packed fifty immigrant food vendors into a Minneapolis food hall since 2006. Mexican, Vietnamese, Somali.

Directions

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