History

Vietnamese refugees arrived in San Francisco's Tenderloin from 1975 onward and built Little Saigon along Larkin Street. Saigon Sandwich, the family-run shop at 560 Larkin running since the 1980s, is widely cited as the Tenderloin banh mi reference, with a queue out the door at lunchtime. The SF Tenderloin banh mi corridor is the most-decorated cluster of the format on the West Coast.

Common allergens: Gluten, Egg, Soy

Make it at home

Yield 4Hands-on 25 minTotal 3 hrDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 4 individual Vietnamese-style baguettes (light crumb, crackly crust)
  • 300g pork shoulder, sliced 5mm thick
  • 100g pork or chicken liver pate
  • 4 tablespoons Kewpie mayonnaise
  • 1 large carrot, julienned
  • 200g daikon radish, julienned
  • 100ml white vinegar
  • 100ml warm water
  • 3 tablespoons caster sugar (for the pickle)
  • 1 teaspoon salt (for the pickle)
  • 1 cucumber, cut in long thin strips
  • 1 large jalapeno, sliced thin
  • Generous handful cilantro
  • Maggi seasoning sauce
  • For the pork marinade: 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 2 garlic cloves grated
  • 1 thumb lemongrass minced
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 teaspoon neutral oil

Method

  1. Whisk the marinade ingredients. Pour over the sliced pork and rest 2 hours in the fridge.
  2. Stir vinegar, warm water, sugar and salt until dissolved; toss with the julienned carrot and daikon. Pickle 1 hour minimum.
  3. Heat a heavy ridged pan or grill very hot. Grill the marinated pork 90 seconds a side until lacquered and lightly charred.
  4. Warm the baguettes 4 minutes in a 180C oven to recrisp the crust.
  5. Split each lengthwise, keeping a hinge. Spread one side with Kewpie mayonnaise, the other with pate.
  6. Layer the grilled pork, drained pickled carrot-daikon, cucumber, jalapeno and cilantro.
  7. Finish with 4 to 6 drops of Maggi seasoning sauce inside the sandwich.
  8. Press lightly and eat immediately while the bread is still crisp.

Tip from the editors. The Vietnamese baguette is the structural piece; the crumb is lighter and the crust thinner than a French baguette. If you cannot find it, use a fresh demi-baguette and recrisp in a hot oven, not a toaster.

Where to eat saigon-style banh mi

Saigon-style banh mi in San Francisco

Saigon Sandwich ★ 4.4

Vietnamese$

Saigon Sandwich in San Francisco is the Larkin Street banh mi window: six bucks for a hot baguette and a long lunch line that turns over fast every weekday.

Try: Pork banh mi

Tip: Cash only; order four at once and bring them home; the bread stays good for three hours wrapped.

560 Larkin St, San Francisco, CA 94102

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