Pho Bac Hoa Viet South Sacramento ★ 4.4
Pho Bac Hoa Viet on Stockton Boulevard in South Sacramento opened 1991 as the city's defining pho counter, the family operation across Sacramento sites.
Try: Pho, banh mi, Vietnamese rice noodle soup
History
Vietnamese refugees who settled along Stockton Boulevard in Sacramento after 1975 brought the Saigon-style banh mi sandwich with them, and by the 1990s the corridor between Florin and 65th was lined with banh mi counters baking the rice-flour French baguette daily and stacking it with pate, grilled pork, pickled vegetables and Vietnamese coleslaw. The Stockton Boulevard banh mi is heavier on the pate and cilantro than the LA or Houston versions, and it travels with the corridor's pho counters as a complete Vietnamese lunch under $10. The corridor remains the Vietnamese commercial center of the Sacramento Valley, with Pho Bac Hoa Viet, Pho Saigon and the SF Supermarket bakery counters running the city's banh mi supply.
Common allergens: Wheat, Soy, Egg
Make it at home
Ingredients
- 4 small Vietnamese-style baguettes (or substitute crusty French rolls)
- 500g pork shoulder, sliced thin
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 medium daikon, julienned
- 2 medium carrots, julienned
- 120ml rice vinegar
- 60g sugar
- 1 tbsp salt
- 150g pork pate or chicken liver mousse
- 60ml Kewpie mayonnaise
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 2 jalapenos, sliced thin
- 1 cucumber, julienned
Method
- Marinate the pork in fish sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar and garlic for at least 30 minutes (or up to 4 hours in the fridge).
- Combine daikon and carrot in a bowl. Dissolve sugar and salt in rice vinegar; pour over and let pickle at least 1 hour.
- Grill the marinated pork over high heat 2 to 3 minutes per side until charred at the edges.
- Split the baguettes. Spread one side with mayonnaise, the other with pate.
- Layer the grilled pork, drained pickled vegetables, cucumber, cilantro and jalapeno. Close and press lightly.
Tip from the editors. Use Kewpie mayonnaise if you can find it; it is sweeter and richer than the Western kind and is what every Stockton Boulevard counter uses.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Where to eat stockton boulevard banh mi
Stockton Boulevard Banh Mi in Sacramento
SF Supermarket ★ 4.3
SF Supermarket on 65th Street in South Sacramento is the Shun Fat Chinese-Vietnamese-American grocery chain Sacramento store, with live seafood.
More cities are in research. Want stockton boulevard banh mi covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.