San Jose's Vietnamese bakeries stuff baguettes with pate, pickled daikon and sliced pork in a form that has barely changed since the community arrived in 1975.

The French left Indochina with two lasting food contributions: the baguette and the taste for liver pate. Vietnamese bakers absorbed both and created banh mi, adding pickled carrots, daikon, cilantro and chilli to build a sandwich unlike anything in either France or traditional Vietnam. San Jose's Little Saigon corridor became one of the earliest and largest banh mi markets outside Vietnam, with counters on Story Road selling sandwiches for under two dollars through the 1980s.

2 editor picks for Banh mi in San Jose, ranked by editorial score. All San Jose signature dishes · Banh mi across every city.