A sandwich at Kim's Cafe & Sandwiches, a bánh mì shop in Albany, California.
out of 100 · excellent
Excellent, with one move worth +13.
Uncharted, five of six roles on the board.
Holding the summit: a focused, restrained build
Less umami than almost everything in the catalog.
Each bar is one pillar of the score, 0 to 100. The tick marks what a sandwich at the summit needs; an amber bar is the one holding this sandwich back.
sweet baguette, served cold: lemongrass chicken; carrots & daikon pickle; english cucumber; cilantro; jalapeno; homemade aioli (house-made).
Worth a look: house-made: Aioli.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 0.8 | 44th |
| acid | 1.7 | 90th |
| fat | 1.2 | 18th |
| sweet | 0.7 | 78th |
| umami | 0.2 | 5th |
| heat | 0.3 | 76th |
| bitter | 0.3 | 76th |
84 Balance, out of 100
The seven flavor axes of the whole sandwich, each summed across its layers. The shaded ring is the catalog's middle 80%; the small number under each axis is where this sandwich falls in the catalog. A shape that sits inside the ring is in the range most sandwiches live in; a spike past it is where this one stands apart.
What each layer brings
| Layer | Role | Flavor and texture | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| sweet baguettescored as Bánh Mì Baguette (rice-flour blend) | bread | crispy soft flaky | the frame |
| lemongrass chicken | not scored | ||
| carrots & daikon picklescored as Đồ Chua (pickled daikon + carrot) | acid | acid 5 salt 2 sweet 2 crunchy pickled wet | +16 |
| english cucumberscored as Cucumber | bulk | crunchy juicy fresh | −1 |
| cilantro | aromatic | bitter 2 soft fresh herbal | +1 |
| jalapenoscored as Jalapeño | texture | heat 4 crunchy fresh raw | 0 |
| homemade aioli (house-made)scored as Aioli | sauce | fat 5 creamy silky saucy | +19 |
Points: what the Sandwich Score would lose if that one layer were left out, everything else the same. A negative number means the sandwich scores higher without it. Flavor runs 0 to 5 on each axis.
Pairings
- Cilantro + Jalapeño: banh mi brightwork: green heat and herb
How to raise it
- Between you and 90: a focused, restrained build (0.07 short).
All the sandwiches at Kim's Cafe & Sandwiches · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder