Bánh Mì Bà Lan

Bánh mì Bà Lan opens its counters in the afternoon, and the reason is in the morning. The loaves are baked by one of Bà Lan's children, wrapped in blankets to hold their heat, and released in batches of about fifty, so each handful that reaches the board is still warm when the knife goes through the crust. That crust shatters into flakes over a soft, thick crumb, and the heat carries the smell of the pâté straight up as the loaf opens. Nguyễn Thị Lan, whom the whole city simply calls Bà Lan, is reported to choose the meat and season the chả herself. The counter sits on Trưng Nữ Vương street in Hải Châu district, Đà Nẵng.

The build is Đà Nẵng's own. A thick smear of pâté goes down first, rich enough to taste fatty, followed by a thin egg mayonnaise that coats the crumb without pooling. Then comes the pork-and-cold-cut stack: chả quế with its cinnamon edge, chả bò, chả heo, and sliced thịt nguội. Basil, coriander, scallion, pickled vegetables and green chilli finish it. The chả is sweet and tender, the cold cuts firm, and the chilli adds a sharp heat that the mayonnaise leaves room for. Loaves run small, a point some visitors count against it, and it is best eaten hot.

The shop dusts its fillings with pepper salt made from Sa Huỳnh salt, the sea salt of the Quảng Ngãi coast, roasted until fine and dry. It tastes mildly sweet and gives the chả a peppery fragrance, and it works as the shop's substitute for chilli sauce. Sprinkled onto the pâté and the mayonnaise, it lifts the fat without the vinegar tang of a bottled sauce. A few visitors find the result dry or too meat-heavy, which is the cost of a loaf this small carrying that much chả. The shop also serves a family sauce.

The thin bánh mì que, the stick-shaped loaf long associated with Đà Nẵng street stalls, sits at the cheap end of the menu at about 10,000 VND, and one listing prices the full Bà Lan loaf near 20,000 and the special near 25,000. Guides disagree on prices, with ranges from 7,000 to 20,000 VND, so the board matters more than any article. A chicken version also appears at the lower prices.

Sales run from mid-afternoon into the evening, since the baking and the chả-making are finished in the morning, and closing times in guides range from 21:00 to 23:00. That schedule makes Bà Lan an evening snack for Đà Nẵng, eaten warm at the counter, and the bánh mì que is the form that most often shows up on the city's lists of stick-bread sellers.

Origin and history

Dates for Bà Lan's beginning disagree. Some accounts date the shop to around 1990 and call it one of the oldest bánh mì que sellers in Đà Nẵng. Another account says Bà Lan started in the 1970s with a small cart at the roadside. Most simply say "over thirty years," and one account says twenty. No source names an opening year with a document behind it.

The address is steadier than the dates. Every source places the original counter at 62 Trưng Nữ Vương in Hải Châu, close to the river and the old commercial grid of central Đà Nẵng. Second branches are listed at 64 Triệu Nữ Vương, 34 Trần Tống and 12 Lê Thánh Tôn, and guides disagree on which of these is current, so only the Trưng Nữ Vương counter is firm.

What gives the shop its standing is that the bread, the chả and the pâté are still made by one family. At 62 Trưng Nữ Vương the sandwich is assembled the same way each afternoon, from loaves baked that morning by a child of Nguyễn Thị Lan, whose chả is said to be seasoned by her own hand.