Bánh Mì Hà Nội

The pâté at 34 Lò Sũ is the part of the roll the shop makes before anything else, and diners say the batch runs from about four in the morning until three in the afternoon. It is made in the house, along with the pork and the sausage. By the time a customer asks for a roll, the cook is spreading a soft, fragrant layer that diners call rich without being greasy, and the whole Hanoi style rests on that layer.

The bread takes the spread in a particular way. Diners describe the crust as crisp and the inside as dense, and the shop reheats the loaf for each order, so the shell is dry and hot when the pâté meets it. A dense crumb grips the spread instead of soaking it through, which is why a roll built this way can carry butter, pâté and meat and keep its form to the last bite. A loaf that waits in its paper goes soft first at the underside, where the pâté sits.

The plain order is pâté on the hot loaf, with butter and chili sauce. From there the customer picks. A slice of chả, the steamed pork roll, adds a clean chew against the soft spread. Sausage and thin slices of xá xíu roast pork add salt and a little sweetness, and some rolls carry cucumber. Grilled pork is the shop's other signature, and it and the pâté are the two fillings the counter is best known for. Chili sauce goes in last, sharp enough to cut the fat of the pâté.

The counter at 34 Lò Sũ opens early and stays open into the evening, with listed hours of 6 a.m. to 9 or 10 p.m. depending on the source. Listed prices run from 15,000 to 30,000 VND, about a dollar, for a roll that is mostly meat and spread.

The same counter also sells bánh mì chảo, bread served alongside a hot pan of fillings, and a version with sốt vang, a braised-meat sauce. Without enough sauce the pan version eats dry, because the dense loaf needs something wet when it is not carrying pâté. The everyday roll does not have that problem, because the spread supplies the moisture.

The roll tastes rich, salty and warm, with the crackle of the crust arriving first and the soft pâté after it. The seasoning does the work that pickles and herbs do elsewhere, and the roll stays short and savory.

Origin and history

Bánh mì Bà Dần at 34 Lò Sũ in Hoàn Kiếm has more than forty years of trading behind it, which makes it one of the longer-running grilled-pork-and-pâté counters in Hanoi. The name belongs to the woman who started it.

The start is usually put at about 1979, and Bà Dần has since handed the counter to her son, who has run it for several years. No opening year or first price is on record.

The pâté, the pork and the sausage are made in the house, the sausage fresh each day, and the pâté batch cooks from about four in the morning until three in the afternoon, which is why a roll from the window in the middle of the day tastes the same as one at six.