Everyone likes a good sandwich

I love a good sandwich — turkey, italian, meatball….I also love the vietnamese sandwich known as banh mi. According to Wikipedia, a banh mi sandwich consists mainly of thinly sliced pickled carrots and daikon, onions, cucumbers, cilantro, jalapeño peppers and meat or tofu. Here is my review of two popular Banh mi sandwiches found in NYC.

An Choi

This place is getting great reviews for their banh mi sandwiches with two complaints: the price (it’s double what you find in Chinatown with a price tag of $8 a sammy) and the fact that there isn’t enough meat. I got the Chinese crispy roasted pig banh mi.

A very delicious, crusty baguette is topped with tender pieces of pork meat and crispy pork skin then layered with daikon, sliced carrots, fresh jalapeños and a spicy aioli. No pate in this version which made me sad as I do love my banh mi with pate. (Ssam made a mean banh mi with pate — no idea why Chang took it off the menu) This sandwich also comes with two oversized fried crab chips.

The sandwich was tasty as the ingredients are fresh, the flavors are very clean and the pork is good (albeit slightly chewy and scarce). I have to say despite the negatives I just mentioned, I found the sandwich very good/tasty and would get it again. Sometimes the bread is what makes the sandwich and the bread was delicious. I also liked the fresh jalapeños and spicy aioli — it was different in a good way.

Boi Sandwich

This sandwich shop is located in Midtown East and one of the only places you can get a decent banh mi in this part of Manhattan. I strayed from the traditional and got the curry chicken meatball banh mi as it got great reviews.

Again you have the daikon and shredded carrots but the bread was definitely not as crusty nor as tasty as An Choi’s.  A good baguette has a delicious bready flavor with a crispy crust and a dense interior that is almost chewy. Boi’s lacked the crustiness on the outside to compensate for the breadiness inside. The meatballs were a little sweeter than I would like but at least the meatballs were plentiful, very moist and definitely tasted of curry. This sandwich was definitely flavorful and so I would get this sandwich again as it adds variety to my ho hum office life if the craving strikes me mid-day. Beggars can’t be choosers right?

An Choi, 85 Orchard Street, New York, NY

Boi Sandwich, 708 3rd Avenue, New York, NY