Got an email from the guys at Big Gay Ice Cream asking if I wanted to help them at the Luckyrice David Chang Night Market. I replied “OF COURSE ANYTHING FOR YOU GUYS!” I don’t think I really typed in all CAPS but I definitely had all CAPS in my mind when I replied to them. I had heard about this Night Market thing but when I went to the website it was already sold out. But hey-yo! Thanks to Doug and Bryan I got to go even though my main job was to help them pass out samples and snap photos for them.

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On a recent trip to the East Village I decided to stop for lunch at Baoguette, a chain of Vietnamese-style sandwich shops run by Michael Huynh (of Bia Garden among others). I hadn’t really planned on stopping there, because in my previous research I hadn’t seen a vegetarian option on the menu, but when I walked by there it was on the menu: the Veguette. It’s a sandwich made with kung pao style soy protein, loaded up with pickled vegetables and cilantro.

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First there was Hanco’s, then Henry’s, and now there’s Home, the newest banh mi shop in Park Slope. Home opened in the space formerly occupied by Earth Tonez, and it’s been open for about two months. I visited on a chilly winter night a couple of weeks ago. Home makes sandwiches in the mold of those two other places, but not nearly as well crafted. My tofu sandwich, though a bit cheaper than even Henry’s, had way too much mayonnaise, not enough spice, and some limp-looking cilantro. If you’re down on 5th Avenue and you just have to have a Vietnamese sandwich it’ll do in a pinch, but I’d stick with the two places on 7th Avenue.

Home — 349 5th Ave, Brooklyn

When we told our friend Anh that we wanted to get some banh mi, she suggested her favorite place in all of NYC: Ba Xuyen, in Borough Park. We met up with her and two of her friends for lunch there last week. They have (among other things) eight different banh mi on the menu, but none of them are vegetarian. They were more than willing to make one for me though, and they only charged me $2.25 for it.

I’m used to the vegetarian sandiwches at Hanco’s or Nicky’s which have some kind of filling — tofu or portobello mushrooms — that getting this sandwich was kind of a shock. It was just the pickled vegetables with a handful of cilantro and sauce. It wasn’t bad, but not my kind of banh mi. Much better was the excellent jackfruit shake I got along with it.

Ba Xuyen — 4222 8th Ave, Brooklyn

My friend Anh is VERY picky about Vietnamese restaurants. I’m not saying its a bad thing, it’s definitely a good thing since I love Vietnamese food. I trust her when she said something is good and worth her time. Though I am still a big believer that any sort of Asian food should be cheap and comes in large amount. So when she said that, so far in NYC, her favorite Vietnamese place is Bun SoHo I wasn’t sure what to think of it. For $9-$10 you get a small bowl of bun. I get the idea of paying for quality and where the restaurant is situated. Anyways so I found this cheap hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown. I emailed it to Anh and she responded by saying “lets go tonight!” Okay….so I met up with her at 6:30 in Chinatown but what used to be the restaurant is now a jewelry store. Thanks Cheap Ass Food for featuring a place that has been closed for almost a year now. Thanks.

Anh pointed out that there was a place she never seen before so thats how we ended up at Xe Lua on Mulberry St.

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Ever since Hanco’s opened their 7th Avenue branch, I’ve been eating their tofu banh mi at least once a week. Then a few weeks ago I was at the Farmer’s Market and spotted a beautiful daikon radish and an idea began to form in my head. Why not make my own banh mi? I grabbed a daikon, some carrots, a few demi-baguettes, a sprig of cilantro, and some eggplants (among other things) and began to plan.

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