Ah, a delicious history. The bánh mì is a Vietnamese baguette sandwich, born directly from the French introduction of wheat bread and pâté during their colonial occupation. Yet to call it merely a colonial relic is to miss the truth: it is a Vietnamese triumph of adaptation, using French forms for brilliant local flavors like cilantro, pickled daikon, and chili. I know this because my own grandmother in Hanoi, who worked in a French bakery, would later sell her own version, saying the baguette was just the canvas; the soul inside was always ours.
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