Just around the corner from Banh Mi 37, is the much more easily located Huynh Hoa Bakery. Perhaps because it has a proper address. Perhaps because there’s a line of people spilling out onto the street, waiting patiently to get their hands on – what I now deem to be – the best Banh Mi in Saigon.
Who could ever imagine an array so dizzying of different coloured indeterminate meats to pack graciously, yet swiftly into crusty baguette, complete with salad crunch, Pork Pate, and mayonnaise lathered on like a Baby Boomer buttering bread? Surely not this hungry traveller.
The last time I felt the full gravitas of the fabled ‘meat sweats’, was at Kat’z Deli, where I (for some reason), decided it was a good idea to ingest an entire pound of Pastrami on Rye in the middle of November (it was a good idea). Huynh Hoa, in Saigon, was the next time.
Huynh Hoa must be the unhealthiest thing I’ve eaten in Vietnam, but it was damn good. In fact, the only thing that beat it, was at Banh Mi Phuong in Hoi An.
Stay tuned for that one.
Huynh Hoa Bakery
Address: 26 Lê Thị Riêng, P, Quận 1
Hồ Chí Minh 700000, Vietnam