Click on the link to read Walter Nichols adoring banh mi story in the Washington Post from February 6. He chews and reminisces thusly,
At Nhu Lan, a one-table Vietnamese sandwich shop in a Falls Church, I take a bite of a “special combination” banh mi thit nguoi, which translates as “bread with meat cold cuts.” As I taste the pork liver pate, ham, cilantro and pickled radish, I close my eyes and I’m cruising the Mekong Delta at dawn in a funky long boat, as I did a dozen years ago, just south of the city of Can Tho.
I may live in the concrete lawn of Northern Virginia, but we do brag the 5th largest concentration of Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans in the US. 37,000 or so. When I take a bite of “special combination” I close my eyes and am cruising urban-suburban America, an exotic voyage unto itself. Long stretches of shopsigns nearby where I cannot read a word. Roll down the window, turn your nose toward the wind and sniff hard.
When the French brought sandwiches to Vietnam they did right. Shoulda quit while they were ahead.
See my post about Song Que, first rate banh mi shop, here.
The Lunch Encounter 