I know Randolph isn’t part of this thread, but I continued my GBA banh mi exploration at the vietnamese stretch there, so I’m going to add it here.
N&P Saigon Banh Mi seemed like a good bet, and was definitely a mom & pop operation inside. They ran out of cha gio because the person before me took the last 3, and the owner told me he’d make more (from scratch, ie fill and roll) but it would take half an hour. Nope. I got some banh mis and picked up a sticky rice lotus leaf parcel to try, and moved on to Chau’s further down the same stretch.
Chau’s also appeared to be out (with a very disengaged chap minding the store), but I spotted the near-empty tray with 3 left and grabbed them. Thought about getting one more banh mi to compare, but resisted the urge and went into the Viet grocery store in the same space instead to look for frozen cha gio (which I did find).
Banh mi was good, not great. A bit under-filled. Very good bread.
Cha gio filling was good, but they were a bit over-fried. The nuoc cham was decent enough.
I remember liking both items better at Banh Mi Boston in Quincy.
The lotus leaf rice turned out to be green in color, very flavorful and aromatic, and light on filling relative to chinese versions. Nice to try something new.
