Baguette

I recently went to a Vietnamese restaurant, Au Petit Cafe, with some Couchsurfers. Before I arrived, I knew there was nothing vegetarian on the menu, but I knew it was easy enough to make something vegetarian by omitting the animal products.

What I received was a vegetable banh mi, a Vietnamese baguette sandwich (see above photo above). The vegetables were pedestrian enough, however, the bread was fantastic. It was the best French baguette that I’ve had outside of France. What makes the bread so good is that it is baked on premises at Au Petit – the way it should be done – just like all the neighbourhood bakeries in France.

The sandwich brought me back to the time I spent in Nice, France eating the pan bagnat – a sandwich loosely based on the salade Niçoise. For years afterward, I used to make these sandwiches myself but the bread was always lacking. Unfortunately, the pan bagnat is not vegetarian; however, I may try to create my own vegetarian version with some of these amazing baguettes.