I spent this past Saturday marinating, grilling and preparing my first Banh Mi sandwich. Living in San Jose with its strong representation of Vietnamese restaurants, the Banh Mi is a local culinary icon. If you haven't tried it before, the NY Times had a recent piece about this classic street-vendor Vietnamese-French sandwich:
If you haven’t tried a classic banh mi, imagine all the cool, salty, crunchy, moist and hot contrasts of a really great bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. Then add a funky undertone of pork liver and fermented anchovy, a gust of fresh coriander and screaming top notes of spice, sweetness and tang.
The recipe I employed was a little different than the classic version they describe, as it came from the excellent The Ethnic Paris Cookbook. This version emphasized perfectly marinated and grilled pork tenderloin married with thinly-sliced marinated vegetables (red onion, cucumber, carrot) as the culinary stars, along with crusty french bread and mayo, of course!
We sampled this with a 2007 Huber & Bleger Pinot Blanc from Alsace. While a beer would have been the best possible accompaniment, the white wine was a nice foil for the spicy, salty, tangy flavors of the sandwich. In case you are interested, here's a good introduction to Pinot Blanc from Purple Lips:
Okay, so what IS the difference between Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris, or Grigio? The difference is they are two completely different varietals. Pinot Grigio/blanc is famous as the easily found white from Italy even though more Pinot Blanc is grown there. Pinot blanc is actually a mutated for of Piont Grigio and usually provides more substance in the glass when it comes to flavor and body. Some of the best Pinot Blancs (all subjective of course) are grown in the Alsace region of France or the Alto Adige region in Northern Italy.
