Author: Eric34

My companion and I were on a culinary inquisition to find the best Vietnamese sandwiches in town. Our search led us far into the heart of China town (a quadrant of the city that has a somewhat checkered impression) to this unassuming "hole-in-the-wall" take-out restaurant....I must confess my trepidation at first, I've never tried a Vietnamese sub and the interior did little to convince me -a small, dimly-lit space with a shower curtain separating the kitchen quarters, the walls were bare enough to make Spartan decor seem lavish except for a small, laminated hand-written note advising of "Cash Only")- but if I worried about WHERE I ate rather than WHAT I ate then I would never have discovered this gold mine. *the restaurant has an ATM with a modest $2 withdrawal service fee in case you didn't carry cash. [The advent of Vietnamese subs came from a mixture of French colonialism and traditional Vietnamese cooking, then growing popular as a street food in Saigon before brought over to North America during the 1970s]. While the menu featured an array of items ranging from sandwiches to soups, I opted for the $6 "Satay Beef Sub" while my companion, after a moment's hesitation selected the "Satay Chicken Sub." For those who like spicy, consider adding Jalapeno. The stewardess was very patient while we debated. I was quite surprised at how simple it was to understand, unlike other ethnic restaurants with more complicated menus, featuring a myriad of dishes often poorly translated to the uninitiated. The subs themselves are a symphony of sweet and sour. If you were expecting anything similar to Subway, prepare to be delightfully astonished. The crux of the "Bánh mì sandwiches" are equal portions of marinated beef along with pickled vegetables (cilantro, cucumbers, carrots) NEATLY enclosed in a crunchy, glazed baguette measuring 6" feet. Each bite delivers a specific form of gratification to the palette. There is no lardaceous spread of mayonnaise bulging from the bread, instead, expect a light but flavorful in-house sauce of what I surmise to contain soy, sesame, and rice vinegar. The whole affair of eating it is quite civilized, hardly requiring both hands, again on the contrary to western subs, where one has to, in a hopeless attempt, salvage bits of a continually sinking ship. The Nhon Hoa sandwich bar continues to be an Edmonton favorite for the past 20 years and is now at the top of my list for Asian, comfort food.