banh mi, not bang me

Ba Le
1426 S Atlantic Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91803
(626) 308-3003

price: $
verdict: it's aight

there are some days when the vietnamese side of me body yells out "banh mi (vietnamese sammich)!" when i'm hungry. it's usually the side that has the darker tan which is my left side. anyways, my typical haunts use to be this vietnamese sandwich place in chinatown, but upgrading from a bus pass means being able to search for FARTHER banh mi eats as i putz around in my tin can of a car. yesterday, i ventured as far as alhambra for my banh mi. oh yea, this belly travels a lot. sarcastic?

i've always walked by ba le when i go to this tropical fish store to get my koi fishes. in an attempt for my belly to meet its next post, i decided to check it out and see what the fuss was all about up in ba le. besides, i was sold by the eiffel tower on the sign. seems like someone is trying so hard!

the banh mi menu seems pretty diverse but it didn't matter because i immediately zoned in on sammich #2, "dac biet." in commie language, that means "special."

so i ordered myself a dac biet which in my opinion is the best commie sammie out there, but on a split second fat move, i also decided to order the bbq beef sammie to share. for roughly $2.75 a sammich i was pretty sure i could afford it.

if you were to deconstruct a banh mi, you will find the typical pickled carrots, pickled daikon, cucumber slices, chili pepper slices, head cheese, vietnamese ham, mayo, in a crusty french baguette, and PATE (pronounced "ba de"). holy crap i LOVE pate. so creamy and liverwursty. typically, the deliciousness of a bahn mi in my universe is directly correlated to the amount of pate it has. the more pate, the more partay in me pie hole. ba le's sammich had a nice serving of pate, but the ham and head cheese were sparse and sliced VERY thinly. i consider it more like meat paper in a ba le sammie.

the bbq beef sammich was a tad bit better, but i warn you the marinade for these bbq beef balls is super sweet. if you do not like candied meat like i do, then you will probably think it's disgusting. i was told by my friend that ate the other half that it was puke inducing. *shrug* anyways, this banh mi has the same condiments as the dac biet minus the pate and paper meats.

i wouldn't say this is a great banh mi shop at all. heck, the bread ain't all that and the fillings were so so. next time, i'm going to head straight for the koi man and will not stop for a banh mi here, no matter how loudly my vietnamese side yells for a sammie from the motherland.