Monday, July 13, 2009

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.

8 comments:

  1. oh fudgsicles
    you made me laugh so hard i woulda blew milk out my nose had i been drinking a glass.
    commie sammie?! truly loled, that's what i'm calling them from now on.
    and ba de rocks!
    mmm childhood memories of underwood liverwurst logs on warm baguettes on saturday mornings

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  2. Cheap sammiches! I want some banh mi now!

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  3. sinh- pate is sooooooo gooood. where do you go for your commie sammie?

    acfromdc- go get some now!

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  4. 3 dollar footlong?! can we say i love socialism? glad you pulled a fat move. your dedication to blogging is awe-inspiring.; )

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  5. hahaha, yutjangsah. you might be the only person that finds a fat move awe inspiring.

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  6. i used to pick up my commie sammies on my way home from east la college from banh mi che cali on valley cuz theyre open late. banh mi my tho, also on valley, makes a yummie commie sammie too. and if i'm not lazy i'll drive the extra mile down valley to lee's sammies for some good chewy tube bread.

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  7. at least this Ba Le is better than Baguette Du Jour. Good God that's a horrendous sandwich. If you cross over pass Garfield, you'll find My Tho on the same side. It's bigger. It's got better nem nuong. And they have a extra large ca phe sua da.

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  8. thanks doods. sounds like i have to try out my tho.

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