In Australia, the Banh Mi love story of a nation

Letter from Australia is a weekly newsletter from our Australian office. Register to receive it by email. This week’s issue is written by Melbourne-based journalist Natasha Frost.

It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that Australia runs on banh mi – the Vietnamese sandwich consisting of a baguette with tangy pickled vegetables, a slathering of mayonnaise and your protein of choice.

In downtown Melbourne alone, there are about 20 different banh mi options in a space of about a square mile, and they’re the go-to lunch for everyone: “merchants,” or shopkeepers, in fluorescent vests ; white-collar workers; and students. (Many people simply call banh mi a “pork roll.”)

“Growing up in Australia, I loved a good singer,” said Duncan Lu, the Vietnamese-Australian founder of Melbourne banh mi chain Master Roll, who grew up in Adelaide. “I love bread, and that’s exactly what banh mi is.”

Between 1976 and 1986, approximately 94,000 Vietnamese refugees took up residence in Australia after the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975. Around 282,000 people born in Vietnam live in the country today, making it the country’s largest. sixth largest migrant community.

The arrivals are one of the first major influxes of colored migrants to Australia, after the country completely abandoned its “White Australia policy” which banned immigrants of non-European ethnic origin, Anh Nguyen said Austen, historian at the Australian Catholic University. .

Many of these people initially worked in the textile industry or on assembly lines. Some families, wanting to work where they could control their own schedules and interact more with other people, chose instead to open banh mi shops, particularly in areas where Vietnamese refugees had first settled. times, such as Bankstown and Cabramatta in Sydney and Footscray in Melbourne.

Banh mi is already a fusion food, integrating bread-making techniques brought by French settlers with more traditional Vietnamese toppings. This demonstrates a “Vietnamese willingness to acculturate and accept colonial heritage,” said Dr. Nguyen Austen. “Banh mi is very diplomatic.”

“We will make the most of it here,” she added of the Vietnamese approach to life in Australia. “And they can call it a pork bun.”

For Australian consumers not of Vietnamese origin, banh mi was easy to accept. It was delicious – sweet, salty, spicy, crunchy and chewy – and it fit into the already established work traditions of buying a sandwich, or “sanger”, for lunch at a “milk bar” or a local convenience store.

These days, banh mi shops are facing new pressures. Australians are used to not paying a lot for a banh mi and associate it with the country’s proud egalitarianism. The price of bread in Australia could have increase by 24 percent as of 2021, but a slipper-sized “pork roll” still typically costs around 10 Australian dollars, or about $6.50, although other comparable deli sandwiches can cost 17 Australian dollars or more.

For many banh mi retailers, who face razor-thin margins, “it’s almost on a knife’s edge,” said Mr. Lu, who is now focusing on promote Vietnamese home cooking. “Not just one thing, it’s just the model as a whole.” At his own Master Roll in South Yarra, a crispy pork roll now costs a relatively steep A$13.50.

Some mom-and-pop stores have avoided raising prices, fearing alienating consumers. But there’s evidence that Australians appreciate a good banh mi enough to pay the true cost.

Ca Com Banh Mi Bar is a high-end banh mi shop located in Richmond, a historically Vietnamese neighborhood in Melbourne, run by Thi Le, an Australian Vietnamese chef who grew up in Sydney and was a finalist last year for the award from the leader of the country. award of the year. There, a banh mi costs around 17 Australian dollars.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, the line was out the door and some of the most popular toppings, including crispy pork, were already sold out, although the banh mi was among the most expensive around.

“She’s fighting the good fight,” Mr. Lu said of Ms. Le.

Now let’s move on to the stories of the week.



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