Montreal Bahn Mi...

deep fried lobster and bitter gourd

Stadium Day

After a nice morning run of errands and i-485 interview(crosses fingers). We finally got a chance to see the "new stadium". After a few hiccups on not being able to carry a backpack and leaving some keys in my bag we finally was able to catch the D trail all the way up to 161st and river. The stadium looked amazing from the outside and once we were inside we only had a quick glance of the great hall, I was to excited to head to our seats in section 203. After hounding some garlic fries and a few johnny rockets burgers we chanted with the creatures. Overall it was a great game that had it all pitching, defense and Yankee offense. Hopefully the 2 noobs that sat with us enjoyed the time spent at the old ball game...

NYY

Lets go~

2 new parks for 2 of New York teams. Each are expanding their food service lineups for their ball parks. Standard peanuts and cracker jacks are no longer general fare at these parks, in the Bronx food vendors such as Johnny Rockets, Brother Jimmy's BBQ, Moe's, Tommy Bahama, Famous Famiglia Pizza, Asian Noodle Bowl, Lobels, Mike's Deli, Hard Rock, NYY Steak and Delta's 360 headline at the New Yankee Stadium.

As for Queens, the Union Square Hospitality group will be introducing a food court of Shake Shack, Blue Smoke, Box Frites, Verano Taqueria, and Acela.

Hopefully I will be paying a visit to each of these new ballparks in the near future.

Battle of the Banh Mi - Bandwagon Trend

ref: nymag article: another banh mi in the oven


ref: nytimes.com: Building on layers of tradition.

Seems like the Banh Mi bandwagon trend is now in full effect here in the East coast as many magazines and articles are popping up on the net featuring these mouthwatering subs.

A famous west coast foodie couple/bloggers called "the white on rice couple", created the site "battle of the banh mi" to educate everyone on the great delicacy of the banh mi sandwich. It seems that on the west coast the banh mi has been famous for years (seeing that most trends pass through the west before they are set in here in the east coast) as seen by the abundant Lee's sandwich shop chains have been popping up all over since 2001 with over 31 chains!

The classic banh mi is a Vietnamese-French influenced sandwich, that is on a crispy baguette(classically made with wheat and rice flour) and made up of an addicting combination of salty, crunchy, moist and hot contrasting delacacies such as pickled carrots and diakons, onions, cucumbers, cilantro, jalapenos, meat fillings, headcheese, pate's, mayonaise, butter and sirracha sauce.

I am holding my own personal East Coast battle of the banh mi , as we have been recently scouring NYC for the best tasting banh mi, not necessarily the most authentic, but best overall based on price, quality and taste. Which may ruffle some purist feathers, but sometimes it is what it is~ Trend or not we enjoy ourselves a good banh mi~

We have found several variets which range from: classic, chinese-influenced, and modern/upscale banh mi's. None the less I will rate and value as many banh mi's as I can get my hands on.

So far my list is goes as follows:

Hanco's - 85 Bergan St, Brooklyn -$5.50 - Value: B-, Taste: A, Overall: A
Ba Xuyen - 4222 Eigth Ave, Brooklyn - $3.75 - Value: A+ , Taste: B, Overall: B
Baogette - 61 Lexington Ave - $5.00 - Value: B, Taste: B+, Overall: B+
Banh Mi Saigon Bakery - 138-01 Mott St - TBD
Nicky's - 150 E. 2nd St - $5.00 - Value B, Taste: C, Overall: C
An Choi's - 85 Orchard St - TBD
NhaToi's - 60 Havemeyer St, Williamsburg - TBD
Saigon Vietnamese Sandwich - 369 Broome St - TBD
Paris Sandwich's - 113 Mott St - TBD
Sau Voi Corp - 101-105 Lafayette St - TBD
Num Pang - 21 East 12th Street - TBD
Thanh Da - 6008 Seventh Ave, Brooklyn - TBD

Outside NYC:

Lee's Sandwich's - Various locations California - $$ - Value: B, Taste: B-, Overall: B-
Vietnamese Cafe - Philadelphia - $3.50 - Value: A, Taste: B, Overall: B