The Best I Can Do

This is the sandwich I packed for my work lunch. It wasn't pretty, nor was it ideal. Then again, few things in this world are ever perfect, especially when you’re racing to pack a lunch (a thrift born of necessity) and simultaneously getting your five-year-old ready for school. So this is not food porn, but food reality. I used a leftover baguette from the previous day, and it was pretty stale. However, I slathered mayonnaise mixed with chili garlic sauce on it, which softened it up a little bit. I was attempting a vegetarian version of a banh mi, which is a French-influenced Vietnamese sandwich that I used to be able to buy for $2.00 when I went to school at the University of Washington in Seattle. (The Vietnamese baguette is made from a mixture of rice and wheat flours, which makes it lighter and not as chewy as the French version. But since I wasn't aiming for perfection, the French baguette worked fine. Plus I prefer my bread to be chewy.)

I now work on a college campus in Atlanta, and am married to a graduate student (ie: still poor), and you can’t get anything here for two bucks unless it's fast food, and there are definitely no banh mi. What good is working at a college, I ask, if it doesn’t provide you access to cheap, delicious sandwiches? What student can afford to pay $7.00 for a mediocre sandwich? People, this is what is wrong with the world today. Or, maybe not the world, just Atlanta.

Anyhow, I did my best to re-create a banh mi with the meager resources at hand, meaning leftovers in my fridge. I had sliced tempeh that I had baked in a mixture of water, salt and soy sauce. That went on after the chili-garlic/mayo mixture. Sliced cucumber, several sprigs of cilantro. I wanted some sliced jalapeno, but didn’t have one, and I wanted some sliced onion, but didn’t have time for that. I also wanted some pickled carrots and daikon radish, but didn’t have that either. So this was my sandwich, imperfect but respectable nonetheless. And it tasted really, really good. In fact, it was the best work lunch I’ve had in months. But I know it could be even better. So can someone please open a utilitarian Vietnamese restaurant with low overhead cost within walking distance of my office, and charge $2.00 per sandwich? Five dollar bowls of pho and complimentary cream puffs would also be appreciated.