Finding The Best Banh Mi In Vietnam.

This is Bunmi Bros. I got a bro over here. I also got a lovely lady over here. Women's Day is coming up so we're having a Pretty in Pink pop-up theme on October 17th. Pretty in Pink pop-up at CKSK. We think we have 8 seats still available. And this lovely lady will be there that day. Oh wait, it's Bunmi Bros. Let me change my glasses. Hold on. I'm ready. In this series, we try to find the best bunmi in Saigon, all at the same time showing Michael Crostrosa all the different bunmi varieties that are available. Today, we're going to try a new style I don't think he's had yet. It's a variation. You've had something similar, Bon An, but it's a little bit different. It's different than Bon An. You know I like that. Yes, yes. So we're going to go get Bunmi Chau, a new spot I've never tried before in D7. We're on a little business lunch right now. We're always planning out the next theme for the pop-ups at CKSK. So this is part of our daily routine now. It's pretty fun. Business, Bunmi, Bros, Breaks, Breakfast. You got any other Bs we can put on this? I just keep thinking about Flight of the Conchords. It's business time. Oh God. Okay, here it comes. This place is called Bunmi Chau Sumo, so that's a good sign. And we got Miss Nga back there. She's rolling. Don't go too fast for Miss Nga. Okay. You love being passenger princess. This never happens to me. I like the angle when we film. I think it's cool. I do like driving though, but when I'm not driving, I don't have to think about anything. I can just focus on filming. That part's cool because now we got a great shot. I got Nga in the background. I got me here. Good lighting. I like the shot. Boom. I love this shot too. Okay. She's here. Are you hungry? Yeah, I'm hungry. Yes. All right. We're going to turn right on street number 30, so we'll keep our eyes out. Trying to get an idea of how far I'm going. Yeah, I've definitely driven by this place before. Always love a good spot with good reviews. That's a good sign. We'll see. I like the name too. I love a good sumo. Do you find that the reviews, are they locals hyping it up or are they tourists? That's usually locals. I bet you this kind of spot's local. Oh, the 19,000. Oh, the 9,000 now. We love you cheap stores. Thank you for your very affordable, mediocre products. So today, banh mi chau. Chau means pan. So this is called pan bread. How are you feeling about a little pan bread in the afternoon? Sounds good to me. Sounds good. You love pans. Yeah. When it comes to pans, I'm more of a pot guy. Is that right? They all have their plans. And I think it's going to be on the left side. I think it's going to be right here. Keep going down on the corner. Oh, okay. There it is. This is banh mi chau sumo. This is it right here. And they have kombucha. So I don't know what that deal is, but I'll take it. I guess I'm getting a kombucha too. Oh yeah? Yeah, why not? I'll get a kombucha. I'm down with that. Do you know what kombucha is? Oh, kombucha. Yeah, no kombucha. Do you like it? Yes. You can have it. They have it here. Oh, look it. Right across the street, there's another banh mi chau. Ooh, a competitor. Oh, Mr. Ma. Oh, Mr. Fat. So they have banh mi chau, they have banh mi here, they have a meatball. We should just get banh mi chau. That's what they're named after. And I'm looking for a special banh mi chau. When we come to the spot, I just want to get what their specialty is. If they're named banh mi chau, let's eat banh mi chau here. There's another spot next to Lotte Mart that has a banh mi shumai jian. But I think they're closed. I don't think they're open yet. I think they're open only at nighttime. So we'll try another one. Oh, that's our kombucha. Oh, that's my new favorite restaurant. We're gonna do a video over there soon. I love that spot though. It's actually, she's the one that put you on that. Yes, this is Nga's recommended spot, the kombucha. That's like super viral right now. Everyone's posting about it. That is the new viral dish. New video. It'll come. We'll do that soon. But today, it is the pan bread. So what does that mean? Is this like a different style of bread? It is a cousin of balnea. Okay. A different variation of balnea that usually has less beef, more sausages and usually some sort of tomato gravy. There's usually a meatball. There's usually eggs. There's usually a pate, but not really like beef filet. And there's a gravy. There's a saucy element to it. And there's usually a laughing cow cheese too. I like all these things. Yeah, it's all good. Should be good. Meat is sitting next to you. What do you call this tree with the purple flower? Cả đám. Cảm ơn. Cái này hả? À đúng rõ, rõ lắm. Thôi bằng quán. Bằng quán. Nếu có kombucha không? Có. Vì gì? Quyết. You want that? Yeah. Trong Bali. Bali. You like that, probably. I like it. It's very pretty. I don't know if we have this in the US. And I notice it a lot. But I don't know if I've seen it this large. How about the big leaf one is there? Breadfruit? Breadfruit. It's like a Jamaican staple ingredient. They don't really eat it here very much. In Jamaica, they grow that and they eat that like rice. They're normal food, every day. And then so for here, they just kind of slice it and fry it, like vegetarian or on the street. Or making soup. Making soup? Oh, I never had the soup before. Yeah, making soup, what they cut for. For a can. Yeah, I'm curious, I want to eat them more. And in vegetarian, like they make it into chả giò. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've had that before. Look at that fuzzy dog out there. Hey, it looks like a little raccoon or something. Yeah, it looks like a cat dog. He's too far away from you guys to show you. Pampered and completely groomed as like somebody's or just like the dirtiest, like gutter dog. And still somebody's pet, but like it's crazy to me. Sometimes they're wild. When you go to like Dalat, they have a lot of wild dogs. It's a little sketchy, it's a little scary on the streets. Oh, as a cyclist and someone rides a bike, like wild dogs are a very big fear. And a pack of dogs, like I've never, I didn't really feel that until I was in Dalat. I was like, whoa, this is a little weird right now. Ah, come on. Yeah, so this is just salad with just a vinegar dressing, very light vinaigrette, which actually looks better than most. This looks way better than your average vinaigrette. And this is just like white vinegar, sugar. There's some onion on here, cucumber. It looks good. Yeah, usually it looks super crappy. I've learned from eating with you that there is always like a very better order to like put the food or layer it and make your bites, you know, like combine the food. Yeah, typically, because this is like light lettuce, they're using a different lettuce here too. A lot of times they use the thicker, more bitter stuff. This looks like an iceberg variation. So this I would just eat on the side as I'm going back and forth. But maybe the thicker stuff, I might put it in a sandwich bite. The stuff that's a little bit more bitter, a little thicker. When I get the bonnet spot by the house, you know, I'm making a sandwich with that and I'm stuffing it in there. I'm excited now, I'm hungry. But you've had, not this place, but you've had this as first. I've had this dish, yeah. Is there a spot that you like? For a banh mi chao? I've had better banh mi than I've had banh mi chao. But there's a banh mi chao called banh mi chao bere in district three, which means gay egg. And yeah, bere is like gay or flamboyant. And that place is good. I like that one. There's a really lovely lady there. But the last time I went, she wasn't there. I hope she's okay. Because she's quite a character and she definitely makes it better. Makes the experience better. And because she's so flamboyant, she's just colorful and she talks a lot. So I'm missing most of it, but I'm just getting good energy, you know? Just like, oh, I love this woman. Ooh. Look good, dude. Oh, that's a fish? Oh yeah, we got the mackerel on there. Pretty sick plate going on here. Mayonnaise, that's a lot of mayonnaise. Pork sausage, we got a hot dog. We got a meatball. We got some steak. Canned mackerel, paté, a lot of mayonnaise, and egg. Can I have some mayonnaise? Can we come? Yeah. Very crunchy. Very crunchy bread? Yeah. Ooh, let's toast it. So typically we give a rating on a spicy level to this. This is going to be a zero. You know, there's no heat. There's no spice. Yeah, so you can add chili sauce if you want, but it should, this thing never really comes spicy. So, oh, we've got the kombucha now too. Cool. Cheers. The kombucha is good. It covers all the flavors. She said it's a little bitter. Chut is like drying, right? Botanic. Yeah, it's good. It's not overly sweet. It's not overly sour. It's very balanced. Kombucha's good. Navajita, she's very proud. She makes everything fresh. Try to do it as it comes. Michael is a white boy stuffing his sandwich. I gotta make a little sandwich. I'm going to do the same thing, but I'm a white boy too, I guess. We'll watch the Viet and see what she does. Yeah, mistake number one, no touching the bread. So are you mixing and matching? Are you going solo in there? No, so I'm going with just the beef. And then I put a little bit of the meatball in there too. And then a little piece of pate, mayo, some of the egg. And then I like to just like, kind of soak the bread in that sauce. Pretty good. This is like a little hot dog. Yeah, that's a hot dog, yeah. Yeah, I thought you would dig this. It's cool with the steak in here. I haven't seen it with like big steak pieces. It's probably because they also serve the bonnet here. So they have the beef already in prep. I just love this because there's like a little bit of everything. My favorite thing is just building my own bite. Like making each bite a little different, adding different protein is really good. Yeah, and the mackerel gives you a little seafood element. And the mackerel, I like it more and more and more. Do you like the fish? Yeah. Yeah, with the sauce, it's good. This one's going to be interesting to rate just because of like, it's going to be similar in the Bun Mee Hop. It's bread, it has Bun Mee, but it's like, it's not a sandwich. I think every component here is pretty quality. Yeah. The meatball, is that pork? Yeah. I'm surprised I like the fish like more than I ever did. Sometimes I just didn't want any of the fishiness in there. I just wanted the straight meat, but this is not that strong. I think Nga is right though. The bread and the fish is like the move. And I like having the mayonnaise there. Just a little touch sometimes on certain bites. The egg is perfect. The egg is perfect? By the way, some people don't like bread here. Yeah. They want it to be cooked. She's selling grilled bananas wrapped in a citrus. Pretty cool. It's good. My mom loved your Banh Bo. Your mom loved it? It's not sweet like in the market. When he gets approval from Viet women on his dishes, it is the highest compliment. I believe it. I trust her. Yeah, I think their honesty and then also just like their expertise and the expectations they have are very balanced. So, and they have zero concern about telling you, I don't like this. So, when they say it's good, it's 100% real. I was thinking about this when she was talking about the egg. Do they have terms for like the different levels of egg here? Do they line up with like ours or is it just like an interpretation? Like sunny side up over medium? You mean, does it like relate to a sun? Is it a translation or is it just a different word completely? Different word. Yeah, like do you want it runny or not? Soft or not? They don't have as many for different, all the different egg styles that we have. It's either like fried or not fried or cooked hard or not cooked hard or mixed like an omelet. And like scrambled, they don't serve, but they'll sell it like an omelet. Take a little pate this time. Yeah, I was trying to look for bunmi, the bunmi shumai, but I think they were closed and then this one popped up. Okay. And I was pretty sure he hasn't had this style yet. He hasn't had bunmi jiao yet. So, I'll give him something new. That's good. Do you have a favorite protein on there? The fish is definitely up there. Yeah, I like it. I think the most interesting is the mini hot dog. Just one I haven't really seen like, or had, I should say. I've seen it, but you know, naturally I just like, love the seafood here in any capacity. It's hard to pick, but that's what I do like is like about this and bún mi is like, you're just getting like a little bit of everything and you can kind of make it your own. And I like that. I think it's because I was raised on Lunchables. Yeah, yeah. I hope somebody is doing a study about that. I'm like- Lunchables? The correlation between our generation, Lunchables and charcuterie, you know? That's an interesting thought. I realized that when we eat bunmi jiao, we use this type of bread. But when we eat bunmi, they use white bread. What do you mean white bread? It's more type of bread, white, not crunchy. I've had the same bread for bunmi. Oh, really? Yeah. I think you're talking about king bunmi. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, king bunmi around us. They use that white bread. I don't like it at all. I think king bunmi is good, but I hate the bread. I hate that too. I hate the bread. Another restaurant in District 3 also serve good. That kind of bread? I don't like it. I haven't had it like that. I've only had it at the spot with you and then I had it downtown when I had the ostrich. Kind of like a home-baked roll that's kind of white and not crispy. Is it like a roll roll? Yeah, it's like a roll. Like a dinner roll? Yeah, like not a good roll. No, this is the best. It's a good spot, though. Yeah, good spot. Good location, on the corner. The weather's nice right now. The seats are nice. I like that. The seats are good. Yeah, I don't mind being crouched down, but I prefer this height. Oh, yeah? You're a fancy man here? I'm not a fancy man. I'll sit on the stoop, but. Do you have a favorite protein here in Yan? Do you like it? The sausage. The sausage? The sausage is good. I agree. Someone heard about you mentioning you ate out of a trash can, and they were curious, is that just an expression, or is that a story to that? I mean, you know, I lived off of my bike for a long time, meaning I rode a bicycle all over the US, and there was just times and moments where I was in desperate situations. You mean you literally had all your stuff packed on a bicycle and rode across the country? Yeah, most of it, yeah. I just don't think people can understand that's what you meant. Yeah, I mean, I didn't go straight across. I definitely hopped trains and skipped the boring parts, but, and I'll tell you, it wasn't like I was eating half-eaten people's food. You know, I would go to supermarkets and dig through the discarded stuff that they couldn't sell anymore because of expiration date, and I was making myself meals. So, yeah, I've eaten out of trash cans. So, what was your favorite trash can meal? What day happened where you looked in the trash and you were just like, bam, bam, bam, score? Trying to remember what state it was in. I think I was in, I was either in California or Oregon. I mostly looked for produce because I could easily tell if that was safe or not, but while I was digging through a bunch of bananas and discarded oranges, I think they were. Got a pint of raspberries. Some ground sausage. Cooked? And I was like, it was the day, like the expiration date was the day before. I cut it open, I smelled it, and I was like, all right. And I didn't like plan on that being my meal. I was like, if I can cook this, this will be great for my protein. And I, I can't believe I'm putting this on camera. And I took it to my camp spot and I did make, you know, sausage and eggs. I did have some eggs. Wait, so did you build a fire and then cook your trash sausage on the fire? That's beautiful. What a wonderful moment. But yeah, I'm a little feral. I've traveled a lot on very little. I try to make the most of everything. Well, I hope that answers your question about his trash can experience. Yeah, have you ever eaten out of a trash can before? No, I haven't. No, okay. All right, well, that was a quick one. Chad, have I ever eaten out of a trash can before? I've definitely thrown a cake in the trash can so I wouldn't eat it and then picked it up and then ate it. That's happened? I was gonna say, there's no way. I know I probably had like a bag of Oreos that I crumbled up, then threw in the trash can and then like an hour later, took them out of that trash can and just had a couple. Beyond that, I don't think so. Not that I can remember. You know what, I do remember something at a fine, I mean, it's probably at Danielle where we had like really nice trims on a fancy product and I was like, I'm not throwing that away and I took that out. It was probably like short rib trim or foie gras or something, I remember doing that. So 60K for a plate, so this is about $2.30 a plate and it's about a dollar for a glass of kombucha. So Miss Nga Ooi, did you like this Banh Mi Chau? Yeah, I like it. You like it? It's the best from what I have tried so far. The best that you've had tried so far? Oh, that's great news. What do you think about the value at 60K? So this would be good for your opinion. Yeah, that's great. How about out of 10? Nine. You give it a nine, you're really happy with this. And Michael Croster Rosa, if you can remember, the other Banh Mis were around 30K. We had that beast of a Banh Mi, I think that was 30 or 35. So this is the most expensive thing we've had so far at 60. Yeah, I'm gonna say the value is going to be closer to like, I'm gonna give it a five and a half. Wow! It's a lot, it's a lot comparative. It's twice the price. You know, there's ones that we've had that were half the price and more food and that's the value for me. The quality is definitely high, but it's double the price. And like, I just can compare it to similar dishes like boneo that I've had and they're closer to like 45. Yeah, probably, yeah, 45, 50, yeah. It's expensive, so the value's not there for me in the realm of Banh Mi, but as far as like, the quality goes, I will say that that is. For the price point, you're not getting steak on the other ones. Getting nuggets of beef here is a big deal. The sausage and the fish and everything. So I think the value for me is probably seven and a half, eight. I think it's pretty good value for what it is. And I think it's quality. I think this is probably the best component by component quality that I've had for this dish, Banh Mi Chau. Yeah, and then how about overall flavor? What do you like to give that? Overall flavor, ooh, this is gonna be tough. I'm gonna say seven, seven, eight. Seven, eight, Miss Nga. What do you think about the quality of this Banh Mi? What, one to 10, overall, how much do you like it? Overall, I think it could be eight for a luxury breakfast. Yeah, not a normal breakfast. Would you come back here? Yeah, with family. With family. Would you come back here? Yeah, yeah. I think it's a really good Banh Mi Chau. I think it's an eight, two. So we're not far off. Yeah, no, it's good. It's a good one, it's a really good one. I'd definitely come back here. Banh Mi Chau is not my favorite Banh Mi variety. I prefer Banh Mi over Banh Mi Chau, but in terms of Banh Mi Chau, this is a really good one. And the kombucha's really good, too. I like that a lot. I like the vibes of the place. The people are nice. This is a nice little touch. I would fully come back here, 100%. The kids will like it. So Miss Nga's gonna recommend the next Banh Mi spot. Where'd you tell us to go? Banh Mi Chim Chai. Banh Mi Chim Chai is a place I've been hearing about so much, and people in the comment section have been saying it, so we'll go there next. Banh Mi Chim Chai is running bird Banh Mi, running bird Banh Mi. Like a road runner. Yeah, it is, and I think there's a road runner as their image, as their logo. I believe Banh Mi Chim Chai has three or four locations, and I've definitely heard a lot about it, so I'm excited to try it. Next pop-up will be inspired by Women's Day, so it's gonna be pretty and pink. We will have two very, very special women on that episode. We do still have, I think, five or six seats left on that dinner. You can join us. If you wanna get a reservation, email us at cksk at chadkubinoff.com. I'll also put a phone number down below that you can call. After Women's Day, we have 90's and meow, so drinking food dedicated to the best music of the 90's. Trick or treat for the Halloween theme. Then we have a special night with Chef Rang. You can find all the details on chadkubinoff.com of all the upcoming themes and all the upcoming pop-ups. It's going to be awesome. I hope you enjoyed this video. Give us a like, subscribe to the channel. If you wanna go on a food tour with me or join one of the pop-ups, check out chadkubinoff.com. Until next time. See you later, peace.