The Street Food of Hoi An - Banh Mi Op La

Name:  Banh Mi Op La

Time of Day:  Breakfast only

Location: The south end of Thai Cao Van

Cost: 15,000 dong (c. 50p)

The Rest:  Early one morning I noticed a stall rammed full of locals.  I went over to take a closer look and saw everyone eating what looked like mini fry ups out of metal trays.  The owner shouted 'omelette' at me, beckoning me to join the throng of before school and work locals.  Whilst it definitely wasn't an omelette my interest was beyond piqued and I pulled up a stool.

As you can see what I was served was a quite underdone fried egg in its own frying recepticle (a quartet of which I've now acquired to repeat the dish in England) complete with luncheon meat and a couple of pieces of beef.  The dish is finished with a ladle of pork stock which carries on the cooking of the egg and mingles with the yolk when you start mopping away with provided baguette.

It's as good as it sounds, in fact scrap that - it's far better.  Rich yolk mixes with stock which then soaks into crisp baguette which I chose to top with little squares of egg white and meat.  I'm not sure of the honours system in Vietnam but Banh Mi Op La Inventor should be Sir Banh Mi Op La Inventor.

Comments

[Su-Lin]

Now that's a banh I've not come across - fascinating and my mouth was watering as I read your description!