Bánh Tiêu Kẹp Xôi
Chef Nhu Ton combines her favorite childhood snacks into one stellar sandwich at Bánh Vietnamese Shop House
photos: Raeann serra
“Food to me is very emotional. It makes me feel closer to home,” says Nhu Ton, the chef and owner of Bánh in Morningside Heights.
She has memories of her mom feeding her sticky rice, or picking up a Vietnamese doughnut, Bánh Tiêu, as a snack. “Doughnuts in America are generally sweet,” she says. “In Vietnam, they aren’t exactly dessert. We eat them as grab-and-go street food.” Ton transforms these memories into a no-holds-barred sandwich that is equal parts crispy and rich. The choice to incorporate her childhood favorites was a no-brainer to Ton. “The inspiration is from all the snack foods I ate growing up as a kid in Vietnam. It’s fun to eat, and looks simple, but it’s a bit complicated to make.” Chock-full of flavors, fats, and proteins, Ton’s Bánh Tiêu Kẹp Xôi stands out as a sandwich that balances decadence with texture, fattiness, and chewiness.
Doughnut (Bánh Tiêu)
Any great sandwich needs a solid foundation. The Bánh Tiêu is tasked with being the cornerstone, supporting the variety of flavors and textures—and this doughnut is more than up to it. The key: “high-quality wheat and bread flours, dry yeast, and letting it sit for about three hours before shaping,” says Ton. “Once you portion the dough and shape it, you flatten it, but if it’s too flat, it won’t stretch. Let it sit for 30 minutes, then fry it.” Sprinkled with sesame seeds, the doughnut shatters when you bite into it, but gives way to an almost QQ-like consistency on the interior, providing a canvas for Ton to display the fillings of her sandwich.
Pork Floss (Chà Bông Heo)
For the starring role in her sandwich, Ton trims and cubes pork butt, and boils it with salt and ginger until tender. She whips it into shreds in a stand mixer, then seasons the pork with fish sauce, chicken powder, garlic powder, and sugar. After a trip in a pan to dry it out, the pork takes another spin in the mixer, and is whipped until fluffy. The meat is then dried completely, yielding a powerfully savory, pork floss that is light as air and ties all of the various textures in the sandwich together.
Turmeric Sticky Rice
For a hint of aromatics and to bolster the chewy texture of the doughnut, the turmeric sticky rice also visually adds a pop of yellow. After soaking in warm water for about four hours, the rice gets doused in turmeric powder and, when it’s almost done, is seasoned with a bit of shallot oil and salt to round out the flavors.
Chef Nhu Ton
Bánh Tiêu Kẹp Xôi
Pâte
Every sandwich needs its sauce, and Ton whips up a loose pâte for hers. Aiming for a French-Vietnamese style pâte, she combines pork and chicken liver with rum, breadcrumbs, five spice, and fish sauce, and emulsifies it into a flavorful mousse. It’s rich, pink, and brings a juicy pop of meaty flavor.
Pork Sausage (Lạp Xưởng)
For an additional savory pork bite, Ton makes a Vietnamese sausage. Seasoned with peppercorns, curing salt, sugar, honey, Maggi seasoning, and Chinese rose wine, the sausage is stuffed into natural casings and dried out in the oven. On pickup, thin slivers of the Lạp Xưởng are crisped in the pan, almost mimicking the texture of the Bánh Tiêu, while bringing a more funky cured pork flavor.
Quail Egg
Ton adds a few hard boiled quail eggs, which brings a clean, bouncy texture, with a slight punch of richness from the yolk, to the sandwich.
Fried Pork Fat
“There’s a thin layer of fat between the skin and the pork belly. To me, that’s the most flavorful part,” says Ton. To get to this layer, Ton removes the skin from the belly, and carefully extracts the fat, which she then cuts into tiny squares and cooks to golden brown—a crispy, rich texture to round out the porky bites.
