Vietnamese Caramel Braised Pork Banh Mi – Nail Shop Eats #4
This Vietnamese pork banh mi recipe and story was originally published in 2010. It was re-shared in 2021 with new photos and a Vietnamese caramel pork video. My mother has retired from her the nail shop and is now cooking full time to her hearts desire.
Mom’s Food Story
I’m not a comedian, nor was I trying to be one when I spoke frankly about my mother’s Nail shop cooking escapades. Like I’ve always said, my mother is a culinary magician. She’s an obsessed woman who lives to feed her family of 6 kids and our extended family of neighborhood friends. She’s been known to get even more carried away with her cooking. Mom loves to feed her nail shop clients homemade noodles and fish sauce while they’re getting their pedicures.
My mother’s nail shop has launched her notoriety as the local nail salon that leaves you twinkling with pretty red nails while sometimes smelling fish sauce. Or in our case, smelling so umami-delicious!
Her salon is a combination Viet food joint slash Tuesday-after-5pm-pedicure-special nail salon. And it tickles me #32 bottle-pink to see the buzzing jive of food and eyebrow waxes that are happening.
The leaning tower of Vietnamese pork banh mi: not for the light hearted
Video: Vietnamese Caramel Pork Banh Mi
I make an effort to be a good daughter and relieve her for a few hours from the bonds of the nail salon so that she can visit her vendors and suppliers. I enjoy the time that I’m in the salon because I get to visit all the ladies that work there and participate in their daily chat, gossip and most importantly, food talk. When you get 12 Vietnamese women talking passionately about food, recipes and family food stories, it’s a Ph.D lesson in Vietnamese culture and cuisine. Everytime I walk out of there, I feel so much smarter and unfortunately, 10 pounds heavier from all the food talk.
Mom’s Braised Pork Belly
On one lucky occasion, my mother had a huge tupperware of her beloved braised pork belly waiting at the salon. Before I arrived, she rang me on my phone and screamed (she always thinks we’re deaf on the other side of the cell phone) “Con ghé vaò tiệm bánh mì mua cho mẹ 8 ổ bánh mì baguette!!!” When Mother calls me to pick up 8 loaves of fresh, crusty vietnamese baguettes, I know of only one salivating vision—Mom’s braised pork belly banh mi sandwiches.
I hooked a quick u-turn and headed to one of our local Vietnamese bakeries for the 8 loaves of baguettes that she requested. It must still be warm and super fresh, pretty please.
When I arrived at the salon, it was like a scene from the “stone soup” story. Mom brought the braised pork belly, Chi Yen had a bag of fresh cilantro, Vicky (real name is Phuong) donated the tub of pate and the others completed the community meal with their donations of pickled carrots/daikon, fresh chiles and soy sauce. My arrival of the baguettes was met with roaring applause and the always anti-climatic critique, “What took you so long? We’re hungry!”
Vietnamese Pork Banh Mi Recipe
I dived head first in to the best banh mi of the day. Juicy, fatty, melt-in-your-mouth pork belly sandwiched between cool and tangy banh mi pickles is just pure Viet food genius. Add a light and crusty Vietnamese baguette to hold all the flavors and textures in. What you have is one of the best friggin’ sandwiches on the face of the earth. That’s right, Vietnamese banh mi is one of the worlds best sandwiches. Anyone who wants to argue with me will have my mother and her staff to contend with!
So there you have it. A Vietnamese braised pork belly banh mi that will leave you overwhelmed, satisfied and in awe on the power of a good mom-wich. Also, don’t forget drizzle some of the braised sauce/liquid in the sandwich. That makes it super amazing.
Thank you Mom,
diane
- Homemade carrot/daikon pickles, fish sauce dip and more of our Vietnamese Recipes here.
Photo Tips: How To Make Vietnamese Caramel Pork Banh Mi
Above: Cut the pork into bite sized pieces and marinade with spices in a bowl.
Heat sugar and water until it slowly melts and caramelizes. Don’t walk away from the caramel. It might burn if left unattended.
Add marinated pork to the caramel sauce and stir. Add water or coconut water (not coconut milk) and fish sauce.
Skim excess and simmer on low heat for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, OR until pork cooks tender. Cooking time will depend on the size of your pork cuts. The sauce is amazing on rice! As kids we loved the extra sauce/liquid on our rice. Mom would always make her batch extra saucy so we can have extra for our rice.
How to Make Vietnamese Caramel Pork Banh mi
Assemble your banh mi with your favorite condiments and enjoy! Drizzle some of the sauce over the meat in the sandwich. All recipe details are below in the recipe box.
Vietnamese Braised Caramel Pork Belly Banh Mi Sandwich
Ingredients
Pork Ingredients
- 2 pounds (907 g) pork shoulder and/or pork belly (cut into 1-inch cubes)
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) oil
- 3 large shallots (or 1 small onion), minced (about 3-4 tablespoons)
- 3-4 cloves garlic , minced or crushed
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) black pepper (preferably fresh ground)
- 1.5 cups (360 ml) water or Coconut water (not coconut milk or coconut juice)
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) fish sauce
Caramel Ingredients
- 1/3 cup (67 g) sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) water
Banh Mi Assembly (not all required, choose your preferences):
- 1 french baguette
- pickled carrots and daikon
- fresh cilantro
- soy sauce
- pork liver pate
- mayonnaise
- thin slices of chili pepper
- thin slices of cucumber
Instructions
Marinate the Pork:
- In bowl combine pork, oil, onion/shallots, garlic, salt and black pepper. Stir to combine, set aside.
Make the Caramel Pork:
- Make Caramel: Combine the sugar and 2 Tablespoons water to sauce pan large enough to later fit the pork. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. After several minutes of boiling, the mixture will begin to turn to a golden brown. Using silicone spatula (less sticking), stir the mixture slowly as the caramel browns. Do not leave the caramel sauce unattended!
- Once the sugar begins to caramelize, it will turn color very quickly. The caramel should have have consistency and color like light maple syrup.
- Add Pork: As soon as the mixture turns to a medium golden brown, add the marinated pork. Slowly & carefully stir the mixture to completely coat the pork with the caramel sauce. Make sure to scrape the sides of the pan to incorporate all the caramel.
- Continue browning the pork on medium/high heat for about 5 minutes. Add the 1.5 cups of water or coconut water and the fish sauce then bring to a low boil.
- Reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer and continue braising on low heat for about another 45 minutes to 1 hour, OR until pork is tender. Skim excess fat/bubbles that floats to the top. Make sure to stir occasionally while cooking. After 45 minutes, taste the pork. If it’s to your desired texture, remove from heat.
For the Banh Mi assembly:
- Slice baguettes lengthwise. Spread some some mayo, pate, and/or soy sauce if using on the interior of the baguette.
- Add some pork on the bread. Drizzle some of the yummy caramel sauce over the pork. Add the rest of the ingredients that you want (or like) to the banh mi. Enjoy!
This recipe looks great!! Two questions, how many folks does this recipe feed? and What cut of meat would you suggest for those of us who can not get pork belly?
Hi Jess,
Thanks so much. It is delicious! For an average sandwich, it makes about 4 sandwiches, although we will frequently cut them down smaller to serve as appetizer bites for gatherings (kind of like what is in the first picture.)
In regards to the cut of pork, if you can’t get pork belly (try really hard because it is the best option), our next choice would be pork shoulder (also known as pork butt or Boston butt)
Hope that helps.
T & D
I would like to know if there is anything you can use instead of Pate. I love food, but I cant get past pate, I hate it passionately.
thanks
Dear Diane, sound like you know so much abt Vietnamese food. I love food but just enjoying is my strong points, i don’t care much abt other things. My mouth is watering after reading yr post. Banh mi is cheap, but good.
Mmmm, looks delish! Your mom sounds sweet :)! For the sugar, is it palm sugar, demarara/raw sugar, or just regular white refined? Yummy, yummy! Your photos are stunning, by the way. I love the color! What kind of camera did you use?
downtown foodie- hello. for these shots, we used a Nikon D300 and a 50mm lens.
Wow. This makes me want to get my first mani-pedi! Too bad I don’t get down to LA very much or I’d ask for the address of the salon!!
Oh. My. Gawd. Pork belly banh mi AND a pedicure, my idea of heaven. Where exactly is your’s mom’s nail shop again? Would love to go next time I’m in LA, promise I’ll be discreet and try not to gush too much ;-). By the way, I love my banh mi with mayonnaise and Maggi sauce as well as chili sauce. that’s how I first had them in Paris, so I guess that’s my gold standard. Oh and the Bun Bo Hue looked amazing as well, one of my other faves. Sadly if I want to get anything this good here I’d have to make it myself. Vietnamese food in Singapore is sadly lacking. Maybe you could ship your mom out this way for a few weeks?
I love banh mi and this looks outrageously good! I’m hoping to travel to Vietnam this year and I have to say one of the things I look most forward to is the food.
I’ve been following your blog for quite some time and I finally started my own. I hope you don’t mind that I linked your site as one of my favorites.
Thanks,
J
I want to go to your mom’s nail shop to get my nails done AND more importantly to get me some banh mi! Or whatever it is that she is cooking. My mouth is watering, and I am so homesick now for some good ol’ Viet food! Great post.
let’s skip the sandwich and just have a bowl of the pork, maybe over rice
Looks delicious.
I *love* banh mi & eat them once a week. I work all day on Saturdays and banh mi is my after-work treat. After eating my lovely sandwich, all is right with the world.
I read the other Nail Shop Eats stories,too. They’re adorable!
Diane,
This is hilarious! It reminds me of my work place. Our favorite meal is fried rice.
We have a rice cooker and electric wok that is stored permanently in the lunch room. We ASIANS make a big pot of rice one day and the next, everybody pitches in to make fried rice. Eggs, vegetables, BBQ pork, anything goes. The wok is electric so it does not get steaming hot but good enough for a freshly-cooked meal. One especially inspiring day, we brought a deep-fryer and fried homemade frozen egg rolls.
It never ceases to amaze the non-Asians ๐
(Mind you, my work place is a full-blown corporate office with 200 employees, not a small family business)
By the way, I am not a sandwich person but I love banh mi. The herbs and veggies are great.
Charlotte- haha! your story is hilarious too and another great example of the lengths that our people will go through to cook food. ๐
That is some sandwich!
Love the story!
LL
I’m Vietnamese and I have never had banh mi thi kho either. It looks delicious so I’ll have to try it now. BTW, I love your nail shop stories. They are so funny!
Mai- my mom is famous for putting everything into a banh mi. Hope you get to try it one day, it’s delicious!
Diane – I love your site! Thank you for sharing with all of us! This story is absolutely classic. I’ve been learning Vietnamese for about 2 years now. The food is fantastic and so I always look forward to your Viet posts. Cแบฃm ฦกn rแบฅt nhiแปu! ๐
Yumi- wow! you write great Vietnamese! I’m thrilled to know that you’re taking classes.
What a splendid website! Thank you for sharing such wonderful delights with us!
Banh mi – one of my all-time favorite foods. When I was in my second year of law school and pregnant with our first child, I became seriously hooked on these sandwiches. There was a little hole in the wall place a few blocks from our flat in San Francisco that served the best Viet food. I’d stop there on my way to class at least three times a week, big belly and all, for a banh mi and a plastic cup of coconut banana tapioca to go. God help them if they were out of either! Trust me, you don’t want to come between a pregnant woman and her banh mi.