Banh Mi & Other Musings

A stay at home dad, a toddler, and the hunt for the perfect sandwich

    I am a stay at home dad. If you are reading this, and you are also a stay at home parent, then you absolutely know that you must go outside. You must leave the house, or you will go insane. 

    It will be a sudden onset of insanity, like flicking a light switch. There are no signs until you have arrived at the breaking point. You will one day undoubtedly be gazing at your shoes and mumbling a song from Frozen, repeatedly. That is the moment you've lost your mind. 

    So if I'm going to go outside with my daughter, lovingly nicknamed “Chamaca”, I'm going to make an adventure out of it. We are going to discover and eat food together. We will travel up and down these hills in search of the next meal. Just a man trying to retain his sanity while attempting to be a good dad, and his feisty 16-month-old daughter. 

    For this adventure, I wanted to witness her first taste of the infamous Banh Mi sandwich. Any parent who's tried to leave the house knows you must load snacks into your stroller to avoid a hungry baby meltdown. We then set off into the streets of San Francisco in search of the perfect Banh Mi. 

    The first place we hit was Banhwich on Taraval and 21st in the Sunset District.

This is the kind of place that millennial Yelpers and food bloggers love. A mom-and-pop spot, the food is prepared with a lot of love and joy for their menu. Just an honest Banh Mi for under $10. Yes, under $10. The old man at the counter taking orders and making sandwiches reminded me of somebody's uncle, always smiling and in a good mood, glad to be where he is. The sandwich was nicely toasted and loaded with a decent amount of carrots, cilantro, pate, cold cuts and pork. After my first bite, I wondered, what does this man do to these pickled carrots and daikon? Closer examination revealed that these carrots are not the same kind of shredded garbage you get in the supermarket, or shredded on a box grater. Carrots are uniformly cut and soft to the bite but still have crunch, lightly tossed in seasoned rice vinegar and some other ingredient I barely have a hint of but I know was there. I asked the old man for a further analysis and he just chuckled, smiled, and shrugged. This is why I like him. Chamaca liked the bread and pork, and she gave me a real fierce smile when I gave her the pickled carrots. In fact, she ate almost all of the pickled carrots. 

 We eat here often. 

Seating is limited and there are no high chairs. I recommend getting food to go and eating at McCoppin Park on 22nd and Taraval. 

Banhwich 

1105 Taraval St, San Francisco, CA 94116

    A couple days later Chamaca and I were east of 19th street on Taraval to find a very specific breakfast item. I'm from Los Angeles, and a staple for me growing up was a croissant stuffed with ham, cheese, and jalapeño if you're lucky.  I'm not talking about a fancy croissant here. I'm talking about the type of croissant you eat when you're hungover and sitting in your car at 7am trying to muster the strength to show up to work like a normal human who doesn't stay up until 3am doing tequila shots at a backyard punk show. The combination of crispy pastry, salty ham, molten American cheese and spicy jalapeño will stroke your coals and make you breath fire like some ancient beast ready to take flight.

    We walked into California Bakery and the croissants looked reminiscent of my youth: promising and shiny. As I examined their menu I realized they also served Banh Mi for less than $10. I said what the hell and got one of those too. Stroller loaded with Banh Mi and baked goods, we decided to leave and eat on the move. Chamaca’s nap time was fast approaching and if she doesn't sleep she becomes a Gremlin. 

    This Banh Mi bread had a good crunch and the same meats as the last place we ate, I wasn't feeling the spark at first. But the pate in this sandwich is the real star. It's full of so much flavor and I just can't get enough of it. Chamaca only wanted to eat the bread with pate on it. She enjoyed it so much I had to repeatedly stop to refill her snack tray with hunks of bread and pate or face the wrath of a tired, hungry, vocal toddler. 

    The people who work here are so nice and genuine, they make me want to be a better person in my own life.  They love seeing Chamaca and give her a donut hole whenever we visit. I've seen other parents in here with children as well. Seems like a nice place to hang out in if you need to make a pitstop. 

California Bakery 

719 Taraval St, San Francisco, CA 94116

    The last Banh Mi I found on a whim. I was checking out this place called Lakeside Landing down on Junipero Serra Blvd. and Ocean Ave. It's a small nautical themed playground with ample seating and umbrellas for those days when it's sunny. I was watching Chamaca run around and explore when I realized we had already burned through all of our stroller snacks and lunch time was fast approaching. I took a mental note that I needed to elevate my stroller snacking game if I wanted to survive out here longer with this toddler. I checked google maps on my phone and started looking for places to eat, then I realized there was a sandwich place not less than a hundred feet from us. I started swiveling my head in all directions trying to see a sign or something for this place called Dinosaurs Sandwiches. The only thing that gave away their location was a group of 10 people standing around on the sidewalk waiting for their food orders. If you blink you'll miss it, this place is located in a small attached building next to a Pilates studio. Dinosaurs Sandwiches does to go only and they offer a pretty large menu for the amount of square footage they have to work out of. I ordered “The Special”, which consists of the standard pickled carrots,  diakon, cucumber, jalapeno, pork pate, fancy pork loaf and roasted pork. This is a really, really good sandwich. But the price point is a little high for me coming in at $15. I will honestly say, you can taste it in the quality of the roasted pork. Chamaca enjoyed all parts of this sandwich except for the fancy pork loaf, which I feel may have had too much flavor for her baby palate. 

Dinosaurs Sandwiches 

2522 Ocean Ave, San Francisco, CA 94132

    These are just a small sampling of what is out there. I tried a few other places as well, but these are the ones that stood out the most for me. So who makes the perfect Banh Mi in San Francisco? I'll have to be honest with you. 

It doesn't matter.

I say it doesn't matter because perfection is not what our souls need right now. 

My life before becoming a parent was spent in restaurant kitchens striving for perfection. Now that my wife and Chamaca are here, I don't want perfect food. I want unpretentious food that I can share with my family and feel good about it. I want food that nourishes our minds and bodies. I want food that makes us smile and creates memories. 

    While I was writing this article my father was in the hospital and we weren't sure if he was going to pull through. It was a scary couple of days.  Thankfully he woke up and is alive. But I have to tell you about the time he took me to Eastside Italian Deli in Downtown Los Angeles when I was about 11 years old. He ordered me a meatball sandwich and a Coke.  We sat together in his old work truck and unwrapped our sandwiches. I bit into mine and a meatball came flying out and rolled onto my Levi jeans. My dad chuckled and handed me some extra napkins. I continued eating as we sat in that old truck with the windows down, springtime breeze blowing in. It tasted like a meatball sandwich someone's grandma would have made. I felt like whoever made that sandwich loved me. I felt like my dad loved me for bringing me here and sharing this with me. 

    I've eaten many meatball sandwiches, but they will never taste like that moment we shared together. It was the most imperfect meatball sandwich, and that's what made that moment so perfect for me. I hope to create those kinds of moments with Chamaca and feel love through food again.