The crack that sounds when my table companion puts the knife in our banh mi is perfect. Banh mi, a filled sandwich, is a remnant from the French colonial period in Vietnam. The French introduced baguettes with butter, cheese and meats.
Once the French left, the Vietnamese were free to make the rolls as they pleased. It was reportedly Mr. and Mrs. Le who were the first in Saigon, modern-day Ho Chi Minh City, to make and sell the banh mi sandwich as everyone knows it today: filled with vegetables and local ingredients. Packed on the spot and ready to be consumed. The expensive French sandwich, a symbol of European imperialism, became popular street food. The Le couple’s family business still exists.
So you could call banh mi a liberation sandwich in a sense. It is one of the dishes that we serve in Ninh Binh in Hilversum. Ninh Bin is named after the Vietnamese city where owner and chef Phuong Tran was born. When I asked my table companion if she was going to Ninh Binh, she said she had been there recently. I thought she meant the restaurant and asked if it was anything, she meant the city that is called the ‘Ha Long Bay of the country’ because of the beautiful mountains and rice fields.
We order a variety of dishes to share for lunch and our host is clearly impressed. And to be honest, so do we when the plates arrive: the portions are so generous that he is forced to add another table.
But fortunately the dishes are light, including the richly filled banh mi, which is a small miracle of taste: a convincing combination of savory, salty and spicy, with here and there the slight sharpness of the red onion and somewhere in the back of the mouth a piece of red pepper. The menu has different variants, we have the vegetarian sandwich with fried egg, avocado, raw and crispy fried onion and herbs. A particularly tasty start that stimulates the appetite and makes you curious about the rest.
Crispy accent
Also successful are the steamed dumplings filled with shrimp, pickled raw vegetables and soy sauce. You don’t think about it, but when you take a bite of a dumpling, you take a bite of an extraordinarily long history; They originate from China and date back to the Han dynasty (over two thousand years ago). The oldest mention of steamed dumplings can be found in Chinese literature, but in other parts of the world, for example Africa, they also know the principle of steamed or boiled dough.
Also on the table: pleasantly firm fish cakes with chili sauce, spring onion, peanut and deliciously sticky sweet and sour sauce. All dishes are characterized by a nice balance between different structures. There’s a crispy accent everywhere. Although you can’t really call the filling of the Vietnamese rice flour pancake an accent: a large pile of crispy bean sprouts, some tofu with little flavor and mushrooms. The pancake has a slightly sweet undertone from the coconut milk and can be expanded with the garnish of fresh mint and lettuce leaves and soy vinaigrette. That sauce is also necessary to enhance the somewhat subdued taste of the whole.
We also share a bao bun, a steamed bun, filled with well-breaded and fried shrimp, carrot, coleslaw and Sriracha. Dough is so versatile. You can fry it on fire, boil it in water, steam it; each method gives it a completely different character, fantastic.
Eggplants ‘from our mother’ are grilled and garnished with spring onions and vegan bacon. My table companion doesn’t like the vegan bacon, I find it interesting, it has a bit of smokiness and the structure is a bit chewy. The aubergines are well grilled and their flesh is tender and juicy, there is a hint of sweetness through the sauce, but although all the ingredients individually have a distinct flavor, the combination lacks depth and the result is ultimately remarkably pale.
The dessert menu includes the classic sticky toffee. The cake can be dry or wet, I like it nice and wet and sticky. This cake is a bit drier, but the dulce de leche-like caramel sauce on top compensates for that sufficiently. The good thing about this cake is that you can also taste the dates. My table companion’s mochi, filled with peanut and different colors of sesame seeds, also turned out well.
“You are go-getters,” we hear when we order dessert. And when we ask for the bill, we sound concerned: “Have you eaten enough?” Bonus points for the nice service. We actually miss that too much in the Netherlands, nice service that makes relaxed jokes with the guests.
Ninh Binh is a friendly restaurant where you can escape the depressing outside world on a gloomy day. The prices are reasonable, the atmosphere open and the dishes tasty. A small downside is that everything comes at the same time, a little more spread does justice to the dishes. In the evening there is another, more extensive menu and this first experience certainly makes you curious about it.