A few weeks ago, I had a major craving for pulled pork after seeing this pulled pork sandwich from Simply Recipes. I love any big hunk of meat that is slow-cooked or braised. But after looking at the ingredients in the recipe, I was hesitant to make it because it seemed too vinegary.

I have a low tart tolerance and generally dislike anything with a lot of vinegar. And I have major issues with BBQ sauce, Tabasco and other vinegar sauces that dare call themselves hot sauces, but that's a sore subject for another time. When I have barbecued meat, I make sure the BBQ sauce is on the side. I want to taste the meat first and the sauce second!

Instead of making pulled pork with a traditional vinegar or tomato based sauce, I decided to create a Vietnamese pulled pork with my favorite Vietnamese ingredients. I used the flavors from my mom's braised chicken in caramel sauce with lemongrass and chili peppers (ga kho xa ot) as the inspiration for my pulled pork. My mom's ga kho xa ot is my favorite Vietnamese dish and it's the first thing I eat when I visit my parents.

Our favorite bánh mì (Vietnamese baguette sandwich) in San Francisco can be found at Picnix Bistro & Carry Out, which is located in the Presidio Heights district. When someone told us that there was good bánh mì at Picnix, I didn't believe it because of the neighborhood it was in. The first time Hungry Bear and I drove by the cafe it was closed, and it didn't look like a bánh mì shop to us. The second time we stopped by, my doubts of finding good bánh mì was put at ease, because the shop owners are a Vietnamese couple.

It turns out that Picnix is small cafe with an eclectic menu offering several Vietnamese items and other international lunch fare. It's located behind California Pacific Medical Center and caters to the medical personnel at the hospital, which means lunch time is very busy.

Picnix offers two kinds of bánh mì, Vietnamese style grilled chicken and grilled lemongrass tofu. In addition to the protein, both sandwiches are filled with carrots, pickled daikon, cucumbers and cilantro. The quality of the ingredients is by far the best we've had from any bánh mì shop in San Francisco. Between the vegetables, chicken and tofu, the ingredients are fresh and well prepared.

Although both sandwiches are very good, we have to give the nod to the grilled lemongrass tofu as the better bánh mì. The tofu sandwich is a little more flavorful and we love the lemongrass in it. The chicken tastes more like good roast chicken than Vietnamese grilled chicken. The only thing missing in either sandwich is a little pâté and jalapeno. I'll have to ask if they are options the next time we visit.

My only issue with the sandwiches is the baguette. It's a good baguette but it's a little too crusty for use with bánh mì. I would like the bread to be a little more airy and softer. Despite this issue, we think it's the best bánh mì in San Francisco. Compared to other bánh mì shops, the sandwiches are more expensive at $5.75 each, but the ingredients are superior and worth the extra cost.

If you find yourself in the Presidio Heights neighborhood and have a craving for a Vietnamese baguette sandwich, definitely check out Picnix. We've also heard good things about the other items on their menu. I guess we'll have to try something else, in addition to the bánh mì the next time we go.

Location & Hours:
Picnix Bistro & Carry Out
3872 Sacramento Street (between Maple and Cherry)
San Francisco, CA 94118
Monday - Friday: 8:00 am - 7:00 pm
Saturday: 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
(415) 751-2255
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Vietnamese banh cuon are soft rice-flour crepes typically filled with pork and mushrooms. The crepes are traditionally served for breakfast/brunch but we enjoy it any time we can. Hungry Bear and I made banh cuon this past Lunar New Year, and they were a big hit with our friends. If you skip the cha lua (Vietnamese ham) and put a lot of herbs and vegetables on banh cuon, it can be a light and refreshing dish.

Several Sundays ago, Hungry Bear and I hosted Sunday Nite Dinner (SND) and decided banh cuon would be the main attraction. We had nine people coming to SND, so we decided to make two other Vietnamese dishes for dinner. Otherwise, we would have been rolling banh cuon all day. The menu was...

Goi Bap Cai Ga (Spicy Cabbage and Chicken Salad)
Cabbage, red onion, carrots, Thai chilies and chicken with a lemon vinaigrette

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Banh Cuon (Rice Crepe Rolls)
Pork or Shrimp, garlic, wood ear mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms
with fresh greens, mint, basil and nuoc cham (dipping sauce)

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Canh Chua Ca (Sour Fish Soup)
Tamarind, pineapple, tomatoes, taro stem, bean sprouts
and sea bass with jasmine rice

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Apple-Strawberry Crisp a La Mode
Granny Smith and McIntosh apples with organic strawberries

The first course was goi ga, a light and simple cabbage and chicken salad. Most Vietnamese restaurants serve goi ga but the ingredients aren't the freshest and it's usually drowned in fish sauce. Since it's such a simple salad, fresh ingredients and a light vinaigrette are essential. Most importantly, a must have ingredient is rau ram (Vietnamese mint), which can be found at a good Asian grocery store. Instead of boiling a chicken ourselves, we took a short cut and bought a roast chicken (thanks Brennan and Deb!) from the market to save prep time.

The second dish, and star of the evening, was the banh cuon. The filling is extremely easy to make since it's just stir fried pork, garlic, onions and mushrooms with a little fish sauce. The hard part to banh cuon is making the rice crepe. You can buy steamed sheets of banh cuon at Vietnamese stores but they tend to be on the greasy side for me. Instead, we make our own rice-flour crepes using a packaged banh cuon mix that requires just water and a good non-stick skillet. Once you master making the crepes, it's easy but time consuming to produce banh cuon. We ended up making thirty nine crepes at two minutes per crepe.

The third course was canh chua ca, which is a very traditional Vietnamese soup. The picture in the site header above is a bowl of canh chua ca that Hungry Bear and I had in Geneva, Switzerland. The tamarind and pineapple provide a sweet and sour flavor and the bac ha (taro stem) and bean sprouts add a crunchy texture. Most canh chua ca recipes call for catfish but I'm not a big fan of it. Any flaky white fish will do, but my parents recommend grouper, and we chose sea bass because it was on sale.

Dessert was clearly not Vietnamese. We wanted to make a relatively light dessert with fruit, and we had recently purchased organic strawberries. So we took an apple-raspberry crisp recipe and substituted strawberries for the raspberries. My oven temp seems to be out of whack because the crisp baked much faster than expected. The crisp was a little over baked with the apples a little mushier and the crisp browner than planned, but it still tasted good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I know Brennan really enjoyed it, since he had three or four servings.

In the end, it was very hectic preparing food for eleven people in a kitchen with no counter space. But the food turned out great, and everyone loved the banh cuon once again. As always, it was nice hanging out and sharing a good meal with new and old friends.

Note: I provided recipe links for the Vietnamese dishes, although we didn't use them. We made the dishes mainly by memory and used tips from my mom. However, I tried to find recipes that were close as possible in preparation and ingredients. I would recommend Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen as a good Vietnamese cookbook.

Likewise, for the apple-raspberry crisp recipe, I used a Cook's Illustrated recipe but the site requires a subscription to view. The Food Network recipe is close, just don't use the butter or liquor in the filling and add lemon zest.

SNDsters: Ed, Julie, Deb, Brennan, Howie, Garry, Karen, Mark, Jane, Hungry Bear, Chuck

I love cabbage! Stuffed cabbage, cole slaw, corned beef and cabbage, kimchi, cabbage soup... I love all things made with cabbage. If I'm at a restaurant and I see a dish made with cabbage on the menu, it's usually the one I order. I'm not sure how or when my admiration of cabbage developed, but it runs strong and deep.

Several years ago, I was enjoying some Thai larb and it suddenly occurred to me that I wanted to create a dish with similar flavors. But, I wanted to add a vegetable to balance it out and also make it healthier. Naturally, I immediately thought of using cabbage.

So I turned it into a stir fry dish served on rice. I wanted something simple, healthy and easy to prepare. The outcome was stir fried cabbage, ground beef and mushrooms. The flavors that I borrowed from Thai larb are the saltiness from the fish sauce and the tanginess from the lime.

Our friend, Deb, recently took a "Venture to Vietnam" cooking class that was offered by First Class Cooking in San Francisco. Deb loved the class and was looking for volunteers to test out her new cooking skills and recipes, so she invited Hungry Bear and me over for dinner this past Saturday.

Deb and her husband, Brennan, are our eating partners in crime when we go to Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc, which is my absolute favorite restaurant in the Bay Area. We even get the Ad Hoc menu emailed to us on a daily basis to drool over, and we sometimes take a last minute trip for dinner in Napa.

Using the Ad Hoc menu template, Deb surprised us and emailed the dinner menu to us on Saturday morning. The menu read...

Vietnamese Spring Rolls
Cold shrimp, carrots, cucumber, bean sprouts, cilantro and mint served
with a crushed peanut lime vinaigrette

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Lemongrass Beef Skewers
Tri tip beef marinated in a lemongrass garlic mixture

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Ca Kho To
Catfish simmered in a ginger, chili and caramel sauce

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Coconut Ice Cream/Mango Pudding
TBA - depending on chef’s mood later today.

Needless to say, we were very excited about dinner. When we arrived at Deb and Brennan's place, Deb had the spring rolls prepared, the beef skewers marinating and was in the process of making the caramel sauce for the fish. There was also a bottle of 2004 Quivira Zinfandel - Anderson Ranch decanting on the table.

Since Vietnamese food is my peep's food, I was impressed that Deb wanted to cook Vietnamese for me. Brennan was actually a little nervous for her, but she wasn't concerned at all.

Deb was right to be confident, as dinner was excellent. All the dishes were tasty and were easy to prepare with fresh, simple ingredients. They were also healthy (very minimal oil/fat) without sacrificing flavor. And the Zinfandel paired well with the lemongrass beef and ca kho.

Deb did make a homemade coconut ice cream mixture, but the ice cream maker had to chill for another 12 hours. So, dessert was MaggieMudd ice cream (toasty coconut, vegan coconut pineapple and mint chocolate chip) with toasted coconut shavings and chocolate chip cookies.  My favorite MaggieMudd flavor was the mint chocolate chip. After we finished dessert, Hungry Bear proclaimed, "Hungry Bear is no longer hungry."

Deb was gracious enough to send us home with leftover ca kho. For dinner on Sunday, Hungry Bear and I stir fried some water spinach and had the catfish on a bed of jasmine rice... yummy! The caramel sauce soaked rice was simply delicious.

Now I have to reciprocate a Vietnamese dinner and pull out my mom's secret recipes!