| One of the true pleasures of living in Lincoln Square is the close proximity to Nhu Lan Bakery, a Vietnamese sandwich shop on Lawrence Ave. The banh mi sandwiches are seriously amazing and cheap. How do they do it? |
We learn baking and a lot of things from France and we mix together with Vietnamese ingredients so we make it a very unique bread.A very unique bread indeed! Grammar may not be a strong suit as there appears to be a discrepancy about whether the name of the place is Nhu Lan Bakery or Nhu Lan's Bakery, but that is completely beside the point.
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| This building looks nothing like the actual store! |
The #10 Veggie Lemongrass Tofu is Mary Todd's favorite and only $3.50. It has the pleasant, chewy consistency of fake meat but it imitates nothing I've ever tasted. I usually get the #4 Grilled Pork. At a measly $3.75, it is far superior to the ubiquitous Potbelly's and the like. Each banh mi comes loaded with pickled daikon, cucumber, carrot, jalepeño and cilantro. The cashier will ask whether you want all the toppings and you do, you do.
I was already thinking about Nhu Lan because Mary Todd, Stephen Douglas and I are heading up to Milwaukee and we almost always make a pit stop there before starting a road trip. The bread will make a flakey mess all over the car but it's entirely worth it. Then to increase my craving, I read this post on the One Bite blog over at the Chicago Reader: bo kho banh mi at Nhu Lan Bakery. I really want to try the new bo kho, a Vietnamese beef stew, but I don't know if I'll have time to stop and eat a soup. Nhu Lan is not the best place for a casual sit down meal. They only have a few tables and it gets pretty tight with lots of people milling around waiting for their orders. If you go between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., I recommend calling in your order because the place gets really busy. And don't go Tuesdays; it's closed.
Honestly, I cannot say enough good things about the Nhu Lan banh mi sandwiches. If you haven't been, I feel sad for you.
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