I don't know why so often Asian food in North America have a tendency to suffer from chasing for low prices. Inevitably with low prices the products suffer. Corners are cut and bad ingredients become the approximation. Portland has a large population of Vietnamese. While I haven't try to find a good bánh mì lately, with the years I live here I have not experience one that worth getting excited. All too often there is very little inside the sandwich. In my recent month long road trip, I made a point to stop by the Vietnamese area in San Jose. The bánh mì that I had from this shop that specialized in the Vietnamese sandwich had to be the worst I'd ever tasted. Later I have a bowl of pho and I could not eat it because it was that bad.
