Entree Kibbles: Madam Khanh - The Banh Mi Queen @ Hoi An in Vietnam

Hoi An is known as the banh mi capital of Vietnam and as an absolute fan of this baguette variant, I searched online for the best eatery which turned out to the above hole in the wall; Madam Khanh!

With the proud tagline, The Banh Mi Queen, the first thing greeting you would be the glass counter filled with the ingredients you can stuff into your bread; somewhat subway style.

My eyes were more drawn to the captivating amount of short, golden baguettes. You know sometimes in anime, there would be scenes of bakeries? The above photograph just reminded me of them!

This interesting device appeared to be a warmer to prevent the baguettes from going soft. And from the look of the banh mis on top, only the stuffed banh mis were allowed on it.

It was already after the lunch peak but the non-air-conditioned eatery continued to be full of customers! If I recall correctly, we happened to secure a table that was cleared out just as we stepped in. In the twenty minutes we were there, the customer flow never stopped.

Our orders came within five minutes from ordering! That's like speed banh mi as I often needed to wait quite a while at popular banh mi joints. Keeping our hopes high that they wouldn't turn out to be disappointing.

Passionfruit Soda - given its price of more than S$2.00, I was expecting to be blown away by its imaginary raw freshness. Truth was, it tasted like it came from a passionfruit concentrate. Thumbs down for sure.

Banh Mi BBQ - when you consider how much banh mi cost in Singapore, your eyeballs would drop once you see the price tag for this banh mi. It cost just 30,000 dong, about S$1.60, and it's a famous shop!

Bread was crusty with a crispy-on-the-outside, chewy-inside texture that was satisfying, and the BBQ filling didn't disappoint; with a sweet deliciousness infused into the mix of pickled vegetables, minced meat, pork floss, and I think, basil!

Banh Mi Chicken - Alex had this and since he had a small stomach and our lunch was just a few hours earlier; I knew it would be kind of me to help him take a few bites. Okay fine, I am greedy!

Weirdly, I tasted more pork floss than chicken.

But it was still better than many other banh mi I have.

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The amount of 'oil' that dripped from my banh mi! So what's my verdict for this best banh mi eatery in the capital of banh mi? I love what I had and for my limited banh mi exploration in Vietnam, I would say Madam Khanh is my personal favorite! Best so far, is still Banh Mi Saigon in Singapore though!

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