Breakfast in Paris........Ummm Bakery, that is.....

Didya bite??? Having a topsy-turvy sleeping schedule, also means pretty messed up eating. Wide awake at 430 am, means my stomach is telling me it's time for some food by 5am. For me, there's just so much eggs-sausage-hash browns I can handle, and many recent mornings I found myself craving for some noodle soup, or something similar. So what is there at 5am? Luckily, Paris Bakery opens at 5am, and I could grab a Banh Mi.

 

In the winter darkness you can smell the fresh baked baguettes from El Cajon Boulevard, and at this hour the bread is always warm. Paris makes the baguettes for many Banh Mi joints in San Diego, so why not go to the source?

I've found that I like the crust to bread ratio of the "long bread", rather than the regular baguettes for sandwiches at Paris Bakery. It does cost a quarter more, but is worth it. On one recent morning I had the Combination - Banh Mi Dac Biet ($3.50):

 

Sorry about the 5 (am) o'clock "shadow".

There are several slices of "Jamon", ham which looked fatty and dry, but which had some nice flavor. And some very thin slices of Cha Lua - lean(defatted) pork sausage, which was almost an afterthought.. I was impressed at the amount of pickled veggies in the sandwich. There were a few thin slices of jalapeno were very mild. What I didn't care for was the huge amount of mayo on the sandwich.

 

I didn't recall the sandwiches here having so much mayonnaise on it, and made a mental note to do without in future visits. I also noticed that this style of bread has a tendency to go "mealy" fairly quickly.

That future visit came up quickly.....like 2 days later, as I was again up and wide awake at 430 am, and had eaten a very mediocre, calorie dense, and artery clogging breakfast the previous day(a future post). Based on my previous experience, I decided to go with the Jamon - Pate (Ham and Pate - $3.25).

 

First off, there was a pretty generous amount of ham in the sandwich, along with a good amount of Ca Rot(pickled carrots and radish), which had a nice mildly sour flavor, and seemed to be a bit sweeter than on previous visits.

I was disappointed in the trace amount of Pate on the sandwich.

 

The jalapenos were again very mild. But I enjoyed this sandwich much more than the one I had eaten previously.

All in all, Paris makes a pretty good Banh Mi. The bread is pretty crusty, but not as light and flakey as I would like. I wish they made Banh Mi Trung (Egg Banh Mi) which would really hit the spot for breakfast. There are many worse options with regards to Banh Mi, and even more lousy options at 5am than Paris Bakery. Plus, I recently had a pretty good cup of Cafe Den Da (Black Iced Coffee), strong enough to keep me wide awake until the afternoon.

After all, you can do much worse than breakfast in Paris, no???

Paris Bakery
4481 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115

A previous really silly post on Paris Bakery can be found here.

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Comments

[Dennis]

Good morning Kirk.
I'm just going to have to bring a stack of these in for my coworkers one day. I think many never had a banh mi, let alone one for breakfast.

[jeff c]

Kirk,
OH NO, Banh Mi cravings, must not fight it. WIll give in and find some right away.....

[Kirk]

Hi Dennis - I've actually done that....once folks try it, they can't get enough of it.

Hi Jeffrey - I hope you have a great Banh Mi.

[foodhoe]

that sounds delicious! I wish there was somewhere nearby I could get one now... so if you eat at 5 am, you must get hungry again before noon, no?

[Kirk]

Hi FH - I guess the appropriate answer would be...if I ate at 5am...I'd be hungry by 6am! ;o) I end up eating an early lunch - 11am or so.