Ho Chi Minh City will host the second Vietnam Banh Mi Festival at Le Van Tam Park in District 1 from May 17 to 19, with the annual event promising to push up the position of the Vietnamese banh mi to the first spot among the best sandwiches in the world.

Banh mi, which is a Vietnamese baguette filled with paste, cold cuts, herbs, cucumber, chili sauce, and pickles, is ranked fourth on a recent list of 60 of the world’s best sandwiches.

“We hope that the fest will contribute to further popularizing the Vietnamese banh mi and propelling it to the top of the world’s best sandwiches,” said Tran Thi Hien Minh, vice-chairwoman of the Saigon Professional Chef’s Guild.

Nguyen Thi Khanh, chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Association, said that the second edition of the fest will feature a wide space for visitors to savor various kinds of banh mi.

Numerous famed and decades-old brands of banh mi such as Banh Mi Bay Ho, Banh Mi Nguyen Sinh, and Banh Mi Cu Ly will join the upcoming fest.

Fest-goers can try a wide array of banh mi and other dishes bursting with flavors at up to 150 booths.

Besides, the festival will entertain visitors with banh mi dipped in condensed milk, a favorite childhood dish of many Vietnamese people. 

Multiple cultural activities and seminars centering on banh mi, cuisine, and tourism will be organized during the fest, Khanh said.

Notably, a makeshift bakehouse will be brought to the festival so that fest-goers can learn more about how to make banh mi and savor hot crunchy loaves, said vice-chairwoman Minh.

Another draw of this year’s festival will be a huge model of banh mi containing over 150 fillings and side dishes.

The entry banh mi was added to the Oxford English Dictionary 13 years ago on March 24.

Croatia-based food site TasteAtlas ranked the Vietnamese banh mi first in a list of the world’s 100 best sandwiches in March.

The first Vietnam Banh Mi Festival took place in Ho Chi Minh City in late March last year, attracting some 100,000 visitors.

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