Ba Le Deli & Bakery

Ba Le Deli & Bakery
701 Kingsway
Vancouver, BC

Because of my professional background, one of the mantras we usually “use” is that there is no such thing as a coincidence. Conspiracy, perhaps… I mean, what are the chances two similar occurrence would occur back to back? For example, if you flip coins and after 99 flips (where all of them landed heads), what are the chances it will land heads again? (*). Of course, by the fifth or sixth time it has landed heads, I will have already requested a change of coins but that is not the intent of this post. Instead, it is the fact that two local periodicals, the Straight and the Westender, published articles on the same day (both are issued on Thursdays – Straight’s article here; Westender’s article here) about banh mi; aka, Vietnamese sandwiches; aka, Vietnamese subs. To make it even freakier? Fellow food blogger Sherman scheduled a post on one of the shops listed on those articles on the following Sunday… And, yes, by now, you can guess this post is about banh mi. And the place I ended up going? Ba Le Deli & Bakery (previously known as Ba Le French Sandwiches).

(*) – 50%. Each coin toss is independent of the previous flip.

Located in the corner of Kingsway and Frasier, Ba Le is located in a really odd strip mall with an odd mix of shops. Worst of all is the fact parking in the area is really, and I do mean really, bad. Spots are really tight and I saw at least one incident of double parking. Ah, that sucks… Anyway, I was fortunate enough to find an opening when I went there…

I have been told that, on really odd scenarios, I can somehow be extremely patient. Probably because I feel that, eventually, there will be light at the end of that tunnel? However, when people mess up with you, I can’t help myself get angry. One thing is when you mess yourself up – in those cases, you can only be angry at yourself because, well, it was your own fault. However, when others do that… Point in case: see that cash register? Well, you are supposed to line up there, make your order and wait for your order (not name!) to be called. Of course, like any “good” Canadian, you line up behind whoever is in front of what seems to be the line to the cashier – after all, you are standing in front of the cashier for a reason. In my case, after easily two minutes or so, a couple standing there finally realize I am behind them and tells me “oh, we are not lined up; we already made our order. Go ahead.” Errrrrr….. Let’s just close this paragraph by saying it is a good thing firearms are illegal in Canada…

After making my order, I had some time to look around their other offerings. Aside from some Vietnamese deli items and rolls, they also had some pastries (?). Well, since their name is now “deli & bakery” (again, rather the the previous “French Sandwiches”), you ought to find some sweets, right? Well, here they are, just don’t ask what are these… I also notice something “unique”: the toaster oven. While it is different from, say, Subway’s or Quizno’s toasters, this one does well what it is supposed to do: lightly “crisp” the bread. It is not supposed to toast it the same way as these other places. After all, Vietnamese subs are not necessarily “grilled” subs. Regardless, it is a good thing they use almost any technique to try to improve their products without sacrificing quality – specially considering bread is not baked on site (I saw some ovens on one side; however, at the same time, I saw somebody bringing in boxes of bread). And, after a somewhat long wait, my order was called…

I ordered two items, the special and the grilled pork. Aside form the small pieces of meat that sticks out, you can’t really tell which one was which. OK, you could have “opened” it, but…. In this case, the first one was the “special”, since you could see the ham tucking out of the baguette. Since I was going to eat both, did it really matter which one was which? ^_^;;;

The good: The bread was crunchy… Wait, let me take that back. It was actually “crisp”, not crunchy. Sure, when you bit, it started to crumble a little bit; however, that wasn’t the same crumble you get from stale bread. Rather it is as if it created a really light crust. Again, the toaster oven did wonders by making it “crispier”. The inside, however, wasn’t too heavy. In fact, if you did not pay attention, you might wonder if there was actually any bread there…

The bad: Unfortunately, the rest does not bode that well. One key component I did not find (or, if it was there, I found it too “light”) was the pate. OK, OK, the pate might not be a required component; however, without it, it felt there was something lacking, as if there was a missing component, a missing dimension to the sub. Another “miss” was the hot pepper. I make emphasis on this one as they asked if I wanted it in the sub or not (I guess the give you the option as others might not want it). I said yes so I was expecting some “kick” from it. Unfortunately, that never came. Well, I did “feel” something I *thought* it was hot but it never came to “kick” me. And, finally, I wished some of the crunchy vegetables had some sour/sweetness associated to the pickling process. OK, sure, pickling should be sour; however, a lot of times these are pickled with a vinegar/sugar mix. Regardless which one it was, I couldn’t taste either.

The ugly: The mess left behind after I ate the subs. No, really, since it is so “crispy”, if you are not carefully, the bread crust will easily crumb all over you. In my case, I was able to “play” safe and “catch” all these crumbs. Just want to mention it…

Overall, I was a bit disappointed with the end product. While it wasn’t bad, I feel it could have been a lot better. Could it be I ordered the wrong items? Could it be because of the long queues and they dropped the ball? It is possible there are other reasons to like it but, alas, I can’t think of any. I feel that other banh mi shops nearby can do a lot better. So, unless somebody can point me to what I should have ordered, I will give it a pass and try to go to the other nearby places in the meantime.

Tagged under: Sandwich • Vancouver • Vietnamese