Step by step

An intimate dialogue on raising Bánhmì11

When you trade in an outdoor market, you are gambling with the weather gods. You look at the weather forecasts, think hard about how much foot traffic you can expect, recheck the weather forecast again every day and finally submit to the precariousness of British weather and place a bet on how many bánh mì you can prepare for the week, just in time for the bakers to do their job. In this game, there is no option to hedge and no lifeline to call, you will either destroy your margins by ordering too much or disappoint customers who trekked across London to find you. Like a fickle friend, sometimes the weather lets you down after a promising start and sometimes he makes it up to you in sunny bursts. Yesterday we thought was going to be a nasty rainy day, but actually the weather held up quite well and we were sold out by 2PM.

The bread turned out more beautiful this week, baked to a just perfect golden-brown. We also made the pate creamier, which added moisture without compromising the bread’s crispiness or the pickle’s crunchiness. You may notice that the bread vary slightly in size, but this is purely because each and everyone of them is hand-crafted. The weight remains exactly the same, 140 gram of doug, but the baguettes will not look identical as those produced through an industrial process. Artisanal bread brings an uniqueness in flavor, texture and to a degree, also size. That said, we are working with The Spence to achieve a certain uniformity to the baguettes because we understand, consistency is one of the trademarks of good quality.

I think it’s fair to say that all of us are head-over-heels in love with Bánhmì11. You know that feeling of anticipation and butterflies in your stomach, that’s how we feel as Saturday is approaching. And that moment when you wake up and try to remember your last conscious thought before you go to sleep, the first thing that enters our minds is bánh mì. And just like when you are so obsessed with someone you manage to direct all your conversations with friends to be about that person, I think our friends are between being intrigued by our enthusiasm and wondering if they should bill us by the hour for listening. Bánhmì11 is our brainchild and we are completely enamored with it. We eat, talk, think, sleep and dream banh mi. The other day I woke up and realized that I dreamt we had a solvency problem – completely nightmarish. And I dreamt that the pate was not congealing, instead falling apart like biscuit crumbs and the cilantro all had marks of snail bites on them – very scary in a science-fiction way.

When I am not panicking in my dreams though, we have been worrying about how to raise this child, as parents usually do. What values do we need to plant? What self-image do we want it to grow up with? Where do we want us to live? What kind of people do we want it to grow up with? As it grows, our responsibilities increases. It’s not just about milk bottles and warm baths, it’s about bringing up another being. How do we do that with the resources we have, in the environment we are in? How do we give it as many opportunities as we can afford? So we asked for help, from friends whom we trust to be godmother and godfather to Bánhmì11. You will probably see them soon all over our baby. And we talked to other parents, or people who seemingly were just born with a wealth of parenting knowledge. Sometimes we even plot them to take us out and pick up the tab for the best scrambled eggs and french toast breakfast in town! For the time being though, there are no easy answer but I guess we will think it up as we go along. Indeed, is there any other way to go along?

Posted on: 03.08.2009