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Best Bánh in Chicago

“Bánh refers to a wide variety of sweet or savory, distinct cakes, buns, pastries, sandwiches—cooked by steaming, baking, frying, deep-frying, or boiling.”

Bánh

What the real thing tastes like

In Vietnamese, the term bánh (Hanoi: [ɓaʲŋ̟˧˥] or Saigon: [ɓan˧˥], Chữ Nôm: 餅) translates loosely as "cake" or "bread", but refers to a wide variety of prepared foods that can easily be eaten by hands or chopsticks. With the addition of qualifying adjectives, bánh refers to a wide variety of sweet or savory, distinct cakes, buns, pastries, sandwiches, and other food items, which may be cooked by steaming, baking, frying, deep-frying, or boiling. Foods made from wheat flour or rice flour are generally called bánh, but the term may also refer to certain varieties of noodle and fish cake dishes, such as bánh canh and bánh hỏi. Each variety of bánh is designated by a descriptive word or phrase that follows the word bánh, such as bánh bò (lit. 'cow cake') or bánh chuối (lit. 'banana cake'). Bánh that are wrapped in leaves before steaming are called bánh lá (lit. 'leaf cakes'). In Vietnamese, the term bánh is not limited to Vietnamese cuisine: it applies equally to items as varied as fortune

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Bánh is Vietnamese shorthand for a universe of foods—cakes, buns, pastries, sandwiches—that share one thing: they're meant to be picked up and eaten. The name itself is elastic; add a word and bánh transforms. Steam it wrapped in leaves, fry it golden, boil it soft. From bánh bò to bánh hỏi, from savory to sweet, the term stretches across methods and textures with remarkable ease, even borrowing from global kitchens (fortune cookies, flan, hamburgers) without losing its Vietnamese identity.

Order it here when it has

  • versatile across cooking methods
  • range from sweet to savory
  • designed for easy eating
  • adaptable across cuisines

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