Banh Mi competition

Boston's chinatown may be shabbier and smaller in size compared to NYC, but it still holds its stand as a small but impressive piece of the city, full of shops and restaurants with their own integrity. Personally, I have found it hard to discover a place that sells smoothies, let alone places that actually do them well. 

 Alas.... the avocado smoothie ($3) at Dom Khuanh included icecream as well as real avocados, which takes the smoothies to a different level was definitely up to satisfactory, while the usually so chewy and flavorful bubbles were actually mushy this day. Were we unfortunate? Were they playing tricks on us? Why give us so much bubbles but have gone mushy, mushy and has no chewiness that we can go on and on and feel with our teeth? 

However, we dropped the bubble tea tour today to start a banh mi taste test of Boston Chinatown, which first led us to Sub City, a small shop situated in a large building filled with other sushi shops and electronic shops. 

The #1 coldcut banh mi was okay, the bread crusty and chewy inside, making crumbles fall with each bite. The coldcuts were definitly more fresh than those of Miss Saigon of Amhersttown, the spicy jalapeno peppers added a kick which made additional siriacha sauce unnecessary. The smiling Chinese lady made us more at ease too while we were deciding on the sandwich of our choice. 

The tofu banh mi at Mei Sum, at a different street but pretty much the same area heated up the bread nicely, and showed more greens which made it more promising. However, while the tofu and mayo ratio was satifying that made the otherwise bland tofu soft and creamy, did not work perfectly with the bread that was heated but otherwise lacked the cruncy crust, but was somewhat stale and did not contribute much to the sandwich. We concluded that with banh mi, the texture of the bread and the combination of the vegetables held a great role in the overall flavor. 

As our stomachs could hold no more, we stopped our banh mi taste test until there, but we vowed to return to try much more. Boston chinatown may be small, but there are still enthusiastic tastes to verify who rules this small jurisdiction, as there are always small gems hidden in the rough. 

*we tried another mango boba at Rainbow cafe, which also used fresh mangos but mushy bobas. the mango tea was very refreshing. ah..fresh fruits in smoothies are a must. Even though only people in this cafe were two sketchy chinese dudes who were sucking on cola through straws and all the menu were written in chinese on the walls, we were brave enought to ask the tired, annoyed-looking, im-tired-with-life-do-you-guys-really-want-something attitude lady. I checked the fresh mangos, just in case.