Vietnamese sandwich from Winnipeg deli ranked among best in the world

Winnipeg sandwich named one of the best Kim Le and Coco Nguyen talk about what it was like to have one of Khanh Hoa’s sandwiches named one of the best in the world.

Amid a prestigious culinary list featuring a plentiful Philly cheesesteak from Richmond, Virginia and a nostalgic Christmas leftover concoction from London, England sits a cold-cut creation from an unsuspecting Winnipeg-Vietnamese deli.

The dish in question – a cold cut banh mi sandwich from Winnipeg’s Khánh Hòa Fresh Meats and Delights.

It has been ranked among The Guardian’s nine best sandwiches in the world.

Deli owner Kim Le has no idea how her dish cracked the British newspaper’s sandwich roundup.

“It was a very big surprise,” she said in an interview on CTV Morning Live Winnipeg.

Editors of The Guardian put out a call earlier this month for readers to submit their picks for the world’s greatest sandwich.

Jonathan Kauenhowen from Toronto, Ont. submitted the banh mi.

“I’m not sure how one small, nondescript Vietnamese deli came to create a sandwich unrivalled by the dozens of Vietnamese restaurants and delis across Canada I’ve visited since, but its enduring quality brings me back whenever I’m in the city,” he wrote.

Le said the sandwich was created over a decade ago by a couple that originally owned the restaurant.

She eventually bought the business, keeping its tried and true menu items, including the cold cut banh mi.

Served on a ‘perfectly chewy’ baguette slathered in a rich pâte, the sandwich is layered with pickled carrots, daikon, cilantro, Thai chillis and an ‘assortment of intriguingly patterned cold cuts.’

Kauenhowen recommends deli diners order it untoasted, to really revel in the sumptuous bread.

While the sandwich’s new notoriety may have come as a surprise to Le, she is very honoured.

“I wanted to say thank you to all the customers, to all the voters out there.”

- With files from CTV’s Rachel Lagacé