Here's another interesting article I found.

http://chicago.grubstreet.com/2010/06/d ... baker.html

Saying you invented the Vietnamese sandwich is like saying you invented pho. This is hilarious!

I am from LA. There are a ton of banh mi shops all over LA and Orange County. Google Little Saigon. There are a lot of better banh mi places than Ba Le. I give them a lot of credit for bringing it to Chicago and a lot more credit for being able to pull off such an awesome marketing scheme on the citizens of Chicago.

Hmm..I take that back. Maybe he could of invented the Vietnamese sandwich.---Either he did or they're really selling this story well. Too many conflicting stories for my taste though.

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/dining/rev ... ?rid=11259

My point was really just about the term Ba Le meaning (or not meaning) Paris. As it's allegedly a phonetic spelling, it's only "wrong" if Pa-ri sounds unlike Ba-le in Vitenamese, no?

I like Ba Le in Chicago and Philly. I didn't eat anything at the one I just visited in Maui (had coffee) but assumed it was unrelated because the menu was much larger and filled with hot items. The Orlando article you linked is very interesting because it suggests that all of the various Ba Le's discussed here are, indeed, related to each other and started out in Hawaii. It would seem to be a rather loose confederacy of banh mi shops with the same name, if it is one chain.

Maybe the guy did develop the modern banh mi as we know it. Before '84 were there Vietnamese sandwich shops hawking these in LA or elsewhere?

Well, Vietnamese people came over in the 70s after the war and they brought their food. Banh mi was one of them. I have no doubt that there were banh mi shops in LA back then. Ba Le Chicago claims it goes back to Le Vo (which is Vo Le in English standards) on their website.

http://www.balesandwich.com/

I can also hear how Ba Le might sound like Pa-ri. Maybe it's just the southern dialect but at the same I can't help but notice that the founder (according to Ba Le's website) was named Vo Le. Le is a common Vietnamese last name and Ba is common first for older Vietnamese people. Maybe we can ask Anthony Bourdain. He goes back there a lot.

While reading and enjoying the arguing here, with a 7 second Google I found this little gem:

http://gastronomyblog.com/2007/11/09/ba ... hit-nuong/

I always assumed that the word for Paris in Vietnamese was derived from the Chinese transliteration, the characters for the which are pronounced "Ba Li" in Mandarin.

d4v3 wrote:I always assumed that the word for Paris in Vietnamese was derived from the Chinese transliteration, the characters for the which are pronounced "Ba Li" in Mandarin.

Ba-Le^ (with the circumflex on top of the E), and a hypen to say that this is a compound word.

Pronounced exactly like "ballet", the style of dance.

That's the vietnamese interpretation of the word Paris.
-----------------------
The sandwich place is named Ba Le (with a dot under the E), is a marriage of 2 words (no hyphen), and is pronounced like "ba-lair", with a 2Khz down shifting on the 2nd sillable. (Vietnamese is a singing language, you sing it wrong, you change its meaning)

Ba = number Three, Vietnamese use to give people a number = ranking in his line of siblings.
Le = either his name or most probably his nickname, equivalent to "quicky". May be he was fast and effective at what he was doing.

So Ba Le (no hyphen) is the call name of the guy who operated the original sandwich stand/tricycle back in Vietnam in the 1960's

The Ba Le bakery franchise just associates its name to the symbol of Paris (Eiffel Tower) for marketing purposes only. The pronunciation of the 2 words are totally different.

Ba Le has two new sandwiches advertised on sheets of paper taped to the register. I tried the #20, which is thin-sliced beef sirloin. While the beef was freshly cooked to order, it have very little to no seasoning and reminded me of a mediocre italian beef (only covered with pickled daikon, cilantro and jalapenos, instead of giardiniera). I assume it was cooked on a flattop or something, as it lacked any browned bits or textural contrast.

I was hoping for something along the lines of Tank's grilled beef banh mi, which features lemongrass/fish sauce-marinaded beef that's been charred on a grill. If there wasn't a massive line out the door at Tank, I would have walked across the street for a do-over.

-Dan

Ba Le Toronto

Nghe wrote:Ba = number Three, Vietnamese use to give people a number = ranking in his line of siblings.
Le = either his name or most probably his nickname, equivalent to "quicky". May be he was fast and effective at what he was doing.

So Ba Le (no hyphen) is the call name of the guy who operated the original sandwich stand/tricycle back in Vietnam in the 1960's

The Ba Le bakery franchise just associates its name to the symbol of Paris (Eiffel Tower) for marketing purposes only.

Made my first visit to the new Ba Le and asked the manager about the name. Turns out Nghe's explanation is substantially correct. Le Vo was in fact a third child. There was no mention of a nickname (though I have little doubt Mr Le was fast and effective). Incidentally, Le Vo passed away about two months ago. I can't help thinking, though, there's a secondary meaning to the name. Even though the two "Ba Le" are pronounced differently, the pun with Paris seems too good to pass up.

stevez wrote:Ba Le Toronto

There are many unaffiliated Ba Le banh mi shops all over the world. It seems that even if Le Vo can't claim credit for inventing (always a difficult concept) the banh mi as we know it today, his shop did a lot to popularize the sandwich and led to many imitators (right down to the name).

Banh mi #7 (meatball, my favorite for some unexplainable reason) was pretty much the same as at the old Ba Le next door.



Ba Le
5014 N Broadway
Chicago
773-561-4424