You can't go wrong with a good banh mi
it's all about that bread
Hi, everyone!
Before I get started on the food today, I wanted to let you guys know about something cool I did a few weeks back.
I’ve been in sore need of a headshot for years now, since I’ve never had any proper professional photos taken of just myself, so I booked a session with my friend Clayton Hauck at his studio, called See You Soon.
Clayton has this cool service called Keep it 100, where he takes hundreds of photos of you in 10 minutes with an ever-changing dynamic background and lighting.
The best part is, it only costs $100. Afterwards, he’ll send you 100 of the photos to keep and use however you see fit. You can also book as couples and families (prices vary), and the results can be pretty spectacular.
The Instagram post I’ve embedded above showcases just a few of them (you’ve got to click out to view the slideshow, unfortunately), and I’m really happy with the results. And no, this isn’t a sponsored message or anything, in fact, Clayton doesn’t even know I’ve written this.
He only offers the sessions sporadically, so if you see him mention them opening up via his studio’s Instagram page, I’d jump on it immediately. Professional headshots can be really costly, and this is the one of the cheapest prices I’ve ever seen coming from someone as experienced as Clayton. Plus, they’re a sheer joy to take.
You can book them here, and if you’ve never had any headshots taken of yourself, you really should have some in your back pocket.
One last thing, today’s edition of The Party Cut’s a free one for all to enjoy, but I pretty much just run this thing as a labor of love. I can always use your support to keep this thing going:
Don’t forget to consider upgrading to a full paid subscription. Every other edition of the newsletter is exclusively for paid subscribers, but paid subscribers also get access to the archives, which date back to 2022. The money helps pay for the newsletter expenses; the time spent writing is mine donated to you.
On to the food!
I’m ashamed to say that even though banh mi sandwiches are one of my favorite foods in the world, I’ve never actually been to one of the shops in Chicago that frequently comes up on best-of lists.
It was sorely time to change this fact, which is why we’re popping into Nhu Lan Bakery in Lincoln Square today.
Nhu Lan occupies a tiny standalone building on Lawrence Avenue just down the street from another place I’ve previously written about on the newsletter, Han Bat.
The fresh food menu’s pretty tight, just banh mi, a small selection of pho, and iced drink options like coffee. There’s a refrigerated case off to the right filled with all sorts of goodies too, like dessert and prepared food.
It’s hard to say no to spring rolls ($6.26), especially when they’re sitting on the shelf directly in front of you.
We grabbed a package of them and I’m glad we did. The spring rolls aren’t mind blowing, but they are light, filled with palate-cleansing herbs like mint, along with two big shrimp and rice noodles, and are as refreshing as you’d hope.
Plus they come with a hilarious amount of sweet peanut dipping sauce. One of those two cups is enough for all four rolls with a little left over, which means you can use the second one for whatever else you want at home.
There’s also containers of roasted meat up by the register, and it was hard for me to resist the call of this crimson-tinted char siu-style barbecue pork (charged by weight; this was $19.05).
I know $20 seems steep for one package, but this was a lot of meat, ranging between tender and fatty to supple and lean. It comes with a side of the same sweet red sauce it’s glazed in, and I’m really glad we picked it up. Davida and I enjoyed the leftovers throughout the week; all you need is a little bit of rice and side of veggies, and you’ve stretched a quick few lunches out of it.
And of course, the sandwiches.
There’s two entire TV screens dedicated to Nhu Lan’s banh mi selection; in total there’s 19 sandwiches and one beef stew option. One additional TV screen displays various types of pho you can get for takeout as well. We stuck to sandwiches for our visit, and for all the love I’ve heard from my friends for Nhu Lan, not one person’s ever mentioned their pho.
If you’ve ever had it, feel free to sound off in the comments section—for all the people who read The Party Cut, sometimes you guys are awfully quiet, and I love hearing from you.
We ordered four types of banh mi for our little counter visit, and the roasted pork sandwich ($8.50) was easily one of my favorites.
That’s because the pork, which is about as simple as it gets (it’s just crisp salty roasted fatty pork), doesn’t need a whole lot of adornment. I probably could have eaten about a pound of it by itself. I had to stop myself from crushing the whole sandwich in one go, but I reached deep inside my soul and made myself stop. There were three other banh mi to try, after all.
Each banh mi at Nhu Lan comes dressed with pickled daikon and carrots, cucumber, fresh slices of jalapeños, and cilantro, which is pretty much all you need, but note the absence of one thing listed: mayo.
I actually found this to be a little curious, because I’m pretty sure every one of these sandwiches would have been better with mayonnaise. Next time we visit I’ll ask if they even have it as a condiment option. Oh, and fair warning: some of the jalapeños we got were lip-numbingly hot to the point where we had to recover in between a few bites.
The other thing is that even though these sandwiches physically appear to be all bread, since the baguette is so thick, the bun is so crackly and light that it compresses into the perfect ratio once you bite into it. It’s a marvel and reason enough to order a sandwich.
Davida was particularly curious about the betel leaf wrapped beef banh mi ($8.95), so we snagged one of those.
This was a new version of banh mi for the both of us. The betel leaf wrapped beef turned out to be like an elongated meatball, and the closest thing I can compare it to is dolmades, stuffed grape leaves, but filled exclusively with ground meat.
If you can’t tell by the under-the-hood photo above, there’s just not much of it in the sandwich (it’s that dark cylinder tucked into the hinge of the bread). We were split on the betel leaf beef sandwich: Davida liked it better than I did.
The Nhu Lan Special ($8.00) is the flagship sandwich on the menu, and it comes with pork pate, ham, and head cheese. It’s finished with the same veggie fillings that come with the rest of the sandwiches.
This is the version of a banh mi I almost always order at any Vietnamese sandwich shop. If I’m feeling cheeky I typically ask for some extra pate, because I’m a real wild dude. There’s not a whole lot I can say, other than I think this combination makes for one of the best sandwiches in the world, and Nhu Lan’s is a really solid showing.
Again, my only ding is the lack of mayo here—the sandwich just needs that layer of richness to balance out the sharpness of the pickled veggies. Add plenty of that, and I’ll be back like every week.
The sleeper hit, however, was the vegan ginger tofu banh mi ($8.50).
I’d heard some really great things about the lemongrass version, but by the time we’d arrived they were already sold out of it, so ginger it was. Neither Davida or I expected that we’d love this thing so much.
In this case, the tofu is dehydrated to the point where it has a texture that closely mimics shredded beef (it’s visibly fibrous) and the sweet and savory ginger seasoning adds enough flavor that if you’d told me that it was marinated meat, I would simply have believed you. I can only imagine how great the lemongrass one is.
The outpost of Nhu Lan we visited is pretty much takeout only (there’s another one on Sheridan in Uptown). That didn’t stop us from eating there, however, since there are four stools by the front window. Davida and I parked our asses next to another couple that was there for lunch that day.
Though our ordering habits are pretty funny when we go out, as in, Davida and I typically get enough food for four people (we always spend the next few days eating leftovers), we don’t normally get asked many questions.
But today, one of the couple sitting next to us straight up commented, “That’s a lot of sandwiches,” after surveying our haul. Busted! I explained about how I write about food for a living, including, of course, for you guys. I sometimes forget that I have an unconventional job that looks a little funny to people who observe what I’m doing while we’re out.
After you’re done getting banh mi, you can walk right down to Harvestime Foods, the grocery store on the next block. There’s some really cool stuff there, including locally grown mushrooms from Windy City Mushroom, along with a bunch of other hometown products. The end cap of Co-op Sauce is particularly impressive, and my friend Elizabeth swears by their store-made guacamole.
Secretly, I know you’ll probably be strategizing about which sandwiches to get at Nhu Lan for your next visit. I hope the lemongrass tofu’s there when we come back.
Nhu Lan Bakery (two locations, one also in Uptown, no website)
2612 W Lawrence Ave
Chicago, IL 60625
(773) 878-9898
Hours:
Monday - Tuesday: 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Wednesday: Closed
Thursday - Friday: 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Saturday - Sunday: 8:30 a.m. 7 p.m.
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Substack’s yelling at me saying I’m running a little long today, so I’ll have to say bye for now. Don’t forget to treat yourself to a local restaurant this week, every bit of exploring and supporting Chicago is worth it. Love you guys.
I love the Harvestime shout out. It's an institution!
They also sell their loaves of bread which are fantastic for making sandwiches at home