Lao baguette sandwich — French-colonial bread filled with pâté, pork floss, pickled carrot-daikon, cilantro. The Lao bánh mì cousin.
French Indochina, 1893–1953. Lao bakers in Vientiane and Pakse picked up the baguette from French colonists and adapted it to a thinner, crackly-crust loaf better suited to the humidity. The pork-floss-and-pâté filling came in via Vietnamese workers building the Mekong river-front infrastructure.
Le Banneton bakery in Vientiane (Setthathirat Road, opened 2008 by French baker Jean-Marc Souvignet) sells the closest-to-Paris version; the Lao street version, sharper and lighter, lives at Khao Jee Joke stalls along Hong Kham Road, since the 1970s.
Crackling thin crust shatters at the bite, gives way to airy crumb, then meat. Pâté-coated walls smear over the chewy bread, pork floss carries fluff, pickled carrot-daikon bite, sliced bird's-eye chili if you nod yes. Spicy-sweet-vinegary-savory in 4 bites.
Lao bakers use a 24-hour cold ferment with low yeast (0.5% by flour weight) — gives the thin shattering crust French colonists demanded but with rice-flour proportion in the dough (about 15%) to keep the crumb light in humid heat. Wheat-only bread sweats and goes leathery within an hour.
Variations
Khao jee pâté (canonical Vientiane); khao jee sin haeng (with dried-meat strips, hill-province workers' lunch); khao jee kai yang (with grilled chicken, modern Pakse fusion); a sweet morning version exists with sweetened condensed milk and butter only.
On the Palate
Where Khao Jee sits in the Lao flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 2
How it's made
3 steps · 6 min active + 5 min waiting
- 14 min
Slice 1 baguette lengthwise; toast briefly to crisp.
Watch outToast the split baguette just to a light crisp — you want the crust to shatter cleanly under the fillings, but not so dry it saws the roof of your mouth.
- 25 min
Spread pâté inside; layer with pork floss + pickled carrot-daikon + cilantro.
- 32 min
Drizzle with chili sauce; close and slice.
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