The literal translation of bánh mì is “wheat cake”. Technically, it refers to the white roll itself, but in Western society has come to mean a Vietnamese filled roll with various meats and salad ingredients.

We don’t know exactly when the first bánh mì was sold in Australia, but the arrival of the famous sandwich is linked to the wave of Vietnamese immigration that followed the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. From 1976, thousands of Vietnamese refugees were resettled in Australia. Relatively few arrived by boat. Most came by air from various locations around Southeast Asia, assisted by Australian immigration authorities. Over the following decade, many of these new arrivals set up small businesses, with Vietnamese restaurant and retail strips emerging in suburbs such as Richmond and Springvale in Melbourne, Cabramatta and Fairfield in Sydney.

Among these businesses were bakeries, which began to sell bánh mì, a fusion dish that had its origins in the French colonial presence in Vietnam until the 1950s. In the early colonial days, European bread, cheese and specialty meats were the exclusive preserve of colonists, but during World War I, the major German-owned import companies were taken over by the local French government. To dispose of their stocks,  local people were given access to these previously forbidden foods.

The French-style baguette with butter and ham persisted for some time, but after the French were expelled in 1954, the sandwich was gradually adapted to suit the local climate and tastes. It began with the bread. Additives to the wheat flour, such as rice flour or ascorbic acid, made the it lighter and helped it to rise in the humid climate. And while the French-style pâté and mayonnaise were retained, other fillings, including pickled carrot, daikon, coriander and chilli, were added. Most accounts suggest that the first bánh mì (or, more accurately bánh mì thịt ngoui, ‘bread, meat and cold cuts’) in Vietnam was sold in the Saigon bakery of Lê Minh Ngọc and Nguyễn Thị Tịnh in 1958.

Among the early purveyors of bánh mì in Australia were the Dinh family, who opened their shop in the Sydney suburb of Bankstown in 1988. The Hong Ha Bakery in Mascot traces its history back to 1986. My first experience of the bánh mì was at a Vietnamese bakery at Canberra’s Fyshwick market in the late 1990s. We didn’t call it a bánh mì. We just asked for a meat roll. The impact of the chilli was startling. Now we live in the bánh mì heartland, on Victoria Street in Richmond. Our favourite bakery, the Phuoc Than is an easy stroll from home. In business since 1999, this tiny shop always has lines stretching out the door. Every roll is prepared to order, with the diet-conscious requesting no mayonnaise or the faint-hearted asking for no chilli. Our favourite is the crispy pork version, a bargain at $11, exactly double what it cost when we moved to Melbourne ten years ago.

There has been controversy about the expectation that the bánh mì should be cheap, with some specialty shops charging up to $17. They say the work, ingredients and love that are put into producing a superior product should be rewarded with a fair price. With a gourmet sandwich from a trendy deli like Melbourne’s Hector’s setting you back $17, the Vietnamese equivalent, they say, surely deserves the same.