Mario Batali's Banh Mi at Num Pang: Interesting

By Robert Sietsema Wed., Feb. 15 2012 at 2:33 PM

Here it is, in all its mayo-oozing, pickled-vegetable glory.

When I read in Eater about Mario Batali's new sandwich offering at Cambodian sandwich shop Num Pang, I was on my bike and furiously peddling over there. I found a knot of supplicants around the walk-up window, almost all of them waiting for their Batali pang.

In the messy insides, you can make out sausage, cheese, caramelized onions, cucumber, cilantro, pickled carrots, and spicy mayo.

The sandwich is priced at $9.75 (plus tax), of which $6 goes to charities that include the NYC Food Band and Cambodian Children's Fund. Batali's unique contribution to this Southeast Asian sandwich is the use of Italian ingredients: Cacio di Roma cheese and sausage of indeterminate composition, specifically.

I thoroughly enjoyed my sandwich, even though the sausage didn't taste very Italian. The slices were crisp and porky, nonetheless. The cheese, offered in very thin slices, made a nice backdrop to the Southeast Asian flavors. Not my favorite pang at Num Pang (as they call their banh mi sandwiches), but a nice addition to the menu. If only some greasy fennel sausage had been used, and more cheese!

Num Pang
21 East 12th Street
212-255-3271

The scene outside

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Tags:

Cacio di Roma, Mario Batali, Num Pang

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they don't serve banh mi since they are a Cambodian influenced shop, not Vietnamese. pickled veg and a crusty roll does not make a banh mi.

for a good cause, so worth the price.

Rsietsema

If it looks like a banh mi, and quacks like a banh mi, I think that's a fair name to use. Too bad, by the way, that we don't have any Cambodian food in town to speak of -- it's a great and fascinating cuisine. I would be so down with a full-menu Cambodian restaurant.

newyorkstreetfood

There was a food truck by NYU called Cambodian Cuisine Torsu, but it doesn't appear to be in business anymore.

V.L.

There once were two Cambodian restaurants in New York, but no one seemed to notice. So it's not really a good business model.

aed

there used to be a crazy good cambodian-laotian place in philly a few years ago, on 11th st just south of washington (on the east side of the street -- there's a ton of restaurants right there). the awning is the same, but i haven't been there since 2006 though so i don't know if the management or cooks are the same.

Garsleat

Isn't there a Cambodian street cart around NYU campus?

Rsietsema

I think the problem is that there's not enough Cambodians in town. The place in Fort Greene offered, at best, a half-hearted Cambodian menu--it was mostly Viet and Thai stuff. When the guy (who now has a food truck on 4th on the NYU campus) moved to the East Side, that was a bad choice of neighborhoods for such a business at the time. Put a place with a full-on Cambodian menu in the E.Village, say next to Zabb Elee, and it would take right off.