Lee's Sandwiches with Ify Nwadiwe

"Lee's Sandwiches with Ify Nwadiwe" is Episode 216 of *Doughboys*, hosted by Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger. "Lee's Sandwiches with Ify Nwadiwe" was released on August 15, 2019.

## Synopsis

The 'boys are joined by Ify Nwadiwe (*Nerdificent*, *Candy Dinner*, *Who Shot Ya?*) to discuss their favorite fast food chains in high school and to review Lee's Sandwiches, a Vietnamese-American chain specializing in bánh mì sandwiches. Plus, a listener submitted edition of Cereal.

## Nick's intro

In 1862, the French established the colony of Cochinchina, spanning the southern third of what is now known as Vietnam, beginning roughly a century of the Vietnamese people being subjugated and exploited by a series of colonial masters. French rule expanded into the entirety of the nation's territory by 1884, and it was the French who imposed upon the Vietnamese the Catholic religion, the use of the Latin alphabet for the Vietnamese language, and Western ingredients for their food: coffee, butter, and most significantly, bread.

For much of French rule, bread - imported at great costs from Europe - was reserved for white French elites, but after Vietnam won sovereignty in 1954, it became a food for all, leading to the birth of the slim sandwich known as the bánh mì.

A fusion dish from before the term 'fusion food' existed, Vietnamese cooks developed their unique Euro-Asian hybrid hoagie, generally a baguette spread with mayonnaise and stuffed with pickled vegetables and either cold cuts or hot meat. The bánh mì became a popular quick breakfast or lunch in Vietnam, and stands selling the sandwiches thrived, as did the larger culture of Vietnamese baking, both of savory breads and sweet pastries.

Not long after the French were forced out, Vietnam endured another period of colonialism, albeit the post-World War II version: western intervention in the form of an ever-escalating U.S. occupation from about 1961 to 1975, known as the Resistance War Against America in Vietnam, which resulted in an estimated three million deaths.

In the aftermath, displaced Vietnamese began emigrating en masse to the U.S. and in 1982, brothers Chieu and Henry Le - Vietnamese immigrants who'd recently settled in San Jose, California - opened a catering company which rapidly grew to a massive fleet employing 500 trucks. The Le's used the profits to partner with their parents and open a bánh mì shop in San Jose, adding a second 'e' to their name to make it more familiar to Westerners. Their food needed no simplification to be a hit and their chain version of the bánh mì spread like butter on a warm baguette throughout the West and Southwest, particularly in areas with large Vietnamese-American populations.

Today, with over sixty stores in seven states, the chain thrives, serving sandwiches, pastries, and Vietnamese-style coffees, accurately bragging in its signage that it's the world largest bánh mì chain.

This week on *Doughboys*: Lee's Sandwiches.

## Fork rating

* #1 Lee's Combination Bánh Mì
 Mike Mitchell
* Steak Bánh Mì
 Ify Nwadiwe
* #6 B.B.Q Pork Bánh Mì
 shared
* Chicken Egg Rolls
* #36 Salami & Cheese Croissant

Evan Susser offered Lee's a rating of 4 forks, and Nick's lovely wife Natalie put it in the 2 fork range. Mitch could not lift his rating to 4 forks, because the restaurant was out of many of the items they wanted, so he sort of considers his rating 'incomplete'.

## Cereal

From Feral Audio Studios in Burbank, this is Cereal - a segment told one bowl at a time.

For this episode, The Doughboys don't actually try a cereal. They have The Crispery Crispycakes, which had been sent to them by a friend. These are giant, gourmet rice treats and come in different flavors. They have the Cookies & Cream, Plain & Sweet, and Cocoa Concoction versions.

They loved them a lot, and ranked them from favorite to least favorite.

 Mike Mitchell
 Ify Nwadiwe

The Crispery Cookies & Cream CrispycakeThe Crispery Cocoa Concoction CrispycakeThe Crispery Plain & Sweet Crispycake

## Quotes

**Mitch**: You can see all about it in the documentary *Dr. Giggles*.

**Emma**: I'll clean them.
**Nick**: No. Emma, that's not part of your job.
**Mitch**: Jesus. No. It's not your fault that I take them out and suck on them after everyone's gone.

## #hashtags

* #HighSchoolConfoodential
* #GuacTheVote or #ChipTileWasAGoodJoke

## Related Episodes

* 216. **Lee's Sandwiches**