And now for something a little lighter.

I know my voice has been absent from this blog lately. I know that you have missed my cheerful wit and sharp insight. I have not followed through with my New Year's resolution to "post every two weeks" and I am sorry for it. But, I have good reason.

My mouth was too full.

The combination of weekly baking, a food-focused trip to Seattle, the river of chocolate that always seems to flow from Halloween through Memorial Day, and Easter weekend itself - which consisted mostly of eating chocolate, making sweet dough, eating resulting Easter bread and topping things off with yet more chocolate - has been a recipe for a stomachache. Driving home after Easter at my parents' house, with one hand on the wheel and the other buried in a bag of chocolate, I was all too happy to second P's motion that we eat lightly in the coming week. When he brought to the table what is, in my opinion, the ultimate sandwich, I began to look forward to our ritual cleansing.

Despite what one might think, after such gluttony, the P & A detox diet is never a tasteless or particularly spare affair. When I reach my breaking point, I want something simple and relatively light, but with plenty of flavor...just flavor that isn't quite so rich. Often, we turn to our repertoire of basic meals: homemade tomato sauce, braised chard with tofu (do not be fooled - this dish is neither flat, nor flavorless), bibimbop, or, perhaps my very favorite, bánh mì.

Bánh mì sprung out of French colonialism in Indochina and marries traditionally French ingredients like baguette, pâté and mayonnaise with elements from southeast Asian cooking, like cilantro and fish sauce. This combination produces what may be the perfect sandwich - the rich, salty flavors of meat and fish sauce are cut by the tangy brightness of the cilantro and pickled carrots and all is enveloped by soft, chewy, crusty baguette.

My first taste of bánh mì came a few years ago, when P and I ventured out to the small, nondescript, strip mall PDX eatery that is Cali Sandwiches. Cali Sandwiches had been recommended in the Willamette Week Cheap Eats Guide as offering tangy, rich and delicious sandwiches for under three dollars. As we were then poor college students with appetites far larger than our wallets would allow, this sounded like a pretty good deal. I cannot remember which bánh mì I ordered (common options are the aforementioned pate, chicken, pork and egg), but I do know that this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

If you need another reason to try bánh mì (but, really?? you need another?), I give you this: it is incredibly easy to make. We like to make a pseudo-vegetarian version (vegetarian in all but the fish sauce...), with tofu instead of meat, but you can do as you choose - it is the condiments that make this sandwich. Normally, we marinate the tofu and then broil it, but this last week we fried the tofu instead and it was better than ever. What's that? Anything fried should not count as part of a detox diet, you say? Well, it's a good thing I am too stalwart to be swayed by my peers.

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P & A Bánh Mì Chay
(has a certain ring to it, no?)

I feel a little ridiculous posting a recipe for this, because, well, it's a sandwich. There isn't much to it. But, since I haven't written in awhile, I thought I should probably add something to fill out my post.

Last time, we added a bit of carrot and beet salad (recipe from Chocolate and Zucchini), which gave the sandwich an earthy layer (from the beets), a tangy garlic zing, and messy drops of beet juice. Delicious.

1/3 cup peanut or vegetable oil (for frying)
1 pound tofu, cut into rectangles 1/2 inch thickness
1 baguette
1 bunch cilantro
1 small container pickled carrots and jalapenos (we tend to go for the small Herdez cans of carrots and jalapenos, but you can try any brand of pickled vegetables you like, or make your own!)
fish sauce mayonnaise (below) or plain mayonnaise
sweet chile sauce

Fish Sauce Mayonnaise
Combine four parts mayonnaise with one part fish sauce. (This proportion is pretty loose and is based largely on our love of fish sauce. Add the fish sauce to taste and, if you really can't stand the stuff, leave it out. P would probably say otherwise.)

Fry the tofu in the oil until browned on all sides, then remove the tofu and set aside (setting these on paper towel helps drain away excess oil). Layer the ingredients on the baguette, beginning with mayonnaise and finishing with a dollop of the sweet chile sauce (See? I told you this sandwich was all about the condiments).

[If you're looking to make an entirely vegetarian version, omit the fish sauce and maybe try frying the tofu in coconut oil or adding a splash or two of chili oil as the tofu fries. If you're looking for something a little less wholesome, look no further than the bánh mì at Momofuku Ssam Bar in New York for a little inspiration. And yes, we plan to go there when we visit the city in a few weeks.]