I may cook Indian delicacies every week like I’m one spice blend away from opening a roadside Big Bear Lake dhaba, but when it comes to Vietnamese food, my expertise has mostly been limited to this: I do not care for salty soup. Here in our hometown of Big Bear Lake, California, we somehow have around five pho restaurants now, which makes sense, I suppose. This is a ski town. We have snow, freezing mornings and tourists clomping around in ski boots for four months out of the year. Apparently, after a day on the slopes, people want a giant bowl of steaming salty broth. I’ve tried pho a few times and, honestly, all I tasted was salt soup with noodles. I remain unconverted.
And then there was bánh mì. For years, I thought bánh mì was just a cold Vietnamese deli sandwich situation, and I was not emotionally prepared to waste carbs on that. I had no idea there were pickled vegetables, fiery chiles, fresh herbs, crunchy sprouts and toasted bread involved. Excuse me, Vietnam, why did no one tell me this was basically a flavor explosion tucked into a toasted baguette? Suddenly, this homemade chicken pâté bánh mì with kumquats, sprouts and enough spice to revive an exhausted hiker girl seemed very much worth the bread.
When summertime rolls into Big Bear Lake and my kitchen starts feeling like the inside of a bear’s armpit, I am always hunting for dinner recipes that do not require preheating the oven. No one needs to be roasting anything when it’s hot outside, especially not me. That is why I love this spicy summer sandwich situation so much. I can buy premade chicken pâté, crisp up the bread in the air fryer and bring this whole no-oven dinner together in less than 15 minutes because apparently even my bánh mì needed a mountain-town shortcut.
The Great Southern California Bánh Mì Hunt: Because Subway Isn’t Even Trying
So you may be wondering, who sells the best bánh mì in Southern California? Well, pull up a toasted baguette, because apparently, there are a lot of choices. This whole Chicken Pâté Bánh Mì journey began because my boyfriend had been yapping for weeks about how he had not had a Lee’s Sandwiches bánh mì in nearly thirty years. Thirty years! That is not a craving. That is a culinary cold case.
The Sandwich Worth Sitting in Los Angeles Traffic For
We just happened to be traveling to the big city of San Diego for a quick two-day trip, and wouldn’t you know it, we drove right by a Lee’s Sandwiches. Clearly, the sandwich gods were speaking, and they were speaking in crusty French bread and Vietnamese pickled vegetables. So last week, I learned about a new ethnic delicacy. Hello, bánh mì. Over two days in the San Diego area, we inhaled an impressive amount of delicious carbs, and honestly, I had one question:
How did it take me this long to find you, bánh mì?
If you live anywhere in Southern California, you have probably driven past a Lee’s Sandwiches. They seem to be everywhere from Riverside to Rancho Cucamonga to every Los Angeles suburb where someone needed a baguette, an iced coffee and a pork product before noon. My first walk into Lee’s Sandwiches was a very confusing experience. Were we having ethnic pork sandwiches? Were we having French food? Was I supposed to order a croissant? Then I saw the pâté option on the menu, and suddenly everything made sense. Lee’s Sandwiches, you had me at pâté.
And yes, this place also has the kind of sugary coffee drinks I would have loved in my twenties, back when my pancreas was still young and optimistic. These days, one of those creamy Vietnamese iced coffees looks like it could send me straight into a diabetic coma. I know exactly how ethnic baristas are when you ask, “Can you make my coffee less sweet?” They smile, raise an eyebrow and pour in enough sweetened condensed milk to make Wilford Brimley rise from the grave and whisper, “Diabeetus.”
Finding Southern California’s Best Bánh Mì One Pickled Carrot at a Time
Another great bánh mì option in Southern California is THH Sandwiches in Tustin, with choices like shredded pork skin, lemongrass pork and fried shrimp. My Orange County friends swear by this ch
ain, and honestly, they may be onto something. Where else in Southern California in 2026 can you order a fried shrimp sandwich for under seven dollars? Do people realize you could order two bánh mì sandwiches at most of these spots and still spend less than you would on one El Diablo Burger from Carl’s Jr.? This is not just lunch. This is fiscal responsibility tucked into a baguette.
Carrot and Daikon is another great bánh mì choice, with locations around Orange County, including Garden Grove and Westminster. They have delicious pâté options, traditional fish cake, and a Crab and Shrimp Egg Roll that sounds like it should come with a tiny crown and a coastal property tax bill. They also have multiple tofu vegetarian options, which is very thoughtful for people who want the bánh mì experience without the porky little party. But for me, once I discovered the magic of a Chicken Pâté Bánh Mì, there was no going back. Give me toasted bread, spicy chiles, pickled vegetables, fresh herbs and that rich, savory pâté, and I am officially converted. I still may not be a pho person, but bánh mì? Bánh mì and I are now in a committed carb relationship.
Oh Là Là, There’s Pâté in My Bánh Mì
Oh là là, the homemade chicken pâté bánh mì is basically what happened
when France showed up in Vietnam with baguettes, butter, pâté and colonial confidence, and Vietnam said, “Cute bread, now let us actually make it have flavor.” The French introduced the baguette in Vietnam in the mid-19th century, and by the 1950s, especially in Saigon, Vietnamese cooks had transformed that crusty carby little import into a street-food masterpiece with pâté, meats, herbs, pickled vegetables, chilies and enough crunch to make a Parisian clutch his tiny cafe creme. This Hungry Mountaineer spicy chicken pâté version with sprouts and kumquats is just the next citrusy, spicy chapter in that delicious French-Vietnamese glow-up.
As someone who loves French food and pate especially, how did I never know there was pate involved in this spicy sandwich?
Choose Your Porky Adventure
The pork in a classic bánh mì can take a few delicious forms, because Vietnam looked at a plain sandwich and said, “No thank you, we have standards.” You’ll often find thịt nguội, a mix of cold-cut style Vietnamese pork rolls, cured pork, head cheese or ham layered with rich pâté, especially in a bánh mì đặc biệt. Other popular versions use grilled lemongrass pork, roasted pork belly, char siu-style barbecue pork or even shredded pork floss for a salty little confetti situation. Basically, the pork should be savory, slightly sweet, a little fatty and bold enough to stand up to pickled carrots, daikon, cilantro, chilies and that glorious smear of pâté.
When it comes to the pork in this sandwich, go hog wild. Use any kind of pork your heart desires. I am honestly happy just doing pate and tons of veggies in my version but my boyfriend likes the pork added in. What I usually do is purchase store-bought pre-cooked carnitas, which you can purchase at your local Mexican market or Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s also has a great pork belly you can use. In a pinch, you can always just use prosciutto, which tastes great with the pate as well.
My favorite shortcut is to use store-bought, pre-cooked carnitas, which you can usually find at your local Mexican market or at Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s also has a fantastic pork belly that would be delicious tucked into a toasted baguette with pâté and pickled vegetables. In a pinch, prosciutto works beautifully, too. It is salty, rich and fancy enough to make the chicken pâté feel like it has upgraded to business class.
And this is where my beloved FritAire Air Fryer comes in, because summertime dinner should not require turning your kitchen into a sweaty little punishment chamber. I love making this whole sandwich situation in the air fryer. It crisps up the pork, toasts the bread and warms everything just enough without forcing me to preheat the oven like some kind of pioneer woman cooking in a hot and humid dungeon. I am also completely obsessed with this new era of see-through basket air fryers. Being able to actually see what you are cooking is wildly helpful, especially when you are trying to toast bread and not accidentally create a baguette-shaped fossil.
For the pâté, I usually buy the chicken pâté from Trader Joe’s. It is well-priced at around six dollars, which feels almost suspiciously reasonable in this economy. Sometimes it can be seasonal, so I tend to stock up when I see it, because Trader Joe’s loves to get you emotionally attached to a product and then make it disappear like a flaky ex-boyfriend. Unopened, the tubs usually have a shelf life of a few months, so I like to keep a few tucked away for emergency sandwich excellence.
You can absolutely find pâté at Sprouts or Whole Foods, but the same little tub of liver luxury can easily run ten dollars or more. Sure, I prefer duck pâté, and yes, Whole Foods has a lovely one, but I usually only buy it when it goes on sale because I am a food snob, not a Rockefeller.
This Chicken Pâté Bánh Mì is one of my favorite easy summertime dinners because the air fryer does all the heavy lifting. These sandwiches would be great for a picnic, especially if you are packing them for a lake day or a hike, but personally, I prefer my bread hot, toasty and aggressively crunchy. Cold sandwiches are fine, I suppose, but a warm, spicy, pâté-loaded bánh mì with crispy pork and crunchy vegetables? That is a summer dinner worth not turning the oven on for. And if you can absolutely make this with Inked Sourdough Keto Bread as well! (You can find that at Target or Costco.)
The Kumquat Plot Twist: Because My Bánh Mì Needed Tiny Citrus Drama
Did I add kumquats to my Bánh Mì? Of course I did. Here in Southern California, citrus season is basically one of the winter’s seasons redeeming qualities, and kumquats are one of those weird little treasures that show up for five minutes, make you fall in love, and then disappear like Trader Joe’s had a hand in it. A friend gifted me some fresh off her tree back in February, and I have been obsessed with these fiber-filled, sour little flavor bombs ever since. This was officially the winter of the kumquat.
But now the summer of the Chicken Pate Bánh Mì is dawning, and suddenly there are no kumquats to be found. Naturally, after one too many glasses of Pinot Grigio the other night, I did what any reasonable mountain food blogger would do in 2026: I bought three pounds of kumquats on Amazon. Because apparently we now live in an era where you can order wildly out-of-season bougie citrus from the same place you buy cat food, air fryer accessories and questionable gardening tools like a Cordless Leaf Blower at midnight. I mean, I’m not saying I did purchase a cordless leaf blower after two glasses of wine, but half a bottle in, I start imagining a world where extension cords were a thing of the past.
Am I convinced this alleged plethora of kumquats is actually going to arrive tomorrow evening? Absolutely not. I will believe it when I see three pounds of tiny orange sass sitting on my porch. But meanwhile, yes, that is a lot of ’quats. And if they do arrive, they are going straight into this Chicken Pâté Bánh Mì situation, because that bright, sour, citrusy bite is exactly what this spicy, crunchy, pâté-loaded sandwich needs. And of course, if you live in Minnesota and it’s June and you simply must purchase three pounds of kumquats yourself, you can buy them directly from the farm here!
Of course, to make the pickled veggies, you need a high-class veggie peeler like this one. Radishes do not shred themselves!
Homemade Chicken Pâté Bánh Mì: The Spicy No-Oven Dinner Your Summer Needed
Chicken pate
Fresh-baked baguettes, Whole Foods has great ones
Mayonnaise or aioli (Try this Spicy Aioli)
Your favorite pickles, I’m obsessed with Famous Dave’s Devil’s Spit Pickle
Sliced jalapeno slices
Pickled red onions
Alfalfa sprouts
Kumquats, sliced thin
Slice your baguette and wrap it in foil. If you are using any meats that you would like warm, such as pork belly or carnitas, also wrap them in a little foil and put both the pork products and the bread in the air fryer for ten minutes.
If you are pickling your veggies, do that in the early part of your day so they are prepared ahead of time. Once your baguette is toasted, spread on the pate, your pork products, the aioli or whatever mayonnaise product you prefer. Pile your Bahn Mi high with all the veggies and pickles that you like. Top it with the kumquats and sprouts and shove it at your hungry face.
