A nice summer sandwich

I saw a video recipe of a sardine salad sandwich originating in Mauritius. It looked good, but I didn’t have a lemon, just limes, and I wanted to do something more Vietnamese/Thai/Lao, so I altered it.

Get some not great tomatoes, like the “Roma” tomatoes in the store that never get ripe. You want a firm, small tomato for this. (I’ve put all the homegrown ones I got from other folks’ gardens to more appropriate use, don’t worry.)

Thin slices of “Roma” tomato, red onion, Asian lime leaf -- Asian grocery stores have them (some still call them “kaffir” lime leaves, others makrut lime or Thai lime). One biggish lime leaf cut into thin threads (they’re the stemlike things in the bowl). Add
the juice of one (regular old) lime and some fish sauce. Some sweet pepper slices (I used red Anaheim), slices of jalapeño and Thai birds eye chilis.

Let it marinate a little while, just few minutes.

Chop up holy basil (if you can find it - I found it at Bangluck Market on Hollywood around Kingsley) and cilantro and put them in, pour on some good olive oil, mix it all up. Use other herbs of your choice, y’know. Just so long as you use a lot.

I’ve tried this with sardines, excellent, lox, excellent, but you can use tofu, chicken, or go non-meat in your own way.

This has to be eaten on a baguette. I put a little spread of mayonnaise on mine as a nod to bánh mì.