I have a thing for reformatting my favorite dishes. You know what I mean? Not like, oh I made this recipe vegan, so it’s reformatted, but taking the ingredients and flavors from one dish and turning it into another type of dish altogether. Like cabbage roll soup, samosa burritos, bibimbap sandwiches. That kind of thing. I don’t do this to show off how clever I am (okay, maybe that’s part of it), but because it improves on the dish somehow. In the case of all the recipes I just mentioned, switching things up makes them way easier to put together, and for the samosa burritos, it actually makes them healthier too! So what’s the deal with turning a sandwich into tacos? Both are equally easy to make. And one thing I hear again and again about the classic banh mi sandwich is that it’s all about the bread. That’s exactly why I ditched the bread. I’m working on and slowly improving my meal planning skills. Slowly for me means three trips to the supermarket a week instead of five…but it’s something. So I want to be able to keep the ingredients on hand for dishes I can make in the middle of the week, avoiding yet another trip. With sandwiches that sometimes means using sub-stellar bread, which won’t cut it when you’re dealing with a sandwich that’s all about the bread. So I used tortillas instead of bread. Tortillas purchased on Monday will taste just as good on Friday. Normally I’m all about crunchy shells when I make tacos, but not with these. Since they’re slathered in spicy mayo and based off a sandwich recipe, I opted to go with flour tortillas instead. You can use corn shells if you want, but I’d recommend at least making them by crisping your own shells in the oven. Those crispy store-bought shells are a sometimes guilty pleasure of mine, but I really don’t think they’d be good here.
