Braised meat mixed with Asian flavours makes these mouth-watering sandwiches

If you live in Oakville, or are just visiting, I recommend you eat through the Dundas Market Square strip mall.

Oakville haswide roads and a sprawl that makes it challenging to discover local food spots.But the Dundas Market Square is unique, because unlike many strip malls in Oakville, it is mostly devoid of chain restaurants. It's made up of a small cluster of independent places with honest cooking.

You'll discover some keepers:a pho place with hearty bowls of spicy Southern Vietnamese noodle soups,an Indian restaurant with great biryani and house-made desserts, a bao spot from the Korean lady that used to run a sandwich stand at the CNE.And there arealso memorable plates of Portuguese grilled chicken.

Watch this pho beef banh mi come together

5 years ago

Duration 1:02

Just Braise in Oakville combines braised beef in pho broth with a banh mi sandwich for this signature dish.

There's also Just Braise, a sandwich shop tucked in the middle of the strip mall where a young second-generation Canadian, Patrick Lam, has created a restaurant based around his obsession withsandwiches and Asian foods.

Earlier this year during a food tour, I took a few friends to eat through the menu of Asian-themed sandwiches. Before ordering, we were hit with the old-school hip-hop soundtrack as we sat down to eat. The playlist is part of the experience at Just Braise.

After taking a bite of the housespecialty, pho beef banh mi,my pal said, "This isn't right. This tastes like the noodle soup I grew up with but this is in a sandwich. What is going on?"

The sandwich is made of cubed beef stuffed into a soft, almost Portuguese-bun-like roll andthe usual accoutrements of pickled vegetables. When you bite into it you get the essence ofumami and pho, the full flavour of broth and beef with accents of herbs.

"This is part me celebrating my heritage, but also me celebrating my love for sandwiches and braising meats," Lam explained.

Lamis of Vietnamese and Chinese descent. His parents arrived in Canada as refugees to escape the Vietnam war.

"I grew up in Guelph. I grew up with a diverse set of friends, and we loved hip hop and we loved to eat out."

After a stint in the corporate world, Lam decided that his true calling was to open a sandwich place.

Why Oakville?

"I live in Mississauga. Oakville is untapped. There is a growing food scene here and I wanted to see if my food could work here. My focus is to braise meats and vegetables."

His menu hasn't changed much;you'll find a handful of sandwich items on the menu that pull from Lam's background and his fascination with Asian ingredients.

During my second visit, I tried the karaage sandwich, which pulls from the Japanese-style of flash frying boneless chunks of chicken in a thick dredge. Lam serves a version where he marinates bits of chicken overnight before frying it twice.

"The idea is to get a really nice crunch with the chicken" he said.

It is also a sandwich that embodies what Lam is trying to do with the shop, integrating flavours without holding back on spice.

For each of Lam's sandwiches, the bun is key. It is a soft roll that is slightly yeasty when you bite into it.

"We tinkered with the bun for a long time. I finally got someone locally here in Oakville to make it for me."

I am not a fan of pulled pork sandwiches. I find them to be more about the sauce than the slow cooked meat. But Lam's version, I feel, stands out.

A log of meat is marinated for long periods of time before it's sliced and then finished on the grill. This gives the meat the added texture to accompany the deep umami flavours in the marinade, without anoverpowering goopy sauce.

Just Braise has a number of sides to accompany sandwiches, during our visits the group gravitated to the kimchi bapcrisp, twice-fried fries that were topped with house-made kimchi before getting dressed with garlic mayo.

"Kimchi fries are fairly common. But I have really worked on my house kimchi. It marries what I am trying to do here. Canadiana with a touch of Asian."