It was, more specifically, a pork salad roll, and another version on offer was meatball salad roll. It was the tastiest roll I've ever had. By a long way. Most of the ingredients were a mystery, but I could see that the two or three types of pork resembled a pork camp pie, the roll was buttered with a dark substance I read now would have been pate, the salad was mainly thin strips of cucumber and carrot, chilli slices and coriander, and there were two sauces. Not a lot of filling, by the way, and that reminds me that the kebabs I used to buy in Greece were thin but immeasurably better than the bulging version we get here.

I tell you about the banh mi to point out that we have room to improve that great Australian staple, the salad roll. In my column today I spell out the rules for the making of the great salad roll, although I do accept that you may have your own rules for making one of lesser note. So let's have the construction of your best salad roll. And if you know how to make a banh mi, or where we can get one in the Hunter, we'd appreciate that too.