bread") or ("Vietnam-style bread") can be used. A folk etymology claims that the word is a corruption of the French , meaning soft, white bread. However, or its Nôm form has referred to rice cakes and other pastries since as early as the 13th century, long before French contact. History The word , meaning "bread", is attested in Vietnamese as early as the 1830s, in Jean-Louis Taberd's dictionary . The French introduced Vietnam to the baguette, along with other baked goods such as pâté chaud, in the 1860s, at the start of their imperialism in Vietnam. Northern Vietnamese initially called the baguette , literally "Western bánh", while Southern Vietnamese called it , "wheat bánh". Nguyễn Đình Chiểu mentions the baguette in his 1861 poem "". Due to the price of imported wheat at the time, French baguettes and sandwiches were considered a luxury. During World War I, an influx of French soldiers and supplies arrived. At the same time, disruptions of wheat imports led bakers to begin mixing in inexpensive rice flour (which also made the bread fluffier). As a result, it became possible for ordinary Vietnamese to enjoy French staples such as bread. Many shops baked twice a day, because bread tends to go stale quickly in the hot, humid climate of Vietnam. Baguettes were mainly eaten for breakfast with some butter and sugar. Until the 1950s, sandwiches hewed closely to French tastes, typically a jambon-beurre moistened with a mayonnaise or liver spread. The 1954 Partition of Vietnam sent over a million migrants from North Vietnam to South Vietnam, transforming Saigon's local cuisine. Among the migrants were and , who opened a small bakery named in District 3. In 1958, became one of the first shops to sell . Around this time, another migrant from the North began selling sandwiches from a basket on a mobylette, and a stand in Gia Định Province (present-day Phú Nhuận District) began selling sandwiches. Some shops stuffed sandwiches with inexpensive Cheddar cheese, which came from French food aid that migrants from the North had rejected. Vietnamese communities in France also began selling . After the Fall of Saigon in 1975, sandwiches became a luxury item once again. During the so-called "subsidy period", state-owned phở eateries often served bread or cold rice as a side dish, leading to the present-day practice of dipping in phở. In the 1980s, Đổi Mới market reforms led to