Australian traveller stunned by bizarre sight in Africa

When Amy Fallon travelled to Uganda, she did not expect to see a familiar face staring back at her outside a restaurant.

A bánh mì shop in Uganda is using a picture of Malcolm Turnbull to help sales. Pictures: Alamy; Supplied

In a bánh mì shop in Uganda, some 11,000 kilometres away from Australia, Fosca Anirwoth understandably doesn’t know exactly who Malcolm Turnbull is.

“But I know he’s a person of great influence,” she says.

Now the new restaurant where Anirwoth works at in the country’s capital Kampala is hoping that the former prime minister will be able to help them sell a new type of sandwich there, Escape reports.

The eatery is using two large photos of Mr Turnbull eating bánh mì when he was Australia’s leader during a 2017 visit to Vietnam.

When he pondered his legacy, Mr Turnbull may not have thought he’d become the poster child for the Vietnamese sandwich in Africa.

But shop owner Nguyen Son Dong, who remembered the photo from the leader’s visit, searched for it on the internet, found it and then put it up, after opening two months ago, hopes it will do the trick.

“I knew who he was because when he came to Vietnam, he ate street food,” says Mr Dong of Mr Turnbull.

This is a bizarre sight in Uganda. Picture: Supplied

“In Africa they have injera, ugali, chapatti,” he adds referring to popular dishes in countries like Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, and Uganda with maize and bread. Mr Dong said that in Vietnam, people eat bánh mì “every day”.

“The bánh mì is the best food,” he says.

In Uganda, East Africa, the “rolex” – an egg omelette with vegetables in chapatti flatbread – is a popular street food. It’s now served by Uganda Airlines on its flights.

“More people know Rolex,” says Anirwoth. “But they come here and say, ‘This food is nice’ if you say, ‘Let me make one and you taste.’”

Uganda is some 11,000 kilometres away from Australia. Picture: Alamy

The Turnbull photo is from a November 2017 visit to Da Nang in south central Vietnam during an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

He was captured enjoying a bánh mì with celebrity chef Luke Nguyen. The former PM posted on Facebook about it at the time.

“Eat your heart out,” Mr Turnbull then joked to ABC, who also showed him eating the bánh mì. A photo of Mr Turnbull is featured in the Kampala restaurant next to an image of 2018 Miss Universe Vietnam contestant H’Hen Niê surrounded by the baguettes.

“The most popular fast food in Vietnam,” it says. “Thanks to it I am Miss Universe Vietnam because I ate it every day.”

Turnbull’s image sits next to 2018 Miss Universe Vietnam contestant H’Hen Niê. Picture: Supplied

There’s also a separate photo of former US president Barack Obama, which was taken in a Hanoi restaurant in 2016 with celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. But Turnbull has two images, which are more prominent, on the front and outside of the shop.

Mr Dong whose Australian friend runs a nearby Mexican place, Que Pasa, and helped him find the photo, says that bánh mì could be made with chicken, butter, pate, coriander, cucumber, carrot, radish, ketchup, chilli, and eaten on the run.

Australia’s best bánh mì are said to be found in inner city Melbourne suburbs of Footscray and Richmond, which is also known as “Little Saigon”, Marrickville in Sydney’s inner west, and even Castlemaine near Bendigo, Victoria.

At Mr Dong’s restaurant, one bánh mì with chicken, salad and sauce goes for 8000 Ugandan shillings ($3.20).

Mr Dong has been in Uganda since 2009, and now has three other restaurants in the country’s capital, Kampala.

Already some customers like bodaboda (motorbike taxi) driver Ezra Tumwesigye say that the baguette is “better than Rolex” although it’s harder to find. “It’s sweet in your mouth when you’re chewing it,” he says.

This article originally appeared on Escape and was reproduced with permission