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« Getting Rear-Ended, Making Tofu with Cooking Light, Visiting Birmingham |Main| Vietnamese-American Thanksgiving Salad Recipe »
November 05, 2012Cheater’s Guide to Little Saigons in America
Want to know where to find good Vietnamese food? Look on a map andcheck Census data. That’s how you find the Little Saigon enclaves. I used tohave to piece the information together but today, I found an amazing resourcefrom the Orange County Register, a newspaperin Southern California, home of the largest population of Viet-Americans.
According to reporter Jim Hinch, the newspaper is running a serieson how Orange County influences other areas of the country and world. Hinchinterviewed me for his story on Little Saigons in America. Today he emailed tosay that it been posted online. “OC’s Little Saigon? Nothing little about it” contains greatinsights on the complex nature of the Vietnamese American community, the pushand pull between Vietnam and expatriates populations abroad. This isn’tanything new, but the OC Register has done an excellent job in presentinginformation about Vietnamese people. Major newspapers have featured LittleSaigon enclaves but the OC has the granddaddy of them all. Thus, the Register has a strong understanding ofand commitment to Vietnamese-Americans.
Along with the article,there were extra goodies, such as a slideshowof Little Saigon daily life. What blew me away was a this graphic of Vietnamesehistory and people in America:
Click on the image to see it enlarged. Note where Vietnamesepopulations concentrate. Those are the major Little Saigons with a criticalmass of people wanting good ingredients and food. That’s to say, on the EastCoast, folks need to look to Falls Church in Virginia. People in the Bay Areaneed to head to the Oakland or to San Jose for Viet food. When I’m in Texasagain, along with Houston, I’m going to visit Dallas and Tarrant.
Once you’ve absorbed all the Census data and Little Saigonfactoids, check the lower part of the graphic for quick digest of howVietnamese got to America in 1975. My family went to Camp Pendleton inCalifornia. I didn’t realize that we were among the 45,000 people who wentthrough the camp that year. We hadfamily members and friends scattered among the other camps too.
The graphic also squeezed in information on how people leftVietnam and how long it took them to get to the U.S. It was a long journey, myfirst flights on an airplane and I had no recollection of the actual timeinvolved; I was too scared. My family was among the luckier ones to escape byplane.
What can you do with the information in the graphic and factoids?Use them to strike up conversations with Vietnamese people. And, of course, searchfor good food. Keep this graphic in your back pocket. You could be extra charming at a cocktail party!
If there are Little Saigon gems (restaurants, bakeries, delis, markets, etc.) that you'd like to share, please do. Your picks don't have to be in the major enclaves. As you see below, I’ve been to smallones like in the one in Denver!
Relatedposts:
HoustonNew York CityWestminster, CADenverCambramatta in Australia, near SydneyP.S. If you live in the U.S., please vote, if you have not already! Voting is your political voice.Posted in Asian Food Culture, Little Saigon, Viet Food in Media, Vietnamese Culture | Permalink | |
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Comments Cheater’s Guide to Little Saigons in America
Want to know where to find good Vietnamese food? Look on a map andcheck Census data. That’s how you find the Little Saigon enclaves. I used tohave to piece the information together but today, I found an amazing resourcefrom the Orange County Register, a newspaperin Southern California, home of the largest population of Viet-Americans.
According to reporter Jim Hinch, the newspaper is running a serieson how Orange County influences other areas of the country and world. Hinchinterviewed me for his story on Little Saigons in America. Today he emailed tosay that it been posted online. “OC’s Little Saigon? Nothing little about it” contains greatinsights on the complex nature of the Vietnamese American community, the pushand pull between Vietnam and expatriates populations abroad. This isn’tanything new, but the OC Register has done an excellent job in presentinginformation about Vietnamese people. Major newspapers have featured LittleSaigon enclaves but the OC has the granddaddy of them all. Thus, the Register has a strong understanding ofand commitment to Vietnamese-Americans.
Along with the article,there were extra goodies, such as a slideshowof Little Saigon daily life. What blew me away was a this graphic of Vietnamesehistory and people in America:
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