All of these restaurants are open daily unless noted. Here’s the revised guide to the 25 best Vietnamese restaurants in Little Saigon for 2017. Sadly, I still haven’t found a bun rieu (crab soup) that I like nearly as much as the one served at the dearly departed Red Crab.īut on a happy note, Red Crab has been replaced by one of my new all-time favorites, Vua Bun Bo Cali, which serves a marrow bone soup like none other. The Imperial Rolls at Binh Minh, for example, are every bit as great as the ones formerly served at Vien Dong, and that’s saying a lot. Three restaurants in that original tour (Vien Dong, Red Crab and Fusion 11) have closed, while others (Tra House and Rice Paper) have undergone such dramatic staffing and menu changes that they no longer merit inclusion.įor some of these places I have found suitable substitutes or something even better. UPDATE: It’s been two years since I published my guide to dining in Orange County’s sprawling Little Saigon.Ī lot has changed since then, while at the same time some things never change. But where the generations overlap, there is great food. It’s common to see old men squatting on plastic stools and smoking cigarettes outside one shop, while next door you see teenagers wearing fancy designer jeans and sending text messages between slurps of milk tea. Old barbecue joints - with ducks hanging by their necks and pigs by their tails - exist alongside trendy shaved-ice parlors and noodle cafes. It’s a collision of two worlds, not of east and west but rather of old and new. There are thousands of restaurants to consider, many of which don’t offer menus in English, or menus at all. It sometimes feels like I’ve barely scratched the surface. In all, I have dined at more than 50 restaurants in Westminster, Garden Grove and Fountain Valley. They took me under their wings and introduced me to all of their favorites before turning me loose to explore on my own. It’s an exploration that began even before I moved to Orange County, thanks to a couple of Vietnamese-American friends who live in Garden Grove and eat out daily. I have no idea what’s in it, but it looks like a fun mix of green, white, blue and red squiggles.Īfter visiting Vietnam again in February, I decided it was time that I got to know Little Saigon a little better. 3 che,” pointing to the colorful milk tea pictured on the wall with “#3” on it. I see something that looks like the sweet corn porridge I discovered earlier this year at a street vendor in Vietnam, so I point to that one instead. Lifting her ladle, she makes a motion that I translate to mean, “How much would you like?” She turns to a co-worker, who just shrugs and smiles. The woman behind the counter stares at me blankly, unable to understand the gibberish that’s coming from my mouth. “What’s that over there?” I ask, pointing to a tray of technicolor pudding. Where to find the best restaurant menu items in the area.I want to taste more than just banh da lon, though. They are flying off the shelf, but everyone on this day, including me, seems able to score at least one. It’s something I will later learn is called banh da lon, which resembles a layer cake but is actually alternating ribbons of bright green and yellowish gelatin made from pandanus leaves, coconut and mung beans. I can see now what they’re talking about. “The last two times I waited in this line, they sold out before I could get to the front.” “Ohhhh,” she says, anxiously tugging on her friend’s arm every time someone orders one. The young woman directly in front of me is nervously eying something in the display case. As I get closer to the dessert counter, I see dozens of wildly colorful puddings and cakes and sheet-pans filled with fluorescent mounds of sticky rice. Incense from a nearby shop muscles itself into the mix. It’s a sunny Friday afternoon, and the line to purchase something cold and sweet at Thach Che Hien Khanh in Garden Grove stretches out the front door and down the sidewalk, past a vendor of exotic fruits and knickknacks - chopsticks, paper lanterns, plastic Buddhas, various figurines of the lunar zodiac. The scent of Little Saigon hits me in the face.Īn intoxicating perfume of jackfruit and bananas and the vanilla-y scent of pandanus leaves wraps itself around me in a warm, tight embrace.
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