Little Saigon

The rich and complex culture of Vietnamese Americans has become an important part of the Bay Area community.  It may surprise you to know that you can come to the Tenderloin, a neighborhood in San Francisco with a mixed reputation, and take a trip to Vietnam in an area they call Little Saigon.

Although the Tenderloin is known for its high crime rate and poverty, affordable rents have drawn Vietnamese immigrants here since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

Although most of the 100,000 Vietnamese Americans in the Bay Area are in San Jose, the concentration of Vietnamese businesses here around Larkin Street has made it San Francisco’s Little Saigon.

Today we’ll explore this neighborhood and discover a culture that has incorporated outside influences for centuries and continues to transform here in the US

“You’ve got your video stores, your travel agency, your grocery store where you can buy the food you need to make at home. Everything you need is here,” says Anne Le, an owner of a well-known Vietnamese restaurant who frequents this area.  Anne will be our guide today and she will show us some of her favorite spots in a walking tour of Little Saigon.

I love starting the day with a good cup of coffee, which is also a popular Vietnamese tradition.  Anne’s favorite coffee stop in the area is the Baguette Express.  Owner Kim Le reveals the special formula for making coffee, Vietnamese style.  “The secret ingredient for the Vietnamese coffee is warm coffee, mixed with condensed milk, and then put the ice in that, it’s yummy and excellent,” Kim explains.

Kim serves many types of Vietnamese drinks, including ones made from freshly pressed sugar cane. These drinks take her back to her childhood.  Kim reminisces, “In Vietnam when we come home from school, stop by order a sugar cane drink… You imagine - the hot weather in Vietnam and have a sugar cane juice… excellent.”

The Baguette Express is also Anne’s favorite place to get banh mi, a Vietnamese sandwich. As in the case with coffee, baguettes were brought to Vietnam by French colonists, but the Vietnamese made the sandwiches distinctly their own.  The sandwiches can be ordered with various meats or tofu, but they’re all topped off with pickled carrots and cilantro. Kim had me try one for myself.

We finish off our sandwiches and head to our next stop where we find ourselves in Little Saigon’s gold country.  Jewelry shop owner Lana Lan, a fourth generation jeweler, explains the important role that gold plays for Vietnamese who had experienced a crash in their currency when Vietnam became a communist country.

“So there was this fear that if there was a change in currency, your paper money would no longer be worth anything so quite frequently people saved their money in gold,” Anne interprets for Lana.  “When she left Vietnam she sold a lot of gold to purchase her ticket to America.”  Lana opened her store when she arrived in the US over 20 years ago and built her new life in this neighborhood.

We find many beautiful, handcrafted pieces, made by expert goldsmith, Mr. Lun. He shows us one special ring that is worth more to him than its weight in gold. 

Mr. Lun explains that it is engraved with special dates, “This year the US army come to my country. This year communists take over my country.”  Mr. Lun learned how to make all of his pieces while he was in Vietnam, and he brought all of that knowledge and skill here.  Before we go, we discover one final showstopper, a 24 karat Buddha made of 150 grams of gold. 

We leave the lucky Buddha behind and head to the local grocery store, where we discover another Buddhist offering.  Most Vietnamese are Buddhists so every business has an altar.  As we make our way down the aisles, we find many Vietnamese goods.  Here you’ll find things like fish sauce and pickled lotus root to make your lotus root salad.  But, we also find products that meet the needs of the diverse neighborhood’s residents.

Of all the wonderful Vietnamese foods there are in the store is the pan dulce. I think what’s interesting about the store is it has things from Mexico, things from the United States. I can get anything I want here. I can travel the world and create my own Vietnamese fusion.  Anne chimes in, “That’s right. Maybe you can make your own Vietnamese sandwich at home too.”

The fusion of foods reflects the cultural mixing in the neighborhood.  “The owners of this market are from the big market area of Saigon where a lot of ethnic Chinese live,” Anne says.  “A lot of the Vietnamese who live in San Francisco are ethnic Chinese.” 

Our next stop is Turtle Tower, a busy restaurant that’s become legendary for their pho, Vietnam’s famous noodle soup.  “One of the few places in San Francisco where you can get truly northern Vietnamese pho,” Anne says. “They serve pho very traditionally here. You can’t get sprouts you can’t get basil.” 

This would be a great thing to have on a foggy day in San Francisco or a cool winter’s day in Hanoi.  A taste of the broth that has been cooked for 8 to 10 hours is like taking an herbal bath.  All of it feels natural and healthful, almost as if I’m eating out of my own garden. 

To finish off the meal and the day, we walk next door to get dessert at Lee’s Sandwiches, a Vietnamese American institution.  “Normally if you go into a little Vietnamese town or a Little Saigon, you’ll find a Lee’s Sandwich which acts as an anchor and everyone moves to the neighborhood around them,” Anne explains.

Lee’s Sandwiches started in San Jose in 1983 serving sandwiches out of a truck. They now have over 30 locations in several states.  They’ve also expanded to carry many different types of Vietnamese food, including Anne’s favorite dessert.   Although we’ve been feasting all day, I definitely feel like there’s room for what’s called the Fourth Daughter’s Dessert.  It’s the perfect end to a memorable day. 

Visitors and residents alike find that there’s much to discover and enjoy about this neighborhood.  Kim Le says, “I am so proud. I am so proud of it because we can be able to show the next generation what the Vietnamese look like in the food, and culture.”  Although there’s poverty here, you also see a lot of uplifting things here. Immigrants working hard for their families and their loved ones….and it’s a great sign of hope.

Baguette Express
668 Larkin St San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 345-8999

Huu Danh
875A O’Farrell Street
San Francisco, CA  94109
(415) 474-4517
(closed Tuesday)

Hiep Thanh Market
724 Larkin St. San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 474-1377

Turtle Tower
631 Larkin St. San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 409-3333

Lee’s Sandwiches
625 Larkin Street San Francisco, CA
(415) 929-6888

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