Born and raised within the San Gabriel Valley, I can inform you that it has been an absolute pleasure as somebody who loves meals: The culinary panorama is bountiful, thrilling and ever-changing. My total household would pile into the automotive and drive alongside Valley Boulevard, scanning for brand new eating places, wanting left and proper for unfamiliar indicators or grand opening banners. The prominence of Chinese language and Taiwanese eating places within the SGV is obvious on just about each strip mall signal bearing Chinese language logograms (with translated English enterprise names that normally imply one thing else fully). However I used to be at all times intrigued by the occasional romanized phrases with diacritcal marks that signify a Vietnamese institution. They planted the seeds of an obsession.
I nonetheless bear in mind my first bowl of pho within the ’80s when it was $3.75. To a Chinese language American child, the noodles and broth seemed acquainted, however the aroma and style had been not like something I had skilled. It could be the primary of lots of of Vietnamese noodle soups I’ve eaten throughout Southern California, different Vietnamese enclaves in America and in the end in Vietnam.
Dozens of Vietnamese eating places are strewn all through Rosemead, San Gabriel, El Monte and South El Monte. However the quantity is minuscule in comparison with Orange County’s Little Saigon, essentially the most distinguished Vietnamese group exterior of Vietnam. In that sense, the San Gabriel Valley is at all times in its shadow. Even my mother and father knew it was higher to make the one-hour trek every method to Westminster and Backyard Grove, the 2 cities that Little Saigon straddles, for the most effective Vietnamese meals and groceries. We’d spend hours at buying facilities corresponding to Phuoc Loc Tho (Asian Backyard Mall), absorbing the tradition by meals.
Driving all the way down to Orange County for a “Little Saigon-a-thon” grew to become my month-to-month custom — through which I might go to as many new and outdated eating places as my abdomen might bear in a single journey. However every little thing modified throughout the pandemic (and as soon as fuel costs skyrocketed). I shifted my consideration again to the Vietnamese eating places of the SGV. Longtime companies corresponding to Golden Deli, Summer time Rolls (previously Nem Nuong Ninh Hoa), Nha Trang and Newport Seafood are nonetheless round, however extra not too long ago, I’ve targeted on a number of locations which are notable and newish (they’ve opened within the final couple of years) and as scrumptious as many favorites in Little Saigon. Additionally they present that there’s extra to Vietnamese meals than pho, bun and banh mi.
