The Little Saigon Cookbook

Ann Le was raised in Little Saigon, an area of Southern California's Orange County that is home to the world's largest population of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam. Her new collection of recipes, The Little Saigon Cookbook, tells the story of this unique enclave, and the culture of the people who live there, through the food that binds their community together.

"At first I just wanted to write this book for people like me," says Le, a gregarious twentysomething investment banker, who graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in economics. "There are a lot of us who were born in America, and who have grown up and moved on from Little Saigon – but we don't want to lose touch with the community or the immigrant experience our parents went through." Le's own career as a bond trader and saleswoman has taken her to London, San Francisco, and New York before bringing her back to Los Angeles in 2003. "Our parents didn't have time while working hard to support a family in a new country to teach their kids the fundamentals of Vietnamese cookery. They focused on the work-ethic aspect of things – mainly by way of example. So for my brother and me, that part came naturally. The Vietnamese family is an egalitarian organization, so we were brought up knowing we could do anything we wanted to in America."

With the charm and ease of a natural community-builder, Le set out to collect as many of Little Saigon’s recipes as possible, speaking to restaurant owners, family friends, and most importantly, her own Ba Ngoai (grandmother). "Ba Ngoai was the best cook in the family. She used to sell her own homemade treats wrapped in banana leaves to the first bakeries in Little Saigon." She found that the recipes and the dishes couldn't just be copied down without context, without explaining the history behind the food. “I wanted to tell the story of Little Saigon, and to hopefully preserve what I saw as the most important of our values – the lessons that made me who I am.” What resulted was a definitive collection of the recipes of the Southern Vietnamese kitchen, the tale of how they developed in Vietnam, and how they made it to America.

No one knew that story better than Le and her family, who were among the hundreds of thousands of “Boat People” that fled Southern Vietnam in 1975, leaving everything behind, as control of their country fell to the Communist North Vietnamese government. "My parents were married just two weeks before leaving Saigon, with no idea that their lives soon would change forever. Three days before the fall of Saigon my mother gathered the family together and they left in the night." The family was too large to travel together and had to split up, leaving on separate boats. Her parent's boat was at sea for a little over a week when a Chinese Oceanliner discovered it and the passengers were taken to a refugee camp in South Korea. Her family was eventually sponsored by a Christian family from Minnesota, where she was born a few years later.

By 1979, her parents had heard of a place in Southern California where the many of the Vietnamese refugees, now spread across the US, were gathering. “Vietnamese people moved to Little Saigon for the same reasons generations of displaced Americans moved there: the weather, California’s substantial social welfare programs, and the growing economy that required cheap, unskilled labor.” Many people opened restaurants in poor parts of Westminster and Garden Grove to cater to other Vietnamese folks. “Food sustained the community -- coffee shops and restaurants served as a gathering place where people could discuss business and politics. Food and language were the only reminders of life in Vietnam.”

Ann is not a professional chef, but says, "That's not the point. This cuisine was not developed by professional chefs. Vietnamese food is uncomplicated, cooked by regular people who want to eat well and have access to fresh ingredients – not necessarily expensive ones. Growing up I ate Vietnamese food every day of my life". Restaurants in community were very competitive. “Even today, the food has to be good and cheap.” Today there are nearly 200 Vietnamese restaurants in the area, all serving dishes that originated in the homeland.

Throughout her youth, Ann’s Grandparents told stories about Vietnam, about the uncle who was left behind -- many families had loved ones who couldn't be found when it came time to flee the country, their whereabouts still unknown. Ann and her family have participated and demonstrated with a number of Vietnamese organizations, including Boat People SOS, one of the many charitable groups that help families find information about relatives who were lost or left behind.

"We grew up with the family always talking about Vietnam and the war. How communists were killers, and how there was no longer democracy, freedom, or voting there. Our Grandparents taught us how to vote – it was a big event and there was always a big dinner after voting!” Le stresses the importance of fairness and equality in Vietnamese culture. “I guess I don’t fit the image of the demure Asian woman who prefers to work quietly in the background. But then again, I don’t know any demure Vietnamese women—in my family or the community. My grandmother was the leader of our family – she taught me to be a leader every day of her life.”

Today Ann strives to live by that example. “My family looks to me for advice and leadership just as often as I look to them.” She is currently pursuing her M.B.A. at UCLA’s Anderson School of Business. She lives in Silver Lake, and is the Treasurer of the Silver Lake Chamber of Commerce, and spends her spare time in Little Saigon where she continues to volunteer, document and EAT! Her cookbook is available in bookstores everywhere.