The hook
The largest Vietnamese community in the world outside Vietnam fills a stretch of Orange County, built by refugees who arrived with almost nothing after 1975.
01Why it's worth it
When Saigon fell in 1975, Vietnamese refugees, many of them boat people, resettled across Orange County, and Westminster and Garden Grove became the heart of it. Fifty years on, close to two hundred thousand Vietnamese Americans live in and around Little Saigon, the biggest such community anywhere outside Vietnam, and its center is Bolsa Avenue: the Asian Garden Mall with its red lanterns and its parking lot that becomes a town square at Tết, and something like two hundred and eighty Vietnamese restaurants, including one of the most celebrated bowls of phở in the country. Come hungry and curious; the food alone is worth the drive, and the history under it is real.
02How to experience it
It's in Westminster and Garden Grove, about seven hours from the Bay, and it's spread out, so you'll want a car. Bolsa Avenue and the Asian Garden Mall are the core. Go for the phở, the bánh mì, the coffee, and the mall; it's busiest and most festive around Vietnamese New Year in late winter. It's a living community, so come as a guest rather than a spectator.