Little Saigon - New York

New York

In New York City, the Vietnamese area exceeds the diminutive connotation. In Manhattan's sprawling Chinatown, "Little Saigon" is truly little. In fact, it’s tiny. There is Vietnamese food in a handful of shops near the Grand Street subway station. From the station is the New York's bevy of Vietnamese shops. It’s an L-shaped teeny area that spans Grand Street up to Bowery and southward down to Hester. There's produce for sale on the street and people milling about looking for groceries and sundries.

Along Grand, one can found a butcher, seafood vendor, and a Vietnamese market that proudly announces its Vietnamese affiliation as a "Sieu Thi Viet Nam" – Vietnamese market. There are also fresh herbs, noodles, fish sauce and even net-like wrappers called banh re, which are hard to find outside of Vietnam these days. That market keeps those wrappers very fresh.