The Little Saigon Cookbook: Vietnamese Cuisine and Culture in Southern California's Little Saigon (Paperback)

~ (Author), Julie Fay (Photographer) "One of the great myths of Vietnamese cuisine asserts that it is impossible to make at home..." (more)
Key Phrases: herb noodle salad, cassava noodles, chopped into rings, Little Saigon, Bolsa Avenue, Coco Rico (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

 As featured on the Los Angeles Times website!  For authentic Vietnamese food savvy diners need look no further than Southern California's Little Saigon. From the French-inspired bakeries, the coffeehouses, and the food courts, to the weekend mayhem of the noodle houses and wedding receptions at boisterous seafood restaurants, The Little Saigon Cookbook takes you inside this spectacular enclave and introduces you to the extraordinary meals that Vietnamese diners and others in the know enjoy every day.
The Le family was one of the first to settle and work in Little Saigon after fleeing Vietnam as boat people in 1975. With this cookbook, Ann Le shares the family recipes that she grew up with - many of which survived through oral history alone. She also provides insider tidbits on this wonderful cuisine so home cooks can create their own Vietnamese dishes, just like the locals.Try these Vietnamese favorites at home:
Traditional Shredded Chicken and Cabbage Salad
Grilled Beef with Lemongrass and Garlic
Rice Flour Crepes with Mushrooms and Ground PorkBeef PhoBraised Eggplant and Tofu in Caramel Sauce
Vietnamese Water Spinach Sautéed with Garlic
Steamed Tilapia with Ginger, Scallions, and Onions
Drunken Crab Warm "Shaking Beef" Salad with Watercress and TomatoesChicken Braised in Ginger and CoconutCrispy Coconut and Turmeric Crepes Banana Tapioca in Coconut MilkFresh Avocado Shake

About the Author

Ann Le has lived most of her life in the area of Southern California known as Little Saigon, where her family moved in 1975 right after the fall of Saigon. She grew up eating and cooking Vietnamese food and is acquainted with many of the people and restaurant owners in the Little Saigon community. She speaks and writes Vietnamese fluently.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Globe Pequot; 1st edition (January 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762738316
• ISBN-13: 978-0762738311
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #104,170 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Armenian man with a vietnamese food fetish, March 2, 2007

By	Andre (Little Armenia) - See all my reviews

I've always had a thing for vietnamese food. I love everything about it, only problem is, I've just never been able to cook any of it. Born into an Armenian kitchen, the flavors, spices, and methods of cooking I've learned do me no good. I had resigned myself to eating out for vietnamese the rest of my life.

Then I saw an article in the March issue of Sunset magazine. A girl with dimples promising to teach me how to make vietnamese food. On a rare impulse, I bought The Little Saigon Cookbook (I think it hit a chord of sentimentality since I live in LIttle Armenia). The recipes are simple, fast, and delicious! I've now been able to make new friends and influence people using my new found cullinary skills. Thank you Ann Le!

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't understand the hype, August 20, 2007

By	Ryan Martin (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am completely perplexed by the multitude of 5-star reviews for this cookbook. 35 of 37 reviews gave 5 stars, the other 2 reviews 4 stars at the time of writing this. Not a single other person out there was even remotely dissatisfied? Something seems wrong...

I'm not Vietnamese but I live near Little Saigon and eat there quite often so I think I have a pretty good grasp of the cuisine and how everything should taste. It's my favorite cuisine, and I have even learned to cook some of the dishes from friends, etc. I bought this book because I wanted to expand my repetoire, however, everything I have tried has come out tasting 'off'.

I found the directions in the recipes to be either misleading or not descriptive enough. Take the bu'n rie^u recipe, for example. The ingredients call for a large onion, pealed. In the directions, she just instructs you to saute the onion in a small skillet. Obviously you are not expected to saute a whole onion, however there is no mention as to whether you should quarter it, dice it, chop or mince it, etc. as you would expect in any other cookbook. Not to mention a large onion + shallots + crab won't even fit in a small skillet. That may sound picky but for a cuisine that is still considered somewhat exotic and unfamiliar to most Americans I think these kind of details are very important if the food is going to come out right.

The good aspects of this book are the descriptions of the culture, cuisine, and history of Little Saigon and it's people, which is really quite interesting. I just wouldn't recommend using this book to try cooking the food. I would suggest maybe trying the more detailed (albeit more difficult) "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" cookbook for that.

In short, to^i kho^ng thi'ch sa'ch na`y.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I heard about it on NPR and found that vietnamese food works surprisingly well with Guiness., February 18, 2006

By	Seamus Anyoo "Sean" (Cork, Ireland) - See all my reviews

I heard about this bloody good cookbook on NPR and immediately ordered it off of amazon.com. Here in Ireland, we don't get much vietnamese cuisine. It's potatoes, potatoes, potatoes. I have thoroughly impressed all my mates with my new found skills. You could, too!!! I highly encourage anyone to buy this book. You will never eat a potato again!