#Saigon Deli

[formeryelpers]

Saigon Deli, 832 N Broadway, Los Angeles (Chinatown), CA 90012

I’ve walked by Saigon Deli so many times over the years. They have so much on the sidewalk that they look like a street vendor – but there is a small indoor area with a cash register. A woman made banh mi sandwiches in one corner (the banh mi is made to order).

The menu includes fruit, smoothies, spring rolls, egg rolls, fried banana, meatballs on a stick, and banh mi (combo, chicken, BBQ pork, sardine, meatball, BBQ beef, beef lemongrass, pork cake). Sandwiches are $6 - $7. They make fresh sugarcane juice to order, on the sidewalk.

#1 Banh mi dac biet ($6): This was a long baguette stuffed with pickled carrots and daikon (lightly pickled, crunchy), fresh jalapeno, mayo, and 3 kinds of meat (BBQ pork, cha lu/pork cake, and ham). There was no pate, cilantro, or cucumber. The meat wasn’t bad but it wasn’t what I expected. Normally, the meat is thinly sliced. Here the meat was in big thick pieces. There was a ton of meat. The sandwich seemed thrown together. The baguette was not toasted but was soft and chewy. It was not terrible but it was missing some key elements.

The prices posted on the menu outside seem to be outdated. The current prices can be found on the indoor menu. There is no seating.

3 out of 5 stars

By Lolia S.

[cruella-devegan]

Kashew Cheese Deli / Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Cashew cheese pesto toasted sandwich with a soy latte 🧀

[woman-respecter]

I live in Seattle and I’ll get harassed on the bus a lot. I’m a trans man. They assume I’m a woman (really only bc of the long hair lol like I have facial hair) so they harass me but then I say something and the pieces fall into place and they clock me so they turn transphobic and they need to protect their heterosexuality so they say homophobic shit but like… literally none of that is bc I’m a man. It’s everything else lmao. I think it’s kinda a thing where people want to have as many marginalized identities as they can and iding as a man removes one of them so they turn insecure for some reason.

mostly agree but i think it has less to do with collecting marginalized identities and more to do with discomfort with the fact that they are facing “women issues” so they want to rebrand it.

and i’m sorry u have to deal with that, wishing u many harassment free seattle bus and link rides!

[pierrotsloop]

Fuck the haters I love Seattle Washington so much may its joy always expand and choke out real estate developers and privatization swiftly and gracefully like the wind . I love 3rd Ave 2nd and 1st Ave also. I love football guy I love pigeons I love Parsons garden uw swamp Lincoln park medgar evers pool Macy's star flowers 4u center for wooden boats Saigon deli Schmitz Park admiral theatre siff uptown magus books mercer st books violin repair guy in Ravenna and all that . I don't love Northgate but that's okay .

[plokjnhb]

candace marie hughes dharavi flooded appling rd. paid to fletcher creek pile paid bismark st memphis tennessee paid silverage ave memphis tennessee paid deli silverage ave memphis tennessee paid pennsylvania memphis tennessee paid florida st memphis tennessee paid memphis wings and grill 1472 florida st memphis tennessee 38109 paid baltimore maryland paid egaricia paid jarchie/take me to church paid oocL hong kong container ship with key paid john boats with paddles and keys paid gravy manchurian street foods in saigon on cycle paid road to zion cartbasket paid laids paids loc must return to candace marie hughes and on paid loc. loc. paid. laid. paid. loced. mail kiy key card dh to candace marie hughes on paid. loc. laid. paid. loced.

[eatingtheave]

Welcome back to the U District

On Sept. 13, UW staff and faculty returned to campus, and today, Sept. 29, students are joining them with the beginning of fall quarter. I am a UW staff member, and I am slowly making my return back to the office. This means that I will regularly be in my favorite neighborhood and will be able to more easily explore U District restaurants again!

For my job, I wrote about the state of the U District community as it recovers from the worst of — and continues to cope with — the pandemic. The U District is experiencing a lot of change, with light rail opening on Oct. 2 and the development of towers and many other new buildings, following an upzone of the neighborhood in 2017. I have mixed feelings about the changes. I value the small, family-run businesses in the U District. I worry that they will be priced out and that the character of the neighborhood will change — a conversation happening in many parts of our rapidly developing city. But I talked to six U District community members, and I left every interview feeling optimistic for the neighborhood’s future, which is reflected in the story.

One of the people I talked to was Don Blakeney, executive director of the U District Partnership (UDP), an organization that represents the neighborhood’s business and community interests. The UDP is hosting a festival when light rail opens, and it is showing off the food scene as part of the celebration with a $3 food walk at 40 U District restaurants. I hope you’ll be there on Oct. 2. I will be!

I went back to the office on Sept. 13. It was my first day at the office of my new job, which I started in March 2020. My co-workers and I ventured to the Ave for lunch. We headed to a crowd-pleaser and perennial favorite, Sizzle & Crunch. Sadly, we found it boarded up and closed! 

It was a letdown to find Sizzle & Crunch this way after looking forward to coming back to the neighborhood. I checked Facebook and saw that they opened a new location in Federal Way, so I couldn’t imagine that it went out of business. Still, there was no sign indicating an opening date; it was a mystery. We ended up at Saigon Deli around the corner, a reliable spot for banh-mis and other Vietnamese food.

The following Friday, my boss offered to take me out to lunch as a welcome to the office. He had told me that he liked Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen, which serves its namesake sandwiches made with maize dough. So we headed up to the 50th and the Ave, which required a car ride from my current office on campus, as opposed to the brisk walk from my old office at UW Tower.

I got the Best Bart arepa, which includes pork and shredded beef with cilantro sauce. I’ve always found the pork a bit dry, and this time was no different. But I really enjoyed the shredded beef, so I think I’ll go with shredded beef only next time. I really tried not to stuff my face. I wanted to eat it daintily with a fork, like a civilized person. Instead, my attempts at mannerliness lost out to gluttony. I opened my mouth as wide as it could to get the clumps of meat into my belly.

The plantains we shared were fried, seared with a nice carmelized taste that contrasted nicely with the gooey, sweet inside I topped it off with an Inca Cola, a soda I haven’t seen since I went to Peru 10 years ago! I remembered it tasting like bubble gum 10 years ago, and yep, it tasted like bubble gum again. My boss asked, “How is it?” “Not great,” I said. It wasn’t disgusting, but I don’t need to have it for another 10 years. Still, it was a delight to find a Peruvian soda in Seattle. These small encounters with other cultures are what make the U District special.

After I finished work that Friday, I walked around the neighborhood, swinging by Sizzle & Crunch four days after the last time I visited it. This time, instead of boarded up and closed, I found a door open.

The opened door beckoned, so I poked my head in. I found the owner there — the same guy I talked to when he caught me taking a picture in 2017 and I explained I was a blogger. He was so happy and eager then — he thought I was a much more important blogger than I actually am. I’ve seen him many other times, sometimes rushed at the register with a furrowed brow. This time he was calm, a contrast to the chaos indicated by the door with the broken window. “We’re redecorating,” he said.

I let out a sigh of relief. There was definitely some damage to the restaurant, but maybe he was using the time to make the business better. It was another symbol of the neighborhood — broken but on the brink of good things to come.

[tieutru236]

Một chút mắm tôm cho thêm thơm mới. #food #foodie #foody #instafood #delicious #deli #good #goodfood #cook #cooky #saigon #saigonfood #vietnamfood #thanhriviu #riview #vietnamoi #diadiemanuong #sàigòn https://www.instagram.com/p/CBE41vRjjSP/?igshid=cz8opc3leptz

[avictimofthejazz]

🍰 Three foods (for Face)

Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches 

When Face first came to Sacred Heart, while the priests decided what they needed to do, he was entrusted to Sister Gwenny to get cleaned up, and get some food in him. Needing something fast, she made him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Even years later, he has very vivid memories of sitting at a table in the warm kitchen, eating the sandwich with a glass of milk, feeling like it was manna from heaven after being hungry for so long. Even decades, and quite a bit of money later, Face still returns to PB&J as a comfort food. 

Fruit Pies

Face enjoys a good fruit pie--isn’t even picky about the flavor. If made correctly, they aren’t too sweet, and are generally fairly easy to find for a guy who  spends a lot of his life on the road. Pretty much every diner has them. Much to his dismay however, he does not get to  finish his pie as often as he would like... especially when he is traveling with his friends. This is mostly because his friends can’t get through one meal without creating a crisis... 

Bánh Mì 

While Face would rather leave MOST aspects of Vietnam well and truly in the dust, he has a special soft spot for bánh mì, a Vietnamese sandwich that was a popular street-vendor option in Saigon. Most of his informants in Saigon were street kids. He never paid them in money, fearing that they could be badly injured if someone tried to rob them. Instead, information was rewarded by Face making sure they got a solid meal, and other necessities, along with fun treats that he produced seemingly out of the blue. Bánh mì was one of his favorite options because it  was always easy to find a cart selling them, and they gave the kids a balanced meal without cutting into his funds too badly.  A few of the older kids he knew made it to America after the Fall of Saigon. When they decided they wanted to open a deli specializing in Vietnamese food, including bánh mì, Face became one of their investors. To date, he is very happy to see the kids flourishing in their new business. 

[my-bobohu-blog]

i fucking hate the model minority myth because it completely erases the existence of asians (mainly southeast asians) living in poverty in america

[baohouse]

bánh mì, grand-père & the multiverse

Bánh mì is a Vietnamese term for wheat bread, as well as the sandwich derived from them. As a sandwich, in its most popular form, it uses a loaf of baguette, chicken liver pâté spread, deli meats (especially chả lụa ham, char siu BBQ pork, and/or grilled pork), topped with julienned pickled daikon and carrot, a sprig of cilantro for aromatics, and a few slices of fresh jalapeño peppers.

There is a similar food, bò né, which is essentially Vietnamese steak & eggs, often served with pâté, sometimes grilled onions, and with a side of baguette. I jokingly call it deconstructed bánh mì, a sandwich that you eat off the plate. The day before my grandfather's funeral, I took my father out to eat some "deconstructed bánh mì".

"Did grandpa ever had to go to reeducation camp like you did Dad?"

I wasn't very close to my grandfather. I met him enough times to count on two hands, perhaps. And even during those times, it was difficult to communicate with him because of my limited Vietnamese language proficiency. Or maybe I was just very shy and didn't know what to say to him. It turns out he was more fluent in English than I gave him credit for. It was not until I was already in college that I first learned he was a poet, about anything interesting about him.

Dad said no; ông nội had already left the Republic of Vietnam's War Psychology Department, having served in the early 1960s for three years, about a decade before the end of the war between North and South Vietnam. He served as a battlefield journalist (aka war correspondent), reporting events from the front lines. I was curious whether grandpa—having served for an institution connected to the South Vietnam government that opposed the victorious communist political class—would have been incarcerated into reeducation camps following the end of the war. They were prisons with the purpose of de-radicalizing any possible insurgent elements loyal to the former South Vietnam. My father spent 3 years in one as a low rank-and-file soldier; and that was considered short and for good behavior. I asked that question wondering if grandpa had to endure that kind of hardship, on top of the fact that postwar Vietnam had to face difficulty in reconstruction while getting embargoed by America and by China due to Cold War politics. And although grandpa wasn't detained into one, I can only imagine what he felt knowing he had friends and relatives (my dad among them) who disappeared from his life for years.

Bò né as deconstructed bánh mì is a somewhat silly (and delicious) way of describing how I have this tendency to take things apart, appreciate the pieces, and then recombining them again. And so over the few years that I had a chance to try to understand grandpa, I placed his life in front of me, deconstructed it, and examined the moments of his life. There are many details to everyone's life, his included. But what I think stood out to me, as soon as I examined his life, was this inexplicable parallels to my own life.

Born Ngô Đa Thiện in 1923 in Quảng Trị, Việt-Nam, then part of the Indochinese Union as a French colony, he was the son of a Chinese immigrant from the nearby island of Hainan who married into a local Vietnamese family. Dad told me how grandpa was kind of the black sheep among his siblings. He grew up taking an interest in literature, especially foreign literature, while his siblings made their living through trade and business. In his youth he would participate in poetry recitals. By 1943, during the time of Imperial Japanese occupation, he would earn his Diplôme d'Étude Primaire Supérieurs Franco-Indigène as proof of his French fluency, and continued to learn English himself. Shortly thereafter, he would move to Saigon, work for a French commercial company as an accountant, marry my paternal grandmother, and have their first child in the late 1940s. My father would become their third child in 1949, whereupon my grandfather would move back to Quảng Trị to open up a portrait photography studio and operate it for ten years while becoming a father to more children (my aunts and uncles). By the end of his life, he would have 13 children; 11 with his wife, and adopting another 2. In 1960, he moved back to Saigon and served for three years as a war correspondent. In 1966, he would go work for an American financial company for three years. When my father sponsored the entire family over to the United States through the Orderly Departure Program, my grandfather would continue to hone his translation skills by taking courses in Japanese at a local community college, as well as helping translate news articles and poems among Vietnamese, English, French, and Chinese.

If I could speak to grandpa, I would tell him—despite not having grown up around him all that much—I grew up reading the English dictionary, and in my middle school years, started composing poetry. I learned French and Spanish in high school. Parlez-vous français pépère? I entered university UCLA and, rather than focusing on my computer science major—selected as the sensible thing to choose given many of my aunts and uncles on my mother's side had a career in the technology industry—I instead developed my photography and graphic design sensibilities. I dropped out of UCLA's computer science program, trying to pursue and survive on a graphic design career. Thinking that I had to try to get back into a "real career", I tried to pursue accounting. I could not get past the second quarter in it. And yet within the past 3 years, I would join my best friend Duy to help him create a financial technology company. And now I am married to my beloved Thuy. (As she was reading this paragraph noting the parallels between my and my grandfather's lives, she insisted on not having 13 children.)

Even my father has a creative streak: a singer-songwriter, musician, and three degrees in Buddhist philosophy, Vietnamese literature, and radio telecommunications.

And so there is a part of me that is in awe and wonder of the parallels of creative men of three generations. It is a mysterious coincidence, that perhaps there is some kind of underlying order in the universe that gives rise to this kind of repetition. My dad would say it is karma or that it runs in the blood. I don't know about karma. However I concede that there are still things about the universe human beings only have the faintest glimpses of understanding. Maybe our souls are mathematically divine states of quantum wave functions, vibrating like music along cosmic strings.

But the idea of human behavior running in the blood, or rather our DNA, has some merit. Consider that when kittens are born and begin to grow up, they instinctively know to use a litter box. There is plenty we do not know about human epigenetics, little "programs" within our DNA that facilitate certain behaviors. And then I had a rather interesting thought about my relationship to my grandfather and to my extended family on my father's side of 12 aunts/uncles and ~30 first cousins. Me and every single one of my first cousins have about 25% of each of our DNA shared with our grandfather. Each of us is literally 25% Ngô Đa Thiện. I felt like each us are an alternate reality of his DNA. I, Ngô Thiên Bảo, am the manifestation of his genetics living as a male Vietnamese American doing software engineering. My cousin Catherine Ngo is the manifestation of his genetics living as a female Vietnamese American learning animation. Christie Ngo is the expression of his genetics living as a female Vietnamese American studying statistics/informatics. And Richard Ngo is the manifestation of his DNA as a Vietnamese American aspiring to be a computer scientist.

There are times when I dream of alternate realities and alter egos, like a role-playing video game where you assume the life of another person. And yet, my family are the very physical, real, manifestations of my own genes played out in different lives in different ways. And when you deconstruct their lives, and then "replay" their lives to understand where each one is coming from, you not only build empathy, but start to become aware of your own possibilities. Family is the manifestation of your own personal multiverse. (I am aware of the multiverse connection to the recently debuted film Everything Everywhere All at Once.) Like it or not, they are what you are if you were born as another person. If that is not reason enough to state why family is important, then I don't know what is.

And so after understanding glimpses of grandpa's life, what is my possibility? What I see from his life, is a life filled with love and compassion (I mean... with 13 children and his wife, my grandmother, that is impossible to refute). I see a life filled with awe and wonder of the deep mysteries and patterns of the universe. I see a life of creativity, and the courage to take the road less traveled (one of the poems he translated in his book was "The road not taken" by Robert Frost). And it fills me with warmth and hope that that legacy that my grandfather has bestowed upon our family will carry on into my as-yet-born child who will draw breath this autumn.

Rest in peace grandpa. You're not only with me in spirit. You are me.

Ngô Đa Thiện (1923 Quảng Trị, Việt-Nam–2022 San Jose, California)

[marisagertz]

WFH Lunch Ode to Saigon Vietnamese Sandwich Deli

[formeryelpers]

Phuc Loc, 14024 Magnolia St., Ste 100, Westminster, CA 92683

How is there one egg roll specialist a few feet from another egg roll place in this strip mall? Westminster has a ridiculous number of Vietnamese eateries. As for Vietnamese egg rolls, I never met one that I didn’t like. They’re addictive. And the more you order, the bigger the discount. You can get them hot or frozen in a bag.

While Phuc Loc specializes in egg rolls, they also offer noodle soup, beef stew, chicken congee, etc. All the menu items were $5. Three egg rolls are $2.50.

* Egg roll: Thin, golden crisp shell tightly packed with ground chicken and pork, glass noodles, wood ear mushrooms and carrots. These were a wider than usual. While they were delicious, I would have preferred more pepper and a heavier hand at seasoning.

Phuc Loc is no frills and set up like a deli. Order at the counter. The service was interesting – I ordered, paid and got the change without hearing one word from the cashier.

The credit card minimum is $20.

4.5 out of 5 stars

By Lolia S.

[cruella-devegan]

Kashew Cheese Deli / Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Kashew cheeseboard for one, with an assortment of bread and crisps, 4 types of cashew cheese including cashew cream, pesto, pickled vegetables and oil. Incredible cafe, with amazing assortment of cheese options! 🧀

[nicks-lunchbox-service]

9.23.21 Lunchtime drawing: Saigon Vietnamese Sandwich Deli on Broome St., I used to stop here each evening I went to the studio back when I had a space in Dumbo, killer vegetarian Banh Mi options! Also, the two people I sketched in got up and left before I finished, so just empty chairs on the left.

[thegoodhausfrau]

I’m killing time at work so I figured I'd post a list of some of the NYC food spots on my list. Of course this list is gigantic, not divided up by neighborhoods at all, and doesn't even include everything as I decided to cut it off at 100. But not even my top 100 because I feel I've already posted about a bunch of those spots and you can just search for them. Also I’m not going to give you any context or what I want off these menus. Just know that something here looked like something I need to have in my my mouth. Given the size of this incomplete and forever growing list you see what I mean when I say I can make grown men cry. What can I say except I'm hungry.

Don Angie

An Choi

Scarr's Pizza

Donna

Katana Kitten

District Saigon

Mekelburg's Domino

Chillato

Yungshang Rice Noodle House

GFG Bakery

Legend of Taste

Shanghai You Garden

Lao Bei Fang

Olio e Piu

Sticky's Finger Joint

Boucherie

Doughnut Plant

Russ & Daughters

Cheeky Sandwiches

La Caridad 78

Ganesh Temple Canteen

Blue Sky Deli Grocery Corp

Lilia Ristorante

Indo Java

BZ Grill

Artopolis

Main Street C&L Imperial Taiwanese Gourmet

El Nuevo Bohio Lechonera

Moloko

Via Carota

Sake Bar Decibel

Myung San

Clover Club

Murray's Bagels

Lee Lee's Baked Goods

188 Bakery Cuchifrito's

Asian Jewels Seafood Restaurant

East Harbor Seafood Palace

Kai Feng Fu

Yun Nan Flavor Garden

Empanadas Cafe

Unidentified Flying Chickens

De Mayo Food Market

Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee Company

Kung Fu Xiao Long Bao

Golden Shopping Mall

New World Mall Food Court

Mamoun's Falafel

The Chipper Truck

Africa Kine Restaurant

Xin Taste Hand Pull Noodle

Nepali Bhanchha Ghar

Chengdu Heaven

Luna de Xelaju Restaurant & Pizzeria

Shanghai Zhen Gong Fu

Dumpling Galaxy

Cheburechnaya

Arepa Lady

Gloria Pizza

Di Fara Pizza

Corner Slice

NY Pizza Suprema

Peppa's Jerk Chicken Restaurant

St. Anslem

Szechuan Mountain Horse

Utopia Bagels

Kossar's

Zucker's Bagels & Smoked Fish

Hwa Yuan

Peking Duck Sandwich Stall

Decoy

The Little One

Joe's Pizza

Emilio's Ballato

New Park Pizza

Best Pizza

Kababish

Eddie's Sweet Shop

Super Taste

Sammy's Roumanian Steakhouse

Peter Luger

Delmonico's

Momo Sushi Shack

El Tina Fish Market

Dyckman Bakery

Mama Sushi

Malecon Restaurant

Mario's Restaurant

Cosenza's Fish Market

Teitel Brothers

Ralph's Italian Ices & Ice Cream

Denino's Pizzeria Tavern

The Original Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza

Lee's Tavern

Mi Casa Bar & Restaurant

Alfie's Pizza

Dani's House of Pizza

Imperial Palace

Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao

Wonton Noodle Garden Restaurant

[samanthauniverse]

Yummy Pho Soup. Bahn Mi. Pork Rolls . Banana Boba Smoothie. Saigon Deli .