WESTMINSTER, Calif.—Along a 1.5-mile stretch of Bolsa Avenue in Orange County, a generic sprawl of suburban strip malls belies one of the region’s most concentrated cultural hubs. Here, hundreds of bakeries and restaurants, apothecaries and casinos, dentists and sundry storefronts all cater to a Vietnamese diaspora, offering tastes of the Old World—from $8 pho to $850 edible birds’ nests.
Orange County is home to the largest Vietnamese community outside Vietnam, around 240,000 people—most of whom live in and around the Little Saigon neighborhood spanning Garden Grove, Westminster, Fountain Valley, and Santa Ana.
