Xin Chao Los Angeles
“The idea of the beauty of diversity came from just growing up where I grew up. Los Angeles is a very big city - there's Little Ethiopia, Little Armenia, Little Tokyo, Chinatown, there's African-Americans, Latinos, Europeans.” - Kamasi Washington
Today we are visiting Little Saigon, the largest concentration of Vietnamese Americans in the United States which is actually in Orange County and not Los Angeles but since it is less than an hour’s drive from Los Angeles, I took the liberty of saying Hello Los Angeles to keep with the spirt of the rest of traveling with no passport locally.
Little Saigon is a wide spread-out community located southwest of Disneyland. It consists of a myriad of Surburban style strip malls containing a variety of Vietnamese and Chinese Vietnamese businesses. The Asian Garden Mall is considered the heart of this community.
There are approximately 200 plus restaurants in the area especially mom and pop shops serving pho, grocery shops and an emerging trend in coffee shops. In addition, there are numerous professional offices of doctors, dentists, lawyers, accountants etc. who speak Vietnamese. I really felt like I had left the US and arrived in a different country.
Food and authentic Vietnamese cuisine remain the forefront of attractions amongst non-Vietnamese visiting Little Saigon. The community's history of food and cuisine is captured in a recent cookbook by Anne Le “The Little Saigon Cookbook: Vietnamese Cuisine and Culture in Southern California’s Little Saigon.
The Cao Dai California Temple in Garden Grove was built by the Orange County congregation of Caodaists, which numbers about 25,000 people. It is one of only four in the United States to be purposefully built following the sacred architectural blueprint of the Mother Church in Tay Ninh, Vietnam.
It is located in a residential neighborhood not far from the shops on Bolsa.
There are two towers on either side of the entry, which features five concentric steps that lead to the main door. A rather fierce and demonic human figure of evil, Ông Ác, is to the left of those who enter, while a more benevolent human figure of good, Ông Thiện, is on the other side. The left side also has images of the moon, while right side has images of the sun. Two stylized characters at the front of the temple spell out the name of the Supreme God—Cao Đài, the “highest power.” A large, curved balcony extends out above the entry area, and an emblem of the left eye is also seen above this balcony. A sculpted image of the Maitreya Buddha riding on a tiger sits atop the whole structure, signaling the final era of three great world eras, one that will end in the time of the dragon and flower, when the virtuous will be rewarded and given salvation. The tiger is a reference to the year Caodaism was founded, the year of the tiger.
Unfortunately, the front door was locked, and I was not able to get inside the temple though I’ve read about it. Perhaps another time when I am in that area I will try to visit and see inside.
The colorful features of the Cao Dai Temple form a “visual theology” representing the complex belief system, which combines Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism with elements of Catholicism (Jesus Christ is recognized as an important religious leader) and Spiritism.
Asian Garden Mall is one of the great landmarks of Little Saigon and is known as Phuớc Lộc Thọ in Vietnamese. Grand archways tower above the two-story shopping complex serving as a canopy to the beautiful white Buddha statues in the front.
A colorful Altar is located on the second floor where people come to worship. I saw a mother with her small children lighting incense and praying with bowed head here when I visited.
Another altar on the other side. Did not seem as elaborate as the first but I found it interesting that there were many different types of Buddhas even some standing guard at the entrance to jewelry stores.
Boutiques, featuring both children and women’s clothing, Jewelry stores and a food court all seemed to do a thriving business on this weekday afternoon when I visited.
The Asian Garden Mall is the largest majority Vietnamese-owned and operated mall in America, and a one-of-a-kind shopping experience.
T&K Food Market is the Vietnamese version of Costco. Dominating the back of a shopping complex with beautiful sculptures, fountains and pagoda roofs this complex is definitely worth a visit.
These Vietnamese neighborhoods with their distinctive roofs and lettering stretch all along Bolsa Avenue in Westminster and Garden Grove definitely gave me the feeling of having taken a flight outside of the US and arrived in an exotic Asian country.