Vietnam Town in San Jose

[tongodeon]

I get my hair cut at Nancy's Barber Shop in San Rafael. Nancy is a late middle aged Vietnamese woman and runs her barbershop as a one-woman operation. Over the last several months I've gotten her to open up a little about her childhood in Vietnam, experience during the war, and fleeing to America with her children after the war. (Things have

Comments

[kraquehaus]

If I didn't have a hair appointment to make it to tomorrow I'd drive down for this.

Please report back as I will travel long distances for good vietnamese food.

[haineux]

So there are two real Vietnamese hotbeds in the San Jose area. One is on Santa Clara Street near 10th Street in Downtown SJ. There are a bunch of sandwich shops and a couple of restaurants

[kraquehaus]

I think veitnamese joints need to be seperated into three main categories:

-pho
-sandwiches
-other

Other would be the kind of standard dinner/lunch dishes.

I am weary of getting pho at a place that doesn't have it listed at the top of the menu. I like being able to order "number one" and know I'll get well done, rare, tendon, tripe, and beefball pho. ;-)

I also want to find the Vietnamese coffee shop(s?) that I've heard of where all of the waitresses are only wearing hot lingerie.

[tongodeon]

I also want to find the Vietnamese coffee shop(s?) that I've heard of where all of the waitresses are only wearing hot lingerie.

Talk to haineux about some mysterious Vietnamese bar where women in falling-off-tops serve you bottled beer in a glass full of ice that you drink with a straw. Or something.

[crisper]

I think I/we might be down for something. Dunno if you have my cell; is monkeydyne or primenet the right place to send it to you? [My address book seems to hold both simultaneously, yet another shout-out to quantum superposition in my week.]

[tongodeon]

BC has expressed interest offline. I don't know your email either and I'm hesitant to post mine here, but maybe you can coordinate with him?

Primenet hasn't worked in almost ten years, since I was still in college in Arizona. Monkeydyne would, except I'm leaving for abalonetown right now and won't be checking email from there.

[crisper]

It turns out, this morning, than L & C are both sick and I didn't get much sleep last night so we're not so very social and mobile and uh good today.

[yetra]

I'm not sure if it would be up to Nancy's authentic standards, but I'm quite fond of Bodega Bistro, on Larkin and Turk (I think), in the little saigon area. It's an "other" place, definitely more upscale, not a pho or sandwich place, but with a section of the menu for typical street type food. Quality is excellent, and every time I've gone, it is full of vietnamese folks rather than white folks. Although, Sunflower at 16th and Valencia is still my fave place for vietnamese garlic noodles.

I'm also fond of Yucatasia, on mission btw 18th and 17th. Mostly because it combines the vietnamese sandwich cuisine of the owners with the yucatan/mexican dishes of the staff. Nearly everything is $7 or less. If you've not been, check it out. Especially the Carnitas.

[lexica510]

If you could ask her if there's anywhere in the Oakland/Berkeley/San Leandro area she'd consider worthwhile, I'd be most grateful.

[tongodeon]

I think she's stuck on San Jose. There's a really big, centralized, organized community down there and I imagine that a big part of her interest is the sense of community that she feels down there.