Over the weekend I went up to NYC to the Elmhurst Queens area to check out the Vietnamese community up there. I know on Mott Street there are two Vietnamese shops and a cart, but I wanted to see a larger picture. So taking my project, "Searching for Little Saigon in America" to NYC I went to Elmhurst and saw that it was really a large pocket of the Asian American community. I went towards Joju Modern Vietnamese sandwich shop to check it out and to get some lunch. I was pretty hungry!
I did see some pho shops and a major supermarket that had mostly Chinese and some Vietnamese products inside. So this was not necessarily a Little Saigon in this area. I could be wrong and I should go back up there to explore. I was hoping to walk by nail salons, which a majority of Vietnamese run and own, more banh mi shops and markets. But I didn't find them in the area I explored.
After meeting and talking to Kelly, the blogger, I had some new ideas- I am going to have to start interviewing people which means... I need to learn Vietnamese and or get a translator and try to see if I can make a kickstarter program to help fund this project.