Illustration by Thinkstock
All the cities I’ve called home — London, San Francisco, New York — have had a large Chinese population long enough to establish vibrant Chinatowns with Sichuan, Mandarin, Cantonese and Shanghai cuisine on offer. My pre-Peter Chang move to Richmond had me searching, with disappointing results, for something beyond standard Chinese takeout. But just past Willow Lawn, discovering Tan A Supermarket on West Broad made it possible to create my favorite Chinese dishes at home. My trips to Tan A were colored by discoveries of other Horsepen food finds like Pho Tay Do, Pho So 1, Vietnam 1 and, of course, the “OG” pho-and-beer haven, Mekong. There’s also a little bánh mì and steamed bun place, Le’s Vietnamese Deli, tucked away on one end of Rigsby Road, where you can get a steamed bun with sausage that could change your day for the better. Further exploration reveals a coffee house cum poolroom, Cafe Bida, which looks like it could tell tales. But how did the “Little Saigon” come into being?
Conversations with restaurateurs and grocers in the Horsepen corridor revealed this timeline, which begins after President Carter signed the United States Refugee Act of 1980, and the region’s churches began aiding Vietnamese newcomers:
Those who find themselves in a new land will look for the food that says “home” to them. The Vietnamese flavors that infuse the area around Horsepen Road have come to mean home to this Richmond transplant. When I come back to RVA from my many work trips, it’s now this neighborhood’s pho that I crave as my welcome-home meal.
