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Phở on Lò Đúc at 6am, before the street wakes up. My grandfather ate at this stall, my father ate at this stall, and the woman running it still will not tell anyone what is in the broth.

#HàNội#phở

Phước Lộc Thọ at 7am on a Sunday: the aunties have already claimed every table in the food court and the bánh cuốn line is out the door. This is the most alive Little Saigon ever feels.

#LittleSaigon#Westminster

Phở Hà Nội on Story Rd, five stars. The broth is clear the way northern phở should be and there is no hoisin bottle on the table, which is the correct number of hoisin bottles. Get the tái nạm with extra hành trần.

#phở#SanJose

To everyone abroad asking why their cà phê sữa đá never tastes right: it is the robusta, not the technique. Buy Vietnamese beans. Use a phin. Wait the four minutes. That is the whole secret and I am tired of pretending otherwise.

#càphê#SàiGòn

Cabramatta Moon Festival this weekend. Bringing the cart. First 50 bánh mì thịt nướng are on me if you say “The Viets sent me”.

#Cabramatta#MoonFestival

Where in the 13e can I still find fresh rau răm? Tang Frères was out and my bà will not accept mint as a substitute. She was very clear about this.

#Paris13#cooking

Cái Răng at 5am. The market is finished trading by the time the tour boats arrive at seven, which is the part nobody photographs.

#CầnThơ#MekongDelta

Twenty years after Katrina, Mary Queen of Vietnam still rings its bell at 6am and the boats still go out. Village de l’Est isn’t going anywhere.

#NOLA#VillageDeLEst

Saturday heritage class: kinship pronouns. One kid asked why he can’t just say “you” to his grandma. Forty minutes later we were drawing a family tree with cô, chú, dì, cậu and bác on the whiteboard and nobody wanted to leave.

#TiếngViệt#heritage

Footscray market haul: green papaya, a kilo of prawns, and a packet of bún I definitely did not need. Bún bò Huế for eight tonight, nobody RSVP’d, all eight will come.

#Footscray#BúnBòHuế

Question for parents raising kids abroad: would you want your children taught the Huế accent, or whatever the textbook says? I get asked this by families overseas every year and I never know the right answer.

#TiếngViệt#Huế

Dong Xuan Center after dark, when the wholesalers close and the restaurants fill up. Lichtenberg’s best-kept not-so-secret.

#Berlin#DongXuan

Spousal sponsorship processing times were updated again. If you filed before March, check your account this week. Happy to answer questions in the Immigration board, not in my DMs at 2am.

#immigration#Canada

Selling: barely used Cuckoo 10-cup rice cooker. $60, Bellaire pickup. Yes, it still sings.

#marketplace#Houston

Half of Đà Nẵng seems to be Việt kiều back for the summer. Good. Bring your cousins, we have room, and the mì Quảng has never been better.

#ĐàNẵng#MìQuảng

Eden Center’s Tết market dates are out. Clear your calendar for the lion dance, it is the loudest thing in Northern Virginia and that includes the Beltway.

#Tết#EdenCenter

Shot 200 frames on Bolsa today. The old hand-painted signage is disappearing one strip mall at a time. Documenting it before it’s gone, one storefront per day.

#LittleSaigon#photography

Sapa has a new bún chả stall run by a family straight from Hà Nội. Czech-Vietnamese kids lining up next to their grandparents. Prague, you’re alright.

#Prague#Sapa

Tết flower market on Nguyễn Huệ opens next week. If you are flying in, come the first night, before the crowds and while the mai are still perfect.

#Tết#SàiGòn

Pho Mile crawl, Kingsland Road, next Thursday. Five bowls, one night, no regrets. Reply to join, bring a stretchy waistband.

#London#PhoMile

Bilingual parents: at what age did your kids start mixing languages? Mine just said “con muốn more” and I don’t know whether to be proud or worried.

#parenting#bilingual

The story of how my dad opened a phở shop with $300 and a borrowed pot is up in the Culture board. Bring tissues, and then go eat somewhere family-owned.

#family#LittleSaigon

Anyone here moved back after growing up abroad? My cousin from Melbourne is doing it in March and wants to know what actually catches people out. Not the visa stuff, the daily life stuff.

#moveback#HàNội

Baton Rouge friends: which parish is doing the biggest Tết this year? Trying to plan a road trip and I need to know where the lion dance is.

#BatonRouge#Tết

Learned today that “Việt kiều” means something different depending on who’s saying it and where they are standing. Long thread in the Culture board if you want to argue.

#ViệtKiều#identity

New in Houston. Where does everyone actually go for bún riêu on Bellaire? I have been to three places and I have three opinions.

#Houston#BúnRiêu

Hong Kong City Mall parking lot at Tết. If you know, you know. If you don’t, arrive before 9 or accept your fate.

#Houston#Tết