A Recipe for Resilience

In April 1975, as Saigon fell, my parents escaped Vietnam with two suitcases and thirteen dollars, evacuating with extended family to refugee camps before settling in New York, where I was born. We later moved to Lancaster, then New Orleans, where my mother opened the city’s first Vietnamese restaurant in 1981. After Hurricane Katrina destroyed our restaurants in 2005, we evacuated again and returned to Lancaster to rebuild. Within months, we opened Rice & Noodles and later Sprout Vietnamese Eatery. Today, our close-knit family lives, works, and thrives together in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, after decades of resilience, sacrifice, and shared determination.