as our new release of the week: The Little Saigon Cookbook. By Ann Le. Le, an investment banker who grew up in Westminster in the heart of Orange County’s Little Saigon, takes readers on a tour of culinary landmarks and explores the abundance of authentic dishes found there: hot and crispy Vietnamese crepes down Bolsa Avenue; crunchy, tangy chicken and cabbage goi salad from the Asian Mall; rice-paper spring rolls (goi cuon) from the Buddhist Temple; plump prawns stir-fried with long beans; braised pork in caramel sauce; spicy squid combined with fresh sweet basil and coriander from a wedding reception’s lazy Susan; and from the Noodle House, secrets to preparing the famous meal-in-a bowl, Pho. “Growing up, Le, her brother and their parents ate Vietnamese food almost exclusively, often heading to one restaurant on Bolsa Avenue (that’s no longer in business) at the end of her parents’ long workdays,” Mary MacVean writes in the Los Angeles Times. “But sometimes her grandmother cooked for the family — dishes such as braised fish, chicken salad and bun rieu, a soup with crab, tomato and noodles. Fearing those recipes would be lost because they were not written down, Le began gathering them, finally producing “The Little Saigon Cookbook” (Globe Pequot Press), published not long before her grandmother died this year.”

Tidbits: Le’s recipes for Pan-fried Spicy Chicken with Mint and Ginger (G