Baxter Street isn’t an especially long stretch of road. It runs a few blocks north-south from Grand Street to Park Row on the edge of Manhattan’s Chinatown. On the west side of Baxter between Walker and Leonard streets looms the Criminal Courts Building, a foreboding Art Moderne structure built in 1939 that houses the Manhattan Detention Center, also known as “The Tombs,” where alleged criminals await arraignment. Frequent Baxter Street often enough, and you’re bound to witness an occasional “perp walk.”

It seems an unlikely spot to have fostered a microcosm of Southeast Asia. But right in the shadow of The Tombs, brightly lit signs and colorful awnings welcome those seeking big bowls of pho noodle soups, grilled pork chops, and spring rolls on rice vermicelli at one of the three Vietnamese restaurants tucked between a tiny parking lot and American Liberty Bail Bonds. Thai So’n, Nha Trang, and New Pasteur were among a wave of Vietnamese restaurants that first sprouted in Chinatown in the early ’80s (the first was Viet Huong, which opened a block over, on Mulberry Street, in 1981).

More recently, Malaysian restaurants have made their presence known in Chinatown: Penang on Elizabeth Street, Nyonya on Grand, Baba on Bayard. In the arcade between Bowery and Elizabeth streets, the takeout window at New Malaysia Restaurant is a nice place to stop in the summertime for shaved ice flavored with pineapple or coconut or red beans. Jaya Malaysian restaurant is Baxter Street’s most recent addition; owner Hann Low opened Jaya in 1998 next to Marco Polo Noodle Shop Inc. The Malaysian menu is an amalgam of Malay, Chinese, and Indian cuisines. Roti canai pancakes served with chicken curry, Indian mee goreng noodles, and Hainanese chicken are crowd pleasers.

At the corner of Baxter and Bayard is Pongsri Thailand Restaurant. Manager Jerry Tang (Tang is his abbreviated version of a 15-letter Thai name) says his brother Jimmy Tang and Jimmy’s wife, Pongsri, opened the restaurant in 1974, when there were no other restaurants along Baxter Street. The Tangs serve central-Thailand dishes-- tom ka gai, coconut soup with chicken; and grapow moo, pork with basil and chilies-first cooked by Pongsri in what used to be a coffee shop and a bar. The bar’s wagon-wheel light fixtures still hang in what otherwise looks like a traditional wood-paneled Thai house. “A lot of cops, judges, attorneys come in,” Mr. Tang says, referring to his courthouse clientele. “But we don’t get many prisoners.”