St. Paul’s Hmong Village…not your ordinary market!

The cold, rainy spring has held many local farmers back from bringing produce to the area farmers’ markets. But there is one market that is open rain, shine or snow. It is the Hmong Village at 1001 Johnson Boulevard in St. Paul.

Opened last November, the market features 35 produce booths, 17 food booths, 230 merchant stalls, a number of services, and 40 offices. It was the intent of its creator Yia Vang to create a community space where people are comfortable shopping and where all generations can meet and just visit. And while it features many Hmong products and food, it also offers Somali, Chinese, Mexican, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, and Thai items as well.

The food court featuring everything from full meals to snacks to bakery goods and soft drinks will take more than one visit to truly appreciate. The Heavy Table sampled about 25 of the offerings and included photos and descriptions on their website www.heavytable.com/hmong-village-in-st-paul-25-tastes/. Some of the choices include Pad See Ew, Papaya Salad, Fried Black Sesame Cookies, Chicken Feet, Pho Fawm, Hmong Sausage, Pho Roll, Beef Lab with Sticky Rice, Steamed White Bass, and so much more. While the food court has a hallway of tables and chairs, taking the food out for a picnic somewhere else is a much better idea for on busy days the tables inside are full.

Hmong Village is open every day from 9 a.m. – 8 p.m., but some vendors do not open until 11 a.m. and some are only open Saturdays and Sundays. I visited on a Friday about 11 a.m. and found all of the food stalls open, about half of the produce stands, and only about 20% of the clothing, gift, DVD, and other shops open. But, it was still enough to offer a unique shopping experience.

The market is in a former warehouse, but since it is only one story high, it seems very people friendly. More than $3 million was spent to upgrade the building and to section it off into small shops all lining the many hallways. The indoor produce and dried herb market gets an outdoor feeling from the massive, hand painted wall murals depicting outdoor scenes. Entrance doors on three sides of the building are labeled with a letter of the alphabet so if you remember the letter when you enter, you should be able to get directions back to the door nearest your car. Door G on the far side of the building is nearest to the produce and dried herb market while door D on the opposite side of the building is nearest to the food court. This is the side of the building you first encounter when you drive into the parking area. So if you are looking for something to eat, take a left and park in the first parking area and enter through door D. While you can enter any door and walk through the hallways that open to all 280+ shops, knowing the area you most want to visit will cut down on unnecessary walking. There are no maps or written guides, but all of the vendors are very helpful.

There is plenty of parking on three sides of the building weekdays, but on weekends you may have to park on the street a block or two away.

Vang’s vision of a place to work, meet friends, shop and get a taste of Hmong culture appears to be drawing people from across the area. It is a welcome addition to the community.

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Hmong Village in St. Paul: 25 Tastes

The newly opened Hmong Village shopping complex in St. Paul makes no apologies: as you walk among the literally hundreds of U-Store-It-style stalls that fill its warehouse-sized space, you quickly become aware that many, if not most, of the buyers and sellers are first-generation Hmong immigrants. Your English will be of only limited use. Even getting into the building is a challenge; it has cryptic entrances labeled with letters, all of which drop you seemingly at random into a steel and concrete labyrinth. (Once you’re in, wander at random until you hit the wall that’s nothing but restaurants — you’ll know it when you get there.)

“Do you have a Hmong guide with you?” asked the avuncular counterman at Kad’s Deli. “Most people, when they come here, have a Hmong guide to do the talking, and explain,” he added, hoping, I think, that perhaps I did have a Hmong guide somewhere whom I’d simply forgotten to introduce.



Becca Dilley / Heavy Table
When you come to Hmong Village and dine at one or more of its 17 similar food court stall-style restaurants, get ready to:

a) Pay cash
b) Visit some restaurants that only identify their dishes by number
c) Not necessarily know either exactly what you ordered, or whether you got it

Also get ready to:

a) Eat some terrific food for cheap
b) Be charmed by friendly, homespun service
c) Learn to enjoy new stuff

If you’ve eaten adventurously up and down Nicollet Ave. in Minneapolis or University Ave. in St. Paul, much of what’s served at Hmong Village will be familiar to you. But there are a number of surprises hiding among the eateries, and the sheer number of restaurants in such a confined space makes the Hmong Village food court a real (if figurative) trip.

The man at Kad’s Deli explained that the restaurant hours are generally 11am to 7pm. That said, when we arrived at 6pm, a couple restaurants were already shut down (no pig uteri for us, alas), and some of the restaurants stayed open until almost 8. “11am to about 2pm is the best time to come,” he said.

Another vendor exhorted us to come on the weekend, when the place was stuffed wall-to-wall with people and we would feel like we were truly in another country. To our mind, even on a Wednesday night: Mission accomplished.

– James Norton

Maja Ingeman, James Norton, Elizabeth Mead Cavert Scheibel, Nick Scheibel, and Jason Walker contributed to this feature.



Blueberry: Mango Passionfruit Boba Tea ($3)

By the end of the evening, we’d filled three tables with the assorted bits and pieces of about 25 different items from around 15 different restaurants. The mango passionfruit boba tea from Blueberry was the one item we ordered twice, owing to its bright fruit kick, great balance between tart and sweet, and overall unassailable deliciousness. – JN



Fue’s Cafe: Pad See Ew ($6)

Actually having a printed menu, unlike most Hmong Village stalls, makes Fue’s Cafe stand out for the first-timer. Its food does, too, based on its vegetarian Pad See Ew, made as you order with Chinese broccoli, eggs, and delectably wide, hearty noodles. The dish’s special Thai soy sauce was the key, as it elevated a simple noodle-and-veggie concoction into a well-balanced sweet-and-salty delight that was inhaled by our testers, including a 2-year-old, and was worth the trip itself. It didn’t hurt that Fue’s Cafe had samples of the dish out for all to try; after the sample it was a done deal. – JW



Papaya Salad ($5)

This papaya salad had three heat versions. The woman who made ours with a giant mortar and pestle, grinding the peppers before preparing the dish, said ours had “medium” heat. This is disputable, and for Minnesota standards, a flat-out untruth. The “hot” version must be an absolute fireball, yet with all the heat this papaya salad did not lose its flavor. Hot, yes, but the burst of flavors from loads of sweet shaved papaya, garlic, and Thai eggplant still emerged. Papaya salads are relatively common at Hmong Village; Fue’s likely sets the standard. – JW



Fried Black Sesame Cookie ($1.75 for several)

Light, exceedingly crispy, and delicate in flavor, the Fue’s Cafe sesame cookies are as pleasant to look at they are to eat. Reminiscent of an Italian pizzella, and almost exactly like a Norwegian rosette cookie. — JN



Dragon Express: Sesame Chicken with Fried Rice ($5)

Dragon Express didn’t have much to offer — just two entrees and rice, as well as fried bananas and egg rolls. Let’s hope we caught them on an off night, because the sesame chicken was fine, but certainly no better than your average China buffet. Not overly battered and well-seasoned, it didn’t scream MSG and was probably pretty darn good when it was fresh. But with the array of offerings elsewhere at Hmong Village, you’d be hard-pressed to justify this order, unless you were simply dying for an old standby. The fried rice was decent but forgettable. – JW



Famous Deli: Chicken Feet ($4)

An impulse purchase of chicken feet from Famous Deli offered a pungent hit of five-spice and scallion. Though the strong flavors provided a nice balance to the sticky texture, the visceral presentation of bone and chewy skin enrobed in the cold, seasoned gelatin leaching from the feet may prove too adventurous for the average Western palate. – MI



Spicy Chicken ($5)

A more approachable use of the flavors in the Famous Deli chicken feet can be found in the restaurant’s Spicy Chicken. A steaming plate of chicken wings loaded with scallions and hot chili oil, the dish sparkles with contrast — from the crispy deposits of sweet-spicy glaze to the moist, juicy meat underneath. We were sold on the first bite — despite many dishes to taste in one sitting, no wing was left uneaten. – MI



Her Kitchen: Pho Fawm ($6)

You get a lot for your six bucks at Her Kitchen. Yes, the bowl of pho is huge, like bowls of pho all over the city. But it’s really, really huge. And it contains more sources of protein than your tiny brain can accurately assess. From one order, we pulled pieces of beef, fish cakes, shrimp, meatballs, and tripe. (I was fairly sure I didn’t like tripe before trying this dish; now I’m positive. The rubber-band texture was its undoing.)

But tripe aside, the other elements of this dish are, as a whole, delightful. Garnished properly (with judicious scoops of chili paste, MSG, lime juice, and peanuts), the flavor explodes. And the dish’s thin, delicate noodles serve as a wonderful base for all the hot jazz going on up top. – JN



Hmong Bakery & Deli: Roll ($1)

This one is attributable to writer error. I tried to order a taro roll; they were out; somehow they gave me a non-taro roll. It tasted like a roll. If you found yourself at Hmong Village wrestling with, say, a skewer of meatballs or a skewer of lacquered chicken (both reasonable scenarios), rest assured — you can dash over to Hmong Bakery and make that skewer into a sandwich. – JN



Houa Phanh: Pho ($5)

In a pho showdown, the deciding factor is almost exclusively the broth. What Houa Phanh’s beef, shrimp, and meatball version lacks in complexity, it makes up with good, honest flavor. Prior to seasoning, each bite of broth fills your mouth with a mild, pleasantly beefy flavor which dissipates almost completely the instant you swallow — perfect to soothe a sore throat or hangover. Interestingly enough, these rice noodles seem to hold their own the next day — despite having been soaked in broth overnight, they didn’t become the glutinous, saturated mass that day-old pho noodles often devolve into. – MI



Tricolor ($1)

Among all of the stands serving tricolor, there is an excellent chance that no two serve the same version. If you have enough of a sweet tooth to withstand all the coconut and sugar that goes into that cup, one of the no-holds-barred, noodle-pearl-tapioca combinations may be your best bet. Houa Phanh’s smaller cup layered with red, green, and white pearls doused in the coconut-sugar water combination was a more restrained rendition — despite the sweetness of the liquid, the rice pearls offered a neutral, almost salty flavor which mitigated the sugar rush. — MI



Kad’s Deli: Mango Sticky Rice ($3)

This is right up there with Blueberry’s Mango Passionfruit Boba Tea in terms of being the correct way to end a meal. Generously dolloped with mild coconut cream and numerous pieces of fresh mango, the Kad’s Deli mango sticky rice is a simple, literal execution of a classic and essentially foolproof dessert. Worth seeking out and savoring every mildly sweet, bright, and creamy bite. – JN



California Rolls ($6)

Kad’s Deli sells sushi (questionable!) but restricts itself to non-raw fish varieties such as avocado rolls, cucumber rolls, and California rolls (wise!). The California Rolls are not going to put Origami out of business, but for the amount you get, they’re really not too bad — they’ve got a creamy cucumbery snap to them and very mild imitation crab meat — the overall balance is good. Hmong Village is not really the place to be hunting down sushi, but if you for some reason feel the need, you will be neither thrilled nor horrified by the offerings at Kad’s Deli. — JN



The Kitchenette: Hmong Sausage ($2)

“It’s kind of like a brat, but different.” So said our server at The Kitchenette of the long sausage which evoked images of Kobayashi going to town in a hot dog eating contest. Despite the slightly wrinkled, reddish exterior that prepared me to expect a sweetish Chinese-style sausage, this tasted instead like a Swedish potato sausage: mild, meaty, and bursting with juice that, upon biting through the sausage’s skin, could easily dribble down your chin. Pair it with some white or fried rice, and you’ve got a hearty meal of comfort food. – MI



Chicken Kebab ($2)

The moist, tender chicken kebab at The Kitchenette offers a kick of soy first and foremost, rounded out with a bit of garlic. Kept in a hot pan in a display case, each thin piece of gristle-free chicken is carefully threaded on a skewer, glazed, and grilled, keeping the moisture and garlic-soy flavor intact. – MI



K-Pho: Grilled Meatballs ($4)

These two skewers of four meatballs weren’t bad, but they didn’t stand out in any way; a fairly sweet meatball dipped in a fish sauce, rice vinegar, and sugar sauce was reminiscent of an average egg roll without the roll, and the rather pale color doesn’t do them any favors. The meatballs are also offered in a vermicelli noodle salad, and that would probably be a more satisfying choice. Or, get them into a bun for a sandwich — a couple of good-sized rolls, like those at Hmong Bakery & Deli (see above), with these meatballs, and you’ll have a quick, decent, and cheap lunch for two. These meatballs just aren’t what meatballs can be, so they’re better not left to themselves. – EMCS



Mai’s Kitchen: Papaya Salad ($5)

Procuring this papaya salad didn’t start out so well. I looked at the menu, noted some $8 dishes (the most I had seen anywhere else was $6), and just blurted out an order. The woman who took the order started making it, with a large mortar and pestle, and then asked me what I wanted. I stupidly replied, “I don’t know,” to which she replied, “you don’t know?!” I mumbled something about “trying stuff.” She handed the pestle off to another woman, who kindly endured constant questions about what she was putting in. Despite my initial reservations about the prices, $5 gets you a thick, big cup of salad, with lots of ingredients, including cherry tomatoes, another larger variety of tomato, lime, long green beans, Thai eggplant, fish sauce, shrimp paste, and a tamarind sauce. I had plenty of time to ask questions, because each batch is made to order, so be prepared to wait.

I asked for mine medium spicy (“What do you mean by medium spicy?” another employee laughed), and at first bite I wished I’d gone bigger. A minute later, the heat was building in my mouth, and within five minutes I was desperate for some boba tea — so I ended up just right. Compared to the papaya salad at Fue’s Kitchen, this salad was oversauced — less sauce would have let the flavors of the various ingredients come through more and would have resulted in a crisper texture. Still, with the varied ingredients, I found it more satisfying than Fue’s offering, and you can’t disregard the time and elbow grease that goes into this fresh product. – EMCS



Moon’s Kitchen: Tricolor ($2)

For a mere two bucks, you can have probably the most colorful and unusual dessert you’ve ever ingested: three kinds of colored noodles, tapioca pearls, a sweet creamy base, and a few extremely ass-kicking drops of almond and banana extracts. Suck it through a giant straw and brace yourself for the flavor and texture onslaught. (We somewhat preferred the Moon’s Kitchen tricolor to the Y-T Express version that came in a bowl, but the sweet-salty complexity of the Houa Phanh version was probably the consensus favorite.) -- JN



Mrs. Papaya: Congee ($3)

Mrs. Papaya was the first of the restaurants that we visited, and also perhaps the most enigmatic: There were pictures of three different meals posted, labeled #1, #2, and #3. They were out of #3, so we went with #1, which turned out to be a comforting bowl of congee (rice porridge) with fried onions, chicken, cilantro, and a hard-boiled quail’s egg. We were advised to add chili paste, which added a crucial flavor kick to an otherwise quietly soothing dish. -- JN



Nang Kwak: Pho Roll ($5)

The woman making Nang Kwak’s signature pho rolls was pulling the noodles out of a giant bowl that must’ve contained four or five gallons of the soft, pillowy things. An order of pho rolls consists of a long, ghostly white noodle rolled up into tube containing mild ground pork and scallions, cut into six pieces. The underseasoned meat makes sense in context, however; the pho rolls come with a dipping sauce that is hot and funky, containing fish sauce, peanuts, and hot chili peppers. The overall effect is wonderful: tender texture, bright hot flavors, and soothing noodles. – JN



Thai Ginger Deli: Beef Lab with Sticky Rice ($5 for the lab, $2 for the rice)

If you haven’t had lab (or larb or laab), the first thing to know is that it’s made to be eaten with your hands, by grabbing some lettuce or rice and then scooping the rest in. You can get by with a fork, but the fork will never construct a bite as well as your hand. If you have had this dish at a Thai restaurant, this rendition probably won’t wow you. This lab was mild — given another chance, we would have mixed in some chili sauce, because it needed heat. That said, it makes a suitable entree, with a mix of cilantro and minced beef and tripe (at least, we’re pretty sure it was tripe) atop of a bed of lettuce, with a pleasing flavor from toasted rice powder and lime. Do not skip the rice. It was very sticky and with some practice, you can scoop up a bite with all the tasty components with little mess left on your fingers. And don’t fear the tripe on this one; it adds an excellent chewy texture to the minced beef. – EMCS



Yang’s Cuisine: Steamed White Bass ($5)

Asking the man at Yang’s Kitchen, “What’s good?” we ended up with “the fish.” What turned out to be steamed white bass comes on a styrofoam tray wrapped up like a pork chop. Peeling back the plastic wrap, we encountered a pungent odor of rotting fish. Naturally, there was some trepidation. Our fears were unfounded. The smell emanated from the fish sauce used in the delightful pesto-like paste stuffed into the fish’s cavity, and the fish itself was warm and fell from the bone. Inquiring at Yang’s, we learned that alongside fish sauce, the stuffing mixture contains mint, kaffir lime leaves, green onions, chilis, and MSG, as well as other ingredients lost in translation. The fish is wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed whole. Its moist and oily flesh was resplendent with the flavors of the spice mix, and though a bit of a mess to eat, was certainly worth the effort. – NS



Fried Bananas ($1 for two pieces)

If you’re looking for a really fine treat, you should probably skip these. If you just want a cheap, quick snack that will be fairly tasty and take the edge off of your hunger, these fried “bananas” will do the job. Despite being called bananas by a Yang’s employee, they were suspiciously plantain-like in color and sweetness. The taste of the batter was too strong and masked the banana / plantain more than is desirable, and some kind of sauce or topping, for a little more interest to the taste, would have been better, but these made a good appetizer to other, more exciting dishes. Share one of the two pieces; otherwise you’ll be too full to properly enjoy the rest of Hmong Village’s offerings. – EMCS



Y-T Express: Spring Rolls ($2)

Described as fresh-made and certainly tasting that way, Y-T Express’s pair of spring rolls is a bargain. With rice noodles, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, pork meatloaf, shrimp, and crab, the rolls were jam-packed and served with a fantastic sweet peanut paste. As spring rolls go, pretty standard, but for $2, nobody’s complaining. — JW



Chicken Curry ($5)

This dish’s preparation and price was key. For $5 comes a bowl of made-when-you-order noodles packed with giant bamboo shoots, carrots, Thai, eggplant and a small chicken thigh bone, prepared by a woman who quite possibly has prepared curry the same way for 60 years. A simple dish, the flavor of parsley, mild curry, and chili oil dominated into a not-thrilling but certainly acceptable meal. It’s easy to imagine this as a workday lunch throughout the Hmong community. And after learning a valuable lesson from Fue’s, the Y-T’s curry we tried was ordered “mild.” The counter girl said, “If an Asian says it’s not hot, don’t believe them. It will be.” Good advice. – JW

Hmong Village

1001 Johnson Pkwy
St. Paul, MN 55106
651.771.7886
HOURS:
11am-7pm (may vary)
BAR: None
VEGETARIAN / VEGAN: Good luck
ENTREE COST: $5-7

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Grand Opening of Hmong Village

By TOM LAVENTURE
AAP staff writer

ST. PAUL (October 30, 2010) – The Hmong Village (Zos Hmoob) held its long anticipated Grand Opening Saturday, at its 1001 Johnson Parkway location on the St. Paul East Side. Co-owner Yia Vang greeted hundreds of guests outside in the chilly morning air prior to the ribbon cutting ceremony conducted by non other than General Vang Pao. The list of dignitaries went on and on, to include U.S. Congresswoman Betty McCollum, State Sen. Mee Moua, and several others.

The guests then followed a tour along several sections and corridors of the 108,00 square foot facility on nearly seven acres of land. Vang said there were around 40 professional offices including medical, legal and insurances, hair salons, an indoor farmers markets, 18 restaurant kitchens, and 230 merchandise booths from clothing and shoes to music and videos.

It is called the Hmong Village, but Vang said there were also stores for Lao, Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Chinese, Somali and Mexican venders. Those numbers produced some awe with the guest but the real applause came when he said that altogether the facility creates about 500 jobs in the community.

Vang introduced several partners that he said worked long hours for many years to make this dream a reality. He also pointed out the contractors along with Brian Sweeney and Robert Yang as instrumental in the process.

Vang said the vision and goals of the Hmong Village are to have a community place where families with children can shop, eat, listen to music and talk to other people. He said it is a destination mall for people visiting from other states.

“As we all know Saint Paul is a beautiful city and a beautiful city and we all love and treasure it very much,” said Vang. “Our goal to help build Saint Paul to become a better city and a better place for our children and our children of our children. To do that we have to work together with the community, the city and the state to create more jobs and better education and more houses to those who need them.”

Vang also impressed as an entrepreneur who managed to get the project completed with all private investment and without financial help from the government. He did thank the city and the state, however, for helping to overcome the obstacles to getting the project off the ground and through the renovation of the former school into a mall.

Saint Paul School Board Member Kazoua Kong Thao served as Mistress of Ceremonies. She said that as a child she could not have imagined a place like this but and credited a group of strong people to step up with the community behind them.

The Hmong mall concept is not new but this development is on an unprecedented scale as a facility.

The first concept was the Hmong American Shopping Center that closed in 2005 after an eminent domain battle with the City of Brooklyn Center. The Hmong Flea Market opened shortly after and still operates in the former railroad roundhouse at 217 Como Avenue in St. Paul.

The Golden Globe Marketplace is the most recent and opened in the former grocery warehouse at 630 Pierce Butler Route at Minnehaha and Dale Street. The fate of this facility is reportedly to be bought out by the city for development to straighten the turn on Pierce Butler Route.

Congresswoman Betty McCollum (DFL-4) said Hmong village offers a unique gathering space for business venders, entrepreneurs and community venders to shop, socialize and conduct business affairs.

“Minnesota is proud to be the home 75,000 Hmong Americans who enrich our community, culturally, socially and economically,” she added. “Thank you for all that you do to make our community a wonderful place.”

McCollum added that she will continue working to improve the Normalized Trade Relations agreements with the Lao PDR to both improve the business climate for Hmong and Lao Americans here in Minnesota and for their cousins in Laos.

District 67 Minnesota State Senator Mee Moua, attended one of her final events before Tuesdays election when John Harrington, also present, won to become the new senator of St. Paul’s East Side.

Moua said the Hmong Village is more than a Hmong business, but is a vibrant economic engine and tax base on the East Side of St. Paul, and a symbol of the entrepreneurial ingenuity and economic power of the Hmong American community.

“I want to congratulate the visionary leadership and courageous will power of the owners of this great establishment, who in the face a tough economic times, seized empty publicly owned building and turned it into a vibrant cultural, community and economic center,” said Moua. “I want to also congratulate all the vendors who took a chance on this endeavor.

“In today’s economic downturn, just because you build it, it does not mean that people will come,” she added. “But, today, your enthusiasm and your willingness to become tenants in this building has signified that it will not only succeed for the short-term but be sustained into the future.”

Moua, who has gained national attention as a model representative of multiethnic communities, spoke about her attendance at a workshop nearly a decade ago in Portland, Maine, where policymakers sought to learn how to have that same success in welcoming and integrating its new and large population of African refugees.

For a district to develop a cohesive community of ethnic, racial and immigrant groups, Moua said it takes support to establish a climate of growth and prosperity and to create a sense of community and belonging.

Moua said the Hmong village is an example of how local community and residents make it possible to establish its own sense of presence with places that are more than just culturally bases commerce. She said presence is also established with places of cultural and religious practices for weddings to funerals, and where people gather to invite integration, and that

More than elected leaders putting in place elements that permit the growth and perpetuation of a sense of community, Moua said “it is a sense of a collective identity that is inclusive of all the elements and is the true compositions of that community.”

Mr. Ger Vang, who opened an herbal supplements store in the Hmong Village, said the products are currently very popular and that the new mall is a great location to capture a large segment of shoppers.

“The new mall here is going to be the just like the Mall of America only for the Hmong,” said Vang.

Chong and May are one of many fruits and vegetable stands in an auditorium sized farmer’s market hall. They decided to open the stand indoors after selling at summer farmer’s markets for several years.

Christina of May’s Market, said the Hmong Village offered opportunity to move their assorted grocery and other merchant items including Chinese, Thai and Hmong natural herbal items.

The family owned grocery started with a big storefront on University Avenue years ago, and currently operates in a smaller store on University and Western, and another on Maryland and Arcade. She said time would tell whether the mall location will compare well to sales in the storefront locations – but that she is pleased with the concept.

“I guess it’s a new trend,” she said. “Its something new and just tries to make it a little more convenient for everybody.”

Hmong Village hours are 9-9 everyday. For more information contact Yia Vang at 651-492-0522.

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Hmong cooking is simple, constantly adapting

Kia Her, owner of Sy-Am Garden Thai restaurant on West Thomas Street in Wausau, adds sliced cucumbers to the wok where the chicken is cooking. (Photo by Xai Kha/Wausau Daily Herald)

Through the years, as members of the Hmong community left Southeast Asia for a new life in the United States, many aspects of their lives changed, including the way they cook, leaving Hmong cooking in a constant state of transition.

"The food we make is so different in this country," said Kia Her, owner of Sy-Am Garden Thai Restaurant in Wausau. "Here, you can find so many different kinds of sauces and vegetables. In the old country, you cooked with only oil and salt, or with MSG if you could afford it."

Neng Chang, owner of Sawadee Thai Restaurant in Wausau, said that in Laos, where he grew up, cooking was simple. People used organic ingredients grown in their own gardens.

"In Laos, we tried to eat only healthy things. We didn't want to consume food that wasn't going to be beneficial for our body," said Chang, who immigrated to the United States in 1987.

Hmong cooking is heavily influenced by the cuisine of other Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand and China. Though it can be spicy at times, traditional Hmong cooking notably is bland, the 31-year-old Her said.

"Hmong cooking is very plain and simple. Back in the old days, you didn't have a lot of ingredients to cook with," she said. "A meal would include one kind of vegetable, with a side of white rice. If you were lucky enough to have meat -- usually pork, chicken or beef -- you would just boil it in a pot of water until it was cooked through."

Because most meat is boiled, soups and stews also are popular dishes, Chang said. Steamed fish, seasoned only with salt and oil, is common as well.

"Making these dishes here in America, they taste so much better," said Chang, 41, of Wausau, who attended cooking school in Thailand before opening Sawadee in 2003. "Here, you can just go to the supermarket and buy anything you want for your stews and stir-frys. It's a very different story."

In the United States, many Hmong recipes have been altered to incorporate ingredients such as tofu, hot peppers, green onion and cilantro, Her said.

One thing that has remained unchanged, however, is the use of white rice, which Her calls "a staple" of Hmong and most other Southeast Asian cuisine.

"Some Hmong food still tastes plain, but a lot of our recipes were created after our people started coming to America," said Her, who taught herself to cook as a young girl in Thailand before coming to the United States in 1988. "But really, Hmong cooking is something you have to experience and taste for yourself to really understand it."

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Hmong Buffet: "Rice Palace"

"My new favorite restaurant: the Rice Palace"
By Amy Doeun for Hmong Times
February 01, 2010

Going to a restaurant with three children is always an adventure. Couple that with a wide range of tastes and a limited budget, and we don't end up going out to restaurants very much. It is actually pretty hard for me to get myself psyched up to go out. It has to be a restaurant with food that I can't cook at home and portions that will fill us up and a price that doesn't break the bank. It has to have food that I would like with my veggie tastes and that Proeun would like and that each of the kids with their individual tastes would. Well you get the picture; not very much fits the bill.

On Friday I got an assignment for Hmong Times -- a new restaurant opening. It was at a time when no baby sitters were available so the children went with. The owners are a Hmong couple who have a successful restaurant in Milwaukee. They left their daughter in charge of that restaurant, also called the Rice Palace.

Their new venture in St. Paul's Hillcrest shopping mall on White Bear Ave caters more to Southeast Asian tastes. It focuses on home-style cooking from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. It is an all-you can-eat buffet.

I was so impressed at the opening that I decided I had to bring Proeun back. So yesterday we went back for a second time and he was really impressed as well. The dishes include Pad Thai, Larb, spring rolls, Southeast Asian-style egg rolls, papaya salad, grilled ribs and tilapia, tri-color dessert, rolls with sweet bean filling, pho (beef noodle soup) and kao poon (curry soup). My favorite was the pho. Not only is it my favorite of the buffet but it is my favorite Pho.



Proeun's favorite was the crayfish.



The hardest part was that the children don't really get the concept of a buffet, i.e. to stuff yourself. They eat until they are comfortable then lose interest and we spend the rest of the time trying to get them to stay still while we continue to sample our favorites.

But anyway, we now have a restaurant that makes all the family happy.
Rice Palace

The Milwaukee restaurant has a Facebook page, but there's no contact information for the St. Paul restaurant yet.

1626 White Bear Avenue
St. Paul, MN

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Hmong Sisters pho noodle brand

Look what I found when going to the Asian store the other day to make pho for the family! Hmong Sisters noodle brand!

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Southeast Asian cuisine from an ethnic perspective

First Hmong-American recipe collection details food traditions with charming discussions as background
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
By PAMELA SILVESTRI
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

There's Vietnamese cooking with French, Thai and Chinese influence. And then there's Hmong Vietnamese cooking, a style that picks up all of those cultures and then some.

Hmong, a word that translates to English as "freeman," is an ethnic group with roots in Laos and Southern China. They migrated eventually to North Vietnam and, in 1975, became stuck, so to speak, in Communist hands when the United States withdrew from the country. Hmong were heavily persecuted and were wiped out a village at a time. As they sympathized with Americans, the U.S. promised help and eventually delivered them to America.

With that all too brief version of this group's history, we introduce an interesting cookbook, "Cooking from the Heart: The Hmong Kitchen in America" by Sami Scripter and Sheng Yang, University of Minnesota Press, 2009.

Ms. Yang was born in 1970 in Luang Prabang, the former capital of Laos. She immigrated to the U.S. -- first to Kentucky, then to Oklahoma, then to Portland, Oregon -- with her family in 1979. The Yangs and Scripters were neighbors in Oregon, a relationship that eventually led to the collaboration on this book.

Stories are quite interesting. But the handling of vegetables, pork, chili sauces and larb, a Laotian dish made with any kind of lean meat marinated in lime juice, are rather exciting. A discussion of herbs, spices and ingredients at the beginning of the book is an eye opener to anyone who's stopped in Manhattan or Brooklyn Chinatown and wondered, "What kind of vegetable is that?" when studying the items in a produce market. We just wish there were more illustrations on individual veggies and herbs as some sound truly exotic and are tough to picture based on the word descriptions. Nonetheless, the filling in this recipe is similar to that used at Pho Mac in their spring rolls. It is also rather flexible and can be tucked into a wonton, spring roll or rice paper wrapper then deep-fried. Left-over filling from this recipe can be used to stuff cabbage leaves which would then be steamed.

STUFFED CHICKEN WINGS

Makes 20 wings

3 2-ounce packages rice vermicelli noodles

1 pound ground pork

Minced chicken from the wings

4 green onions, white and green parts, chopped

1/4 head cabbage, preferably Napa cabbage, finely shredded

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon MSG (optional)

1/2 teawspoon coarse-ground black pepper

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

2 eggs, stirred

Soak the vermicelli noodles in a bowl of warm water for 30 minutes. Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil in a medium-sized pot. With a fine-mesh sieve, lift the noodles out of the bowl of warm water and submerge them in the boiling water for a second or two. Quickly lift the noodles from the boiling water and drain them completely. Using kitchen shears, snip the noodles into short lengths. In a large bowl, use your hands to mix the ground pork and minced chicken togheter with the noodles, green onions, cabbage, carrot, salt, MSG (if desired), black pepper, and oyster sauce. Add the eggs and mix thorougly.

Using your fingers, stuff about 1/2 cup of the meat-noodle mixture into each chicken wing. If the skin has no tears, the chicken wing will look very fat. If the skin has a tear, seew it up with a sterilized needle and clean thread before stuffing. Pull the skin around the stuffing at the open end.

Broil about 6 inches beneath the upper element of an oven set at 400 degrees. Cook for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown on one side. Turn the wingsover and broil on the other side until done, 15 to 20 more minutes. Make sure there is a place for the fat to drain while the wings cook. The thread used to sew up tears usually burns away during broiling. If any thread does remain, remove and discard it before serving. Serve hot.

How to prepare the chicken wings for stuffing

Start with 20 large, whole chicken wings. Turkey wings, if you can find them, work well with this recipe.

Step 1:Remove the bone and most of the meat from the first two joints of each win, but not the wing tip. This process is like pulling your leg out of a pair of pants: After you remove your leg (the bones and meat), all you have left is the pant leg (skin).

Step 2:

Beginning at the large, "drumstick" end of 1 chicken wing, use a small, sharp knife to cut away the bone and as much of the meat as you can from the skin.

Step 3:

Push the skin down as you empty the wing, and continue cutting away the meat and bone on the middle section.

Step 4:

Separate the bones at the joint between the middle part of the wing and the wing tip and remove the bones and meat. Do not remove the bone in the tip of the wing. If you are careful, this paring will leave the skin from the first two-thirds of the chicken wing in one piece, without any tears. Most, but not all, of the chicken meat will be removed along with the bones. Repeat this procedure on each chicken wing. Set the wings aside. Cut as much meat as you can or save them to use another time in a soup broth. Wash the empty chicken wings under cold running water and pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle about 2 teaspoons of salt over the wings.

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A little fish sauce helps create big flavors

Lynne Rossetto Kasper
Syndicated Columnist
Lynne Rossetto Kasper says fish sauce may not smell great when you take a whiff of it in the bottle, but it adds a magic flavor to many recipes.

Ah, fish sauce is the cook's cure-all. Take a sniff of fish sauce and you're convinced that you'll never let it pass your lips. Nothing matches the smell of old socks like this fermented, salt-fish concoction from Southeast Asia.

But magic lives in that bottle. Fish sauce, and a long list of other foods, contains umami, called the fifth taste. Consider it savory-ness. Magic is in what umami does for your food. With it other flavors open up, blossom and meld together. That's why knowing the umami trick is such a plus, especially for summer cooking, when you want a little effort to pay back big with a lot of good eating. The trick is a few drops of fish sauce in a dressing, a spoonful in a soup, a stew, a marinade or a rub, to make flavors better.

On the science side, umami is glutamate, a type of amino acid, and ribonucleotides, including inosinate and guanylate, also known as naturally occurring MSG, and it was first discovered in Japan in 1908.

Here's one way to put umami to work for you. A little inexpensive this-and-that (as in a lot of vegetables and a little meat if any) stretches a long way when you serve them with lettuce cups for rolling, and a dipping sauce for spice. Besides, finger food always engages people and gets conversations going.

Any protein or favorite vegetable can be the main event in these rolls. They are a hybrid of the Southeast Asian Hmong people's favorite meat or fish salad called Larb (see the book "Cooking from the Heart: The Hmong Kitchen in America," University of Minnesota Press, 2009) and my own imaginings.

In spite of the lists, this is an easy dish. If you'd like, do the pickle and dipping sauce days ahead. The Sweet-Sour Dipping Sauce with Tomato recipe makes extra and it will keepin the fridge for three weeks and can become a dressing, a marinade, a dip and even a cold soup base.

Lynne Rossetto Kasper hosts "The Splendid Table," American Public Media's weekly national show. The program airs at 2 p.m. Sundays on KUOW-FM (94.9). Contact Kasper at www.splendidtable.org.

Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company

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Meet the Market // Hmong farmers

June 1, 2009, 3:12pm

By Zoie Glass

The Hmong farmers are an important part of the Mill City Farmers Market, bringing a beautiful array of produce and flowers, and a window into new tastes in food.

Noryeng and Che Xiong Chang
Noryeng and Che were the first farmers to call asking for a spot when the Mill City Farmers Market opened in 2006. As they planned their crops for the spring, they wanted to be sure that they had enough for this new market — which they learned about from Brenda Langton. They lived in Green Bay, Wisc., and grew cucumbers for a local pickle company. When they moved to Minnesota, they started their own farming business, and they now grow quite a bit more than cucumbers. At their stall you’ll find rare Asian greens like Malabar spinach, beautiful fresh herbs and fresh red raspberries — both summer and fall types!

Der’s Flower Farm
Der was the first large scale flower producer to join the market. Every week she brings gorgeous fresh bouquets to the market. Her daughter Ge and son in law Chee run the stand at the market. They also grow fresh vegetables including onions, potatoes and green beans. While they used to grow traditional Asian vegetables, they soon realized that it was too difficult to sell them at local markets. Stop by Der’s Flower Farm for a beautiful bouquet to brighten your home — the offerings change weekly, and the fall selection is wonderful!

Mai Thao
Mai and her family were farmers in Thailand but grew food just for the family, not for sale. Today, Mai runs the farm with her whole family, including her sister’s Maidoua and Maihang, and their parents Vang and Cheu. Their stall at the market overflows with colorful peppers and eggplants — and on some days, they have so much produce that they use two stalls to accommodate it all.

Kao Sheng Vang
Kao runs the farm with her whole family including her mother Chue and father Neng, and her brothers and sisters. Kao’s sister, Pa, likes to help out at the market on Saturdays. At the market, they sell everything from cucumbers and tomatoes to beautiful fresh herbs and healthy greens. They also grow a striking array of peppers in all shapes, sizes and colors.

Zoie Glass owns the Mill City Farmers Market vendor Lucille's Kitchen Garden.

***

Market menu courtesy Lucille's Kitchen Garden


Market shopping list

Oil Seed Rape
Onions
Cilantro
Baby dill
Garlic

Garlicky Chinese Green Flower (Oil Seed Rape); Zaub Ntsuab Paj Kib
Co-author Sami loves this vegetable better than any other Asian leafy green. It has a delightful sweet and crispy quality, and has a beautiful glossy, deep-green color. Because oil seed rape in not imported, it is only available “in season.” Chinese broccoli, bamboo mustard cabbage or bok choy can be substituted for the oil seed rape.

Makes 6 servings
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds oil seed rape, cut into 5-inch long pieces; 5 green onions, white and green parts, cut into 3-inch long pieces; 1/2 bunch cilantro, cut into 3-inch long pieces (about 2 cups); 1 bunch baby dill, cut into 3-inch long pieces (about 2 cups); 1/4 cup chopped garlic; 2 teaspoons salt; 1/4 cup vegetable oil; 1 tablespoon soy sauce

Preparation
You need a wide-bottomed, no-stick pan with a lid for this dish. Be sure to have all of the ingredients prepared and ready to use before you begin cooking.
Clean and cut up the oil seed rape. Cut up the green onions, cilantro and the baby dill and toss them together in a bowl. Chop the garlic. Heat the oil in the pan until it is quite hot, but not hot enough to smoke. Stir-fry the garlic until it is fragrant and golden brown. Add the oil seed rape, salt and soy sauce. Stir-fry quickly for a few minutes, making sure it does not stick to the bottom of the pan. Add a little water and cover the pan for 3-4 minutes. Remove the lid, add the green onion, cilantro, and dill and then stir again. Do not over-cook. The leaves should be limp, but the stems should still be a little crunchy.

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