0:00

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it all. I especially love their roasted red

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can even taste a little bit of that

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0:37

begin our show with the biggest event,

0:39

our state holds the fair yet again.

0:41

It's so big every single day, it

0:43

could be the state's third largest city,

0:45

which to me, a non-native Minnesotan is

0:47

just banana pants, but I digress. Hmong

0:50

people have been living in Minnesota for a half

0:52

a century now, and yet, out of all

0:54

the food at the Minnesota State

0:57

Fair, there's never been Hmong cuisine until

0:59

now. In the summer of

1:01

2022, a new food stall opened

1:04

at the Minnesota State Fair, featuring

1:06

Hmong food. Hmong is spelled H-M-O-N-G,

1:08

the H is silent. The

1:10

Hmong people are an ethnic minority from Southeast

1:12

Asia, and for reasons we'll get to, the

1:14

largest concentration of Hmong people in America is

1:16

in Minnesota. So when this Hmong

1:19

food stall opened at the state fair, people

1:21

took notice. Business is booming.

1:23

Since we've been out here, the

1:25

line has been nonstop, stretching all

1:27

the way back there. The chef who

1:29

opened that food stall was Yee-Yah Vang. One of

1:31

the things that we were very proud of was

1:33

our menu, half of it was in Hmong. And

1:36

we were very intentional about it, because one of

1:38

the things that we loved was watching some of

1:41

the older generation Hmong people coming by and looking

1:43

at the menu and saying, oh, I can read

1:45

that. They were the ones teaching

1:47

the white person standing next to them, and goes, hey, what's

1:49

what's saw? What does that mean? Well, that's

1:51

hot peppers. No, wait, wait, what's purple

1:53

sticky rice? Well, what do you do with that? Well, you dip

1:56

it into the hot pepper with the meat. And

1:59

now it's a roll of meat. reversal right? Now

2:01

we aren't the strange kids anymore. We're actually

2:03

the experts and all

2:05

our white brothers and sisters around us, you

2:08

know, they're the ones coming

2:10

in wondering what's the secret. This

2:18

is the Sporkful. It's not for foodies, it's

2:21

for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on

2:23

our show we obsess about food to learn

2:25

more about people. That may

2:27

not surprise you to hear that when I travel one

2:30

of my top priorities is figuring out where to eat.

2:32

So when I was in Minneapolis for my book tour

2:34

one place that I kept hearing about that I knew

2:36

I wanted to try was Union Mung Kitchen. The

2:39

chef and owner of Union Mung Kitchen is Yi

2:41

Yavang who you just heard from. He started his

2:43

restaurant as a food trailer back in 2016 and

2:45

since then he's done catering, he's run stands in

2:48

sports arenas, he's opened in a food hall, he's

2:50

also received major attention from places like Bon Appetit

2:52

and the James Beard Foundation as one of the

2:54

leading chefs cooking mung food in America. Then

2:57

just last year he opened his first brick and

2:59

mortar restaurant which is where we met up. The

3:02

place feels like a local hangout and the customers seemed

3:04

excited to be there. Thank

3:07

you, appreciate it. Thank you so much. Union

3:11

Mung Kitchen is a fast casual restaurant where you order

3:13

at the counter then sit down to eat. The

3:15

decor is industrial cool, concrete

3:18

floors, high ceilings, exposed ducts.

3:21

Before I met Yi I'd never eaten mung food before

3:23

and I didn't know a whole lot about the mung

3:25

people. As I learned when we

3:27

spoke the mung played an important role for the

3:29

U.S. in the Vietnam War. They were trained as

3:31

soldiers by the CIA to support U.S. forces in

3:34

North Vietnam. Yi's father signed

3:36

up to become one of those soldiers because the

3:38

mung were promised that their service would get them

3:40

to the U.S. There was a handshake deal that

3:42

was made between the mung leaders and

3:45

the U.S. government. When losers draw

3:47

no matter what happens your people can

3:49

come to America. In the fall of

3:51

Saigon in 75 the U.S. pulls out

3:53

of the war and

3:56

the mung people were left behind and there

3:58

was this great genocide. The U.S. largely

4:00

abandoned the Hmong and left them surrounded by

4:02

their enemies. Communist governments in

4:04

Laos and Vietnam targeted the Hmong people.

4:06

Their villages were destroyed and tens of

4:08

thousands were killed. Many fled

4:10

to Thailand, where they lived in refugee camps. The

4:12

Hmong people were stuck in limbo. So

4:15

the Thai government's like, hey man, you're not our

4:17

problem. But then it's like you couldn't

4:19

go back to Laos because you were considered enemy of the

4:21

state because you fought for the US. In

4:24

the US, they're still trying to figure out, well, can

4:26

we take on these people, right? He

4:28

has parents met in one of those refugee camps in the late

4:30

70s. That's where Gia was born. His

4:33

parents spent a total of 12 years in the camp. During

4:36

this time, Lutheran and Catholic church groups in

4:38

Minnesota and Wisconsin started sponsoring Hmong families to

4:40

come to the US. He

4:43

has family emigrated to the Twin Cities in 1988,

4:45

which is four and a half. At

4:47

first, they lived in East St. Paul. It was an

4:49

area with a lot of Hmong refugees and also a

4:51

lot of poverty and gang violence. Eventually,

4:53

his family moved to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,

4:56

a rural area populated mostly by Amish

4:58

and Mennonite farmers, but where some other

5:00

Hmong families had also moved. His

5:02

parents felt a lot more comfortable in an agricultural community

5:04

than a city. Growing up in

5:06

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania was one of the

5:09

greatest things ever. He has parents

5:11

partnered with other members of the Hmong church in the

5:13

area and together they rented plots of farmland to grow

5:15

vegetables. He has said this was a

5:17

cultural value instilled in Hmong people, you grow

5:20

your own food. And in Lancaster, they

5:22

could do that. We felt so at home. Like

5:24

I grew up on my weekends

5:26

going to the garden with my family. And when I

5:28

say garden, I'm talking about like five or six acres,

5:30

maybe 10 acres. And we

5:32

would go and we harvest all of that. It wasn't about

5:34

going to the grocery store and getting chicken. We would go

5:37

to the Amish farmer and we buy 50 heads

5:39

of chicken and then we slaughtered ourselves and you wrap it up

5:41

yourselves. And by the time I was 13, 14, I was more

5:43

comfortable holding a bony knife, breaking

5:48

down size of a pig and

5:50

cow than I was holding a baseball and

5:52

trying to throw a curve ball. Yeah.

5:55

What kinds of things were you growing on your

5:57

land? So obviously, we

6:00

have our mung mustard greens, which is like such

6:02

like our cash crop, you know, and any

6:04

kind of vegetables that was out there. I mean,

6:06

everything, you know, because a lot

6:09

of these seeds were kind of taken

6:11

from the homeland and brought over. So

6:13

anything from bitter melons to different kinds

6:15

of eggplants, different kinds of beans and

6:17

peppers and things that we could grow

6:19

here. And what were some of the

6:21

mung dishes that you grew up eating?

6:23

Yeah, so a lot of our food

6:25

is based on pork, right? And

6:27

but not just pork itself, but

6:29

like fat. Fat is

6:32

like the ingredient. Like growing

6:34

up in the mountains of Laos, my parents didn't

6:36

have some kind of like raspberry foam they can

6:38

do with an ISI bottle, right? So

6:41

you literally have salt. And

6:44

if you were one of the very, very

6:46

lucky family, maybe a little fish sauce, and

6:48

then you had the natural fat of, you

6:51

know, the pig that you raised. And

6:53

so what I really learned about mung

6:55

food is the natural fat of like

6:57

the chicken and the pork is very

6:59

important. It's a part of the flavoring

7:01

of the dish. So for example,

7:04

one of the most common mung dish, and you

7:06

go to any mung household, you talk to any

7:08

mung kid from zero to 100, they're gonna

7:10

tell you, braised mung

7:12

mustard green with pork

7:15

fat is one of

7:17

the most top notch dishes over

7:20

some rice and a little bit of like

7:22

Thai chili peppers. Oh my god, sounds so

7:24

good. You know, and it is it is

7:26

quintessential. It is part of our soul, right?

7:28

And every kid that grows up, you know

7:31

that taste because they didn't have baby food

7:33

or a baby formula. Like that's what you

7:35

ate. And is indented inside of your soul.

7:38

While you grew up with mung food and culture at

7:40

home, he was also assimilating into life in the US.

7:43

My father, when we went to school, he

7:45

said to us, learn how

7:47

to speak their language, learn how to

7:49

read their books and learn their culture, because one day,

7:51

son, you're going to be in it. And

7:53

I want you to use everything to your advantage.

7:56

So we would go to the

7:58

library and we would get books out. and he made sure

8:00

that his biggest thing was he didn't

8:02

want any of his children to have an accent when

8:04

we spoke. And he was

8:06

so adamant about it. We would watch

8:09

public television with him. I grew up

8:11

watching all the PBS

8:13

cooking shows. I grew up on Jacques

8:15

Pepin. That's how I kind of got

8:17

interested in cooking. Yia's father also took

8:19

a more direct role in Yia's culinary

8:21

education. He taught Yia how to make

8:23

traditional mung sausage with lemongrass, ginger, fish

8:25

sauce, and MSG. They didn't

8:27

have a sausage stuffer. They took a two liter Coke

8:29

bottle and cut the top off and they used that

8:31

as a funnel to fill the casing with meat. Looking

8:34

back, Yia sees that these moments with his father

8:36

were about a lot more than just cooking. My

8:39

friends, my American friends, my wife friends,

8:41

their families and their parents and

8:44

their grandparents had

8:46

land that they would will down from family

8:48

to family. And when you have parents that

8:51

are refugees that came here with nothing, there's

8:54

no land my mom and dad can will down

8:57

to their family. And then

8:59

when I realized that I just

9:02

like it sounds so dumb, but

9:05

his legacy is captivated in this sausage

9:09

that he learned as a boy and he

9:11

watched his father and their father probably watched

9:13

his father do it. When

9:16

I learned how to do it, it was

9:19

one of those things where I'm like, it's

9:21

dad's legacy. You know,

9:23

like we don't mess with this. The

9:25

Hmong community in Lancaster County was small and

9:28

tight knit. Yia refers to the other men

9:30

of the group as his uncles, even though they aren't blood

9:32

relatives. As a boy, he'd watch

9:34

his father and these uncles work the grill

9:36

at community gatherings, cooking up that Hmong sausage, pork

9:38

chops and other meats. Eventually,

9:40

the men decided Yia had spent enough

9:42

time watching. The moment they

9:44

kind of hang you the little tong and

9:46

you're like, Hey, like watch this area. You're

9:48

like, Oh, I've trained my whole life for

9:50

this. You know, this is like

9:53

King Arthur. The sword is out of the stone

9:55

and they handed it to you

9:57

and you can't mess this up. And

9:59

it was cool. to walk into the house

10:01

and you smell like bbq and grill just like

10:03

the dudes, right? While everyone in

10:05

Yia's family took part in these special meals, Yia

10:08

felt especially drawn to the tradition and ritual of

10:10

it all. My siblings are incredibly smart.

10:12

They all have postgraduate degrees. They're

10:14

super smart. I just never

10:17

was a book kid. I'm

10:19

an ambulatory learner. I need to touch it with my hand to

10:21

learn. It made a lot of sense

10:23

where my dad would put a whole hog on the, you

10:25

know, on a table and he'd show me, okay, here are

10:27

the tendons. This is where you cut it. And

10:30

I could do that as a 15, 16 year old kid. But

10:33

if you told me to, you know, read Momi Dick

10:35

and write a book, a report about it, I'd be

10:38

like, I don't know, some whales and guy hunting. I'd

10:40

rather go make the sausage. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

10:43

Yia went to college at the University of Wisconsin, La

10:45

Crosse, and after graduating in 2010, he

10:48

moved to the Twin Cities, where he hadn't lived since he

10:50

was five. He found cooking jobs in

10:52

corporate catering and food service companies. Then,

10:54

in the summer of 2014, I

10:56

ended up working for this really, really big church,

10:58

right? And I was a church lunch lady. It's

11:00

like a 4,000 person church. And your job was

11:02

to come in, open up the kitchen, which by

11:05

the way, this kitchen was like one of the

11:07

most baller kitchen ever. And then

11:09

you would come in and make sure that

11:11

like all the hot dishes were warmed up.

11:13

I'm imagining a lot of casseroles. Oh, absolutely.

11:16

Bro, this church is like over a hundred

11:18

years old. And they had this

11:20

big missions night where they were working

11:22

with these missionaries from Myanmar. And

11:25

it was so funny because the missions director was like, oh, we

11:27

were thinking we were gonna order from Olive Garden. And

11:30

it's like 250 people. We're gonna order from

11:32

Olive Garden. And if you could help just coordinate that,

11:34

like I was like, okay, cool, or

11:36

I have an idea. I'm

11:38

kind of familiar with those flavors. Is it

11:40

okay if I just tried to do some

11:42

of the dishes? So I just

11:45

like went all out. I took a whole catfish, stuffed

11:48

it with aromatics, like lemongrass, ginger, garlic,

11:51

score, wrapped it in and

11:53

then baked it off in banana leaves. And

11:55

again, this is a predominantly white church. And

11:57

you're making this catfish with lemongrass and stuff.

12:00

Yeah, yep, and then it was like these

12:02

curry dishes and everything and I and I

12:04

did this little sample for the missions director

12:07

The church missions director was the only other Asian

12:09

person at this church. He was a Taiwanese American

12:11

named Ming Jin Tong He tried

12:13

some of the samples he had cooked he ran down

12:15

in the kitchen goes you and he points me I'm

12:17

like what what's up? And he's like dude.

12:19

Did you do this? I'm like, yeah, he goes cuz

12:22

I've been waiting for you I'm like, what are you

12:24

talking about? You understand how

12:26

long I've been waiting for you I'm like what

12:28

and he's like let's be friends and

12:30

literally from then on as like 12 years

12:32

ago Like we became like good friends until

12:34

today Yeah And Ming Jin Tong

12:36

who goes by Tong Started thinking

12:39

about other ways to use food to foster

12:41

community in the church, especially among young people

12:43

They heard about an idea that was already well known

12:45

in restaurant circles the pop-up for

12:48

year This was a revelation and I was

12:50

like what like you can just like pop

12:52

up Right, then you're

12:54

like hold down right right and then

12:57

you send out email and you

12:59

pop up again Tong already had

13:01

connections to the younger generation as the church's outreach

13:03

pastor and several of them offered up their backyards

13:05

for food events So once a month Yia and

13:07

Tong will go into a different backyard and pop

13:09

up one night It'll be like a phone night

13:11

one I'd be like a fried chicken night one

13:14

night It would just be a like a steak

13:16

night and it'd be like five bucks you come

13:18

in It's just five bucks and we would do

13:20

that and it would just get all these people

13:22

from the community come together By the

13:24

end of the summer of 2016 He knew

13:26

he wanted to cook professionally in restaurants

13:29

to do that. He had to get more

13:32

work in restaurants He took jobs at high-end

13:34

places across Minneapolis gaining more experience But

13:37

as he approached his 30th birthday, he began having a

13:39

bit of an identity crisis He didn't feel

13:41

connected to the food he was cooking. He was

13:43

working at restaurants that his family would never set foot

13:45

it By this point Yia

13:47

and Tong were good friends and one night they were

13:49

hanging out talking about the future They

13:51

didn't know exactly what they wanted to do,

13:54

but they coalesced around a mantra Inspired

13:56

by those church dinners. We just said food

13:59

plus people That's all we said,

14:01

food plus people equals community. And

14:03

Union Monk Kitchen was born on that table. Eeya

14:08

left his restaurant job and started Union Monk Kitchen out

14:10

of the back of his beat-up Toyota RAV4 with

14:13

a small charcoal grill and a 10x10 pop-up tent,

14:15

cooking the foods he grew up with. From

14:18

there, he moved on to a food trailer outside

14:20

of a brewery, Northeast Minneapolis. He started

14:22

getting better known around town, and so did his

14:24

food. You know,

14:26

we get to introduce monk food, right? So what's the best

14:28

way of introducing monk food? We always say monk food is

14:30

kind of like meats and threes, right? So

14:33

you have your protein, you have your rice, you have

14:35

your vegetable, and then you have your hot sauce. Monk

14:37

food shares some ingredients and dishes in common with

14:40

Vietnamese and Thai food, things like

14:42

lemongrass chicken and flistered green beans. This

14:44

made the menu feel more familiar to people. But

14:47

Eeya also made sure that the food he served honored the

14:49

history of the monk people, including his

14:51

dad's own recipe for monk sausage. Dad's monk

14:53

sausage. Some people would say, oh,

14:55

well, that spice level is way too high. Well,

14:57

let me explain to you why we have that

14:59

heat level on there. Because the

15:02

Thai chili on there actually works

15:05

as a way of preserving and fermenting the

15:07

meat. You know why? There's an refrigeration in the mountains

15:09

of Laos, you know, in the huts. You

15:12

had to use the heat from the

15:14

chilies, and what it did was it

15:16

helped cure the sausage. That's

15:19

why. And do you know why we have

15:21

the heat on there? Because you

15:24

want to be able to eat it with the sticky rice, and

15:26

that heat actually is mellowed out by the sticky rice.

15:29

If something is way too big

15:32

and umami, and it's like, oh, man, this is so

15:34

rich for me, grab a little bit of sticky rice.

15:38

That's why it's there. And

15:40

so the monk sausage that you're serving here

15:43

is the same recipe that your father

15:45

made and showed you how to make when you were a

15:48

kid. Absolutely. Even to the

15:50

coarse grinding of it, you know. I think a

15:52

lot of times when people think of sausage, they

15:54

think of Eastern European, well, it's emulsified more like

15:56

a hot dog or a bratwurst. more

16:00

coarse. So you and it has to be

16:02

like that into higher fat content, right? Because

16:04

the way that they roast in the way

16:06

that grill it is it's slowly roasting and

16:09

grilling. That's why teaching our cooks how to

16:11

reverse engineer the way that they think when

16:13

grilling a sausage because you need that time

16:15

and you need that low heat to actually

16:17

render down that fat because the most important

16:20

part of that mung sausage is

16:22

that pork flavor. Because when you match that

16:25

with the sweetness of the sticky

16:27

rice and you hit that right into that

16:29

quetzal or that hot sauce, that is that

16:31

ultimate flavor bomb in your mouth. Oh my

16:33

God, I am starving. Coming

16:38

up, I get served one of the most

16:40

prodigious platters of food that I have ever

16:42

laid eyes on. But first, he tells me

16:44

about doubling down on his mission to focus

16:46

on mung food after his father suffers a

16:48

life threatening accident. Stick around.

16:59

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whole family and spacious rooms. I mean if

18:49

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18:51

the pool. If you stay at a hotel

18:53

with a pool almost

18:55

nothing else matters. Fortunately all the Choice Hotels take

18:57

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18:59

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19:02

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19:04

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19:06

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19:08

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19:11

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19:13

enjoy a nice glass of wine but I

19:15

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19:18

usually just want a wine that's high quality,

19:20

delicious, and not too expensive. And to me

19:22

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19:24

Bogle. This is a third-generation family owned winery from

19:26

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19:28

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19:30

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19:32

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19:34

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19:36

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19:39

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19:41

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19:43

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19:45

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19:47

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19:50

fish. They have a classic Chardonnay that's balanced, amazing

19:52

with a pork tenderloin or butter chicken. I like

19:54

to take that Chardonnay and do what Jacques Le

19:56

Pan taught me. A couple of ice cubes in

19:58

your glass of Bogle. says it's

20:00

okay, then it's okay. And there's the

20:02

Bogle Pinot Noir refined and elegant with bright fruit and about

20:04

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20:06

going to believe it's only $10. Neither

20:09

will your friends if you tell them. So pick up

20:11

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20:13

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20:17

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20:48

Welcome back to The Sporkful. I'm Dan Pashman.

20:50

Hey, do you have a food dispute where

20:52

you need some expert advice? Listen to this.

20:54

For our next call-in show, we are bringing

20:56

in some heavy hitters, very special experts, my

20:59

family. Yes, that's right. Janie and the kids will

21:01

be joining me to weigh in on your food

21:03

fights and hot takes and to answer any questions

21:05

you may have for them. So I want to

21:07

hear your disputes, hot takes, and questions. Send us

21:10

a voice memo to hello at sporkful.com. Please do

21:12

send a voice memo. A lot of you are

21:14

emailing us and then we write into Haking send

21:16

a voice memo and then we're out hearing back.

21:18

So please, we need the voice memos. All right. Make sure

21:20

you say your name, where you're

21:23

from, and then tell us the

21:25

issue. Send all those voice memos

21:27

to us at hello at sporkful.com.

21:29

Thanks. Can't wait to hear from you. All

21:31

right, back to Union Mung Kitchen in Minneapolis

21:34

and my conversation with Yia Vang. There

21:36

was a lot more that I wanted to talk about with Yia,

21:38

but at this point, he'd been telling me so much about Mung

21:40

Food. I needed a place my dinner order. I was starting to

21:42

feel faint. So we paused our

21:44

chat and went up to the counter where the

21:46

menu was on the billboard. So our meal is

21:49

called the Zhong Shia meal. Zhong Shia means happy.

21:51

So there's another company that has a happy

21:53

meal. So we have

21:56

our Zhong Shia meal. So you start at your main,

21:58

you know, choose your program. protein,

22:00

choose your side, and then it comes along

22:02

with sticky rice and hot

22:05

sauce. There weren't so many

22:07

options, but every single one of them sounded

22:09

incredible. I was having trouble deciding. E.S.

22:12

saw me struggling and took charge of the order. Can

22:15

we just get kind of like a platter

22:17

of the belly, the sausage and the leg?

22:20

And then like just do all the sides, right? All

22:23

the sides. Do all the sides, a half order of

22:25

the spare ribs. And

22:27

then did you want to fish in there too? I

22:30

mean, that sounds like a lot already. Yeah, let's throw fish

22:32

on there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

22:34

Cool. We'll get that all set up, looking

22:36

all real nice and sexy and beautiful, and then just bring it

22:38

up to the back. Amazing. All right. I'm

22:40

excited. Thank you. All right.

22:43

Union Mung Tishon has been open for less

22:45

than a year, but it kind of has

22:47

the feeling of a long-standing neighborhood spot. I

22:49

saw three-generation families eating alongside millennial groups of

22:51

friends. But years passed

22:53

from a food trailer outside a brewery to

22:55

this was not a straight line. In

22:57

2017, a year after starting that trailer, he

23:00

got some news that changed the course of his life

23:02

and career. I remember my mom

23:05

calling me hysterically because she doesn't speak

23:07

English. So all she got was like

23:09

a random phone call. Someone from

23:11

the church had called his mom to say that he, his dad,

23:14

was in the hospital after slipping off a ladder at work. He

23:16

had fractured his skull. My dad's my hero, right? Yeah,

23:19

you could tell. My dad's my hero. Toughest guy I

23:21

know. I've never seen him hurt. Like,

23:23

how do you fight a war, survive, come

23:27

to America, and then slip

23:29

on a stupid ladder at work? Do

23:31

you know what I'm saying? And I remember

23:34

going there to visit my father, and I was

23:36

going in. The doctor said, hey, dude, you go

23:38

in. We

23:40

want to make sure that his brain's working. So

23:43

you got to ask him if he remembers you. I go in. My

23:46

dad's all groggily. He's all drugged up, and his head's

23:48

all wrapped up. I never seen my dad at his

23:50

weak state. I held his hand, and I

23:52

said, dad, do you know who I am? He kind of

23:54

opens his eyes, and he can barely squeeze

23:56

my hand. He goes, I think you're my son. That's

23:59

all he said to me. And I remember leaving,

24:01

driving back, it was like three hours. He goes, this

24:03

is in Wisconsin, I'm living up in Minneapolis here. Three

24:05

hours and I'm in silence. And

24:07

I thought to myself, hey, if

24:10

dad dies in this

24:12

hospital, in this dark room in this

24:14

hospital in central Wisconsin, nobody's

24:17

going to know his story. And

24:20

we could tell these great stories about him

24:22

after, but I want him to

24:24

hear how great of a man he is now.

24:33

Ia's father spent two months in the ICU. When

24:36

he was discharged, he had to relearn how to walk

24:38

and talk. It took him nearly a year

24:40

to recover. Ia spent a

24:42

lot of that time reevaluating his own work, asking

24:45

himself how he could share the Hmong story and

24:47

the story of his parents more widely. His

24:50

initial idea wasn't Union Hmong Kitchen, where we were

24:52

talking. In 2020, Ia

24:54

began planning a restaurant called Vinay, that's the name

24:56

of the refugee camp where his parents met and

24:58

where he was born. Union

25:00

Hmong Kitchen is a fast, casual place for you

25:02

to order at a counter, but Vinay will be

25:04

more of an experience. We'll

25:07

sit you down. We'll host you. And

25:09

we'll make sure that when you come through and

25:11

you have some of these dishes, we're going to

25:13

have sustenance. We're going to have stories behind them.

25:17

Vinay will be filled with plants as a

25:19

nod to Ia's mom and handcrafted woodworkings because

25:21

his father worked as a carpenter. In

25:23

the middle of Vinay, I'll be lined with cinder blocks

25:26

because when Ia learned to grill as a kid, his

25:28

father built their grill out of cinder blocks. And

25:30

his parents are going to be involved in the restaurant. Shortly

25:33

after his father recovered from his accident, Ia's

25:35

parents moved back to Minneapolis to be closer

25:37

to family. Just like they did

25:39

in Pennsylvania, his parents teamed up with members of

25:41

their new church to rent out plots of land

25:43

to grow vegetables. The plan is for them to

25:45

supply the produce for Vinay from their land. But

25:48

Vinay has faced some setbacks. Ia

25:50

and his business partner first announced the restaurant in

25:52

February of 2020, a month

25:55

before the whole country went into lockdown. That

25:57

opening got pushed back twice, and eventually they had to

25:59

bail on that location. He had

26:01

got rejected by multiple banks and stopped taking a

26:03

salary for four years. For a while,

26:05

he was living in his brother's house to save on rent. In

26:08

the meantime, he had opened Union Monk Kitchen, and it seemed

26:10

to be a success. But he continued

26:12

to try to make Vinay a reality. So

26:14

I asked him, what's driving you to do

26:17

it? To do Vinay? To do Vinay. With

26:19

COVID, I don't know that it would have been a failure to

26:21

say, you know what, like COVID changed so much in the restaurant

26:23

industry to say, you know what, it's not going to work out,

26:25

but you have Union Monk Kitchen. You could open another Union Monk

26:28

Kitchen. You could keep growing this. So

26:31

why is it so important to you to start this

26:33

other restaurant? Yeah, I don't think I've told this story

26:35

to anybody. And I

26:37

keep it in my heart. My

26:42

father is this war hero. I've

26:44

learned these stories from my father, from

26:46

my mother. My dad doesn't talk about it. I

26:49

would go to places where, when I mentioned

26:51

my father's name, where I'm his son, men

26:53

would look at me with respect. I

26:56

remember one gentleman came up to me, elder gentleman

26:58

said, you know, I'm in this

27:00

country because your dad saved my life. You

27:03

see that? That's my son. Those

27:05

are my grandkids. They don't exist without

27:08

your father and the way he saved me.

27:11

So my dad is this war hero, right? And

27:13

he could have stayed in Thailand,

27:17

lived a great life. My grandmother before

27:19

she passed away told me that your

27:21

father had a great

27:23

opportunity to be among some of those war

27:25

leaders. I

27:27

didn't know this until a few

27:29

years ago. My father, my mom said the

27:32

night before we came to this country, he

27:34

said to my mom, I can't

27:36

wait to go to

27:38

a country where

27:40

my sons and daughter can write their own destiny.

27:47

He chose us and

27:51

he wouldn't quit and he didn't quit.

27:54

And after his accident, he still

27:56

wanted to get back and work.

27:59

And he just wanted to get back. quit. He

28:02

always said, go to Tua. I'm dumb. Don't

28:04

be like me. But

28:07

what I like to say to him is, I am you. I'm

28:10

too dumb to know how to quit. Just

28:13

like you. I'm not gonna quit

28:15

on this. Man, we have

28:17

to freaking go out there and go talk to

28:19

another bank and raise another $150,000. I'll do it.

28:22

If I have to go out there and grovel to people

28:24

and say, hey, we need this money because we can build

28:27

something great here, I'll do it.

28:29

Eating this food, there's just

28:31

something different, right? Because there's a soul element

28:34

to it. There's a story behind it. And

28:37

we get to do that with Vinay

28:40

on a grander level where

28:42

people would come and sit and come rest,

28:44

get restored and eat food. Food that mom

28:46

and dad taught me how to make when

28:48

I was a kid. Food that growing up,

28:51

most white kids made fun of us for

28:53

having food and most people will look at

28:55

us and say, oh, that's like poor people

28:57

food. But now food

29:00

writers from around the country write about

29:03

it. Not because of Yia or the

29:05

chefs here. No, because of mom and

29:07

dad and their sacrifices. And

29:10

this is why I freaking love doing this. Last

29:22

September, Yia announced that Vinay had secured

29:25

a location in Northeast Minneapolis. The plan

29:27

is now to open this summer. Also

29:30

this summer for the third straight year, Union Munkitchen

29:32

will have its stall at the Minnesota State Fair.

29:35

Yia's old friend, Tong, is now the

29:37

restaurant's director of state fair operations. My

29:39

buddies who live in LA, they're like, oh yeah, we get county fairs. I'm like,

29:42

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Bruh,

29:44

bruh. Not the Minnesota State Fair. And to

29:46

explain to them that in 12 days

29:49

we have over a million people

29:51

go through there. And out of

29:53

this million, a bunch

29:55

of them come through the stall. And for some

29:57

of them, this is the first time even seeing

29:59

the word. Hmong is the first

30:01

time. Yeah, and I continued talking then suddenly

30:04

seemingly out of nowhere. Oh

30:07

dude, you know what? This is what the kids did. They just

30:09

put it on the... Yep. Oh. They just did it. There

30:13

you go, bro. They just did it. At

30:15

this moment, our server brought out the single

30:17

largest platter of food I have ever had

30:19

placed in front of me. We

30:21

got a whole bronzini with our crab and

30:24

shrimp paste sauce here. We got

30:26

our sticky ribs. We got crispy pork,

30:28

taro chips, Hmong sausage, and there are

30:31

quetzal over there, some pickles, ferments,

30:33

limes. Yia explains that the

30:35

best strategy is to build your bites however you like.

30:37

It's a choose your own adventure kind of meal. You

30:39

combine meat or fish or veggie with some rice and

30:41

a little ball in your hand and then dip it

30:44

into one of the condiments. The star condiment for sure

30:46

was the green hot sauce. It was super savory, herbaceous,

30:48

and a little thick like a paste. So when you

30:50

dip rice into it, you can really pick it up

30:53

with bits of herbs in it. The

30:55

hot sauce comes from peppers that Yia's mom grows in

30:57

her plot of land nearby. I

30:59

pick up a bit of rice and then… Yeah, let's start

31:01

with them. We got to start with Dad's Hmong sausage here.

31:03

So you can totally do it with that sauce there. Dip

31:05

it into the hot sauce? All right, I'm going hot sauce.

31:08

I'm too aggressive of a dipper. I lost

31:11

my sticky rice in the dip. See,

31:13

yeah, that's a rookie move. Lesson

31:15

more. All right, all

31:18

right. And then you just go at it and

31:20

just yeah, it's a communion. Mm hmm. All

31:24

right, so the fat

31:27

for the pork. Oh my God, it's so good. Right.

31:30

It's so meaty and porky. But

31:32

that hot sauce is

31:34

phenomenal. Oh, thank you. Yep. That's like a

31:36

very common Hmong hot sauce. One

31:38

of the first things I learned how to cook, mom taught

31:40

us how to make that. Yeah. All

31:43

right. That makes sense. In that case, I'm taking

31:45

my next bit of sticky rice and

31:48

I'm going to go to this crispy pork belly

31:50

with this crackly skin. There you go. And then I'm going

31:52

to go to the chili crisp. That right. That

31:55

rice, it's like the little sweetness of their and

31:58

people always like, well, you know how. How come you guys

32:00

don't flavor your rice? I'm like, that's not the point. The

32:02

flavoring comes from everything else around it. You

32:04

know, that's why it makes real sense when

32:07

mom says monk food is about balance. Like,

32:09

are you gonna tell me that the sticky

32:12

rice is more important than that fish? Absolutely

32:14

not. Are you gonna tell me that that

32:16

fish is more important than that rice? No, they need each other.

32:19

And that's how the world works. But the

32:21

more you know. I

32:23

should be asking another question, but I'm too busy eating. I

32:26

may need more napkins. That's

32:32

Yia Vang. If

32:39

you're in the Twin Cities or the state fair

32:42

this summer, make sure you stop by Union Monk

32:44

Kitchen. And if you wanna keep tabs on when

32:46

Vinay is opening, follow Yia on Instagram at YiaVang70.

32:50

Next week on the show, I talk with the

32:52

one and only Molly Bazz. Molly developed a huge

32:54

fan base hosting videos of the Bon Appetit Test

32:56

Kitchen YouTube channel. And it's parlay that started them

32:59

to create a whole food and lifestyle universe for

33:01

her followers. We talk about how you

33:03

build a personal brand while being true to yourself. And

33:06

she breaks down how she develops a recipe. That's

33:08

next week. While I wait for that one,

33:10

I hope let's check out our last two episodes which featured the

33:12

very best moments for my 10 City Book Tour. It was great

33:14

to see so many of you come out of these events, but

33:16

I don't think anyone came to all of them. So

33:19

listen to this series. You'll feel like you're there. Both

33:21

those episodes are up now. This

33:24

episode was produced by me along with managing

33:27

producer. Emma Morgenstern. And senior producer. Andres O'Hara.

33:29

It was edited by. Nora Richie. Our engineer

33:31

is. Jared O'Connell. Music help from Black Label

33:33

Music. The Spork Flisser production of Stitcher Studios.

33:36

Our executive producers are Nora Richie and Colin

33:38

Anderson. Until next time, I'm Dan Paschman. And

33:40

I'm Ben from Minnesota reminding you to try

33:42

to eat more, eat better. Whether it runs

33:45

or it's flies or it swings or slides

33:47

or slithers or glides or gross. Right under

33:49

our toes. Just make sure to get a

33:51

big dose of stuff in the air. We

33:54

don't really care. Whatever you eat, it's

33:56

all really fair. Sun for the photons

33:58

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