Wisconsin Foodie

– Announcer: This week on Wisconsin Foodie: - Yia Vang: Union Hmong Kitchen started out as a pop-up and it was this pop-up where we can express the food of, you know, Mom and Dad that we grew up with, but we're also Americans.

So we wanted to be able to use a vehicle to deliver the food on this canvas that, you know, is, I don't wanna say more palatable to the American people, but it's more familiar.

Now, Vinai is now, it's more of, you know, like a 25-page essay.

It's a deeper dive into Hmong food that is closer to my heart, and it's actually a really deep dive into who my parents are.

I'm trying not to fanboy right now.

- You're trying not to fanboy?

- It's real life, it's really you!

- Man, I'm out there trying not to fanboy over this food.

- Oh, stop.

- It's incredible.

- Thanks.

- So when we talk about Hmong food within our restaurants, we always say that Hmong food isn't a type of food.

It's a philosophy of food.

It's a way of thinking about food.

If you want to know Hmong food, you have to know our people because our story of our people is intricately woven into the foods that we eat.

Our cultural DNA is part of the foods that we eat.

– Announcer: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

- The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie, and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[people cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- I'm going out to pasture with the cows this morning.

– Announcer: At Organic Valley, we're on a mission to save small family farms.

– Farmer: Tasting pretty good?

– Announcer: And you can join us.

– Farmer: [laughing] Girlfriend's on a mission.

- Organic Valley.

- Twenty-minute commutes.

Weekends on the lake.

Warm welcomes, and exciting career opportunities.

Not to mention all the great food.

There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.

Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

– Announcer: Additional support from the following underwriters.

[relaxing music] Also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[upbeat music] We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.

We are a merging of cultures and ideas, shaped by this land.

[sizzling] We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

[glasses clinking] We are storytellers.

We are Wisconsin Foodie.

Today's adventure takes us to Minneapolis.

We are here to see my friend, an amazingly accomplished chef, Yia Vang.

Yia is the owner of James Beard-nominated Union Hmong Kitchen.

And tonight, the debut of his second concept, Vinai, named after the Hmong refugee camp in Thailand where he was born.

Yia considers Port Edwards, Wisconsin home in his heart, and cooks through that lens.

I am so excited to experience his food, and hopefully, convince him to get in the van and come back to Wisconsin with us to get up close and personal with his unique vision of Wisconsin cuisine.

– Yia: I'm Yia Vang; I own Union Hmong Kitchen.

And then we are also in the middle, in the process of building out Vinai.

So these are two restaurants we have up here in the Twin Cities.

And we tell people that we do Hmong food.

Union Hmong Kitchen started out as a pop-up, and it was this pop-up where we can express the food of, you know, Mom and Dad that we grew up with, but we're also Americans.

So we wanted to be able to use a vehicle to deliver the food, but we want the food to be Hmong, but we want to be able to deliver it on this canvas that, you know, is, I don't wanna say more palatable to the American people, but it's more familiar.

I think that if we hit 'em hard with, like, some of the more quote, unquote traditional dishes, it would just be like, "Whoa, I don't get this," right?

So I believe that food is like communicating, right?

I was a communications major, so it was really important to me to understand what is the intention versus the interpretation.

So Union Hmong Kitchen came out of that idea, where we wanted to do Hmong food, but we wanted to deliver it in a way that we can communicate our intentions well, so that people from all over, all sorts of people that aren't familiar with Hmong food can interpret it, the right way that we want to send it out, with our intentions.

So when we talk about Hmong food within our restaurants, we always say that Hmong food isn't a type of food; it's a philosophy of food.

It's a way of thinking about food.

If you want to know Hmong food, you have to know our people, because our story of our people is intricately woven into the foods that we eat.

Our cultural DNA is part of the foods that we eat.

I think a lot of times when people talk about Hmong food, they want to know a certain style.

You know, they're like, "Hey, is it noodles or, what's your specialty?

"What's a dish that I can, you know, think about, or what it translates to?"

And a lot of times with Hmong food is, you can't do that because we are always, constantly in this process of changing, of growing because of the way that our people have been, kind of been spread around the world.

To strictly just put us into one form, one category, you know, it says, "Oh, this is what Hmong food is."

I think that has to be very close to the story of our people.

Yeah, the reaction to Union's been really good.

You know, we've been very blessed to get the James Beard nom for best new restaurant as a semi-finalist.

And we kind of all were, like, really surprised.

We're like, "Hey, do they know we're in a food hall, you know?"

So we're like, "Oh, okay, cool, that works!"

There's a lot of people there that haven't tried Hmong food before, but this is a really easy kind of on-ramp to it, you know?

And then we just have great community and great fans that would travel in from 15, 20 miles away, you know, to come in and sit and eat with us.

And I always tell people, "Come on by; we'd love to host you."

[ethereal music] Now, Vinai, is now, it's more of, you know, like a 25-page essay.

It's a deeper dive into Hmong food that is closer to my heart.

And it's actually a really deep dive into who my parents are.

So the dishes that we're putting into Vinai, I take nuances of all these great dishes that, you know, we've done, and say, "Hey, if Mom and Dad was here today "and they had the culinary training I had, how would they think about it," you know?

So it's really cool 'cause it's like, you get to add on to the next part of the story, you know?

'Cause the truth of the matter is, when it comes to knowledge, you know what you know.

I was very blessed to be able to work at all these great restaurants.

Now, how do I use the techniques I've learned, all these ideas and new technologies that I learned, and say, how then do I take the food that I grew up with and then say, "Hey, how do we take this, and then how do we build upon that to keep the story going?"

The heart of it's still the same; it's about belonging.

It's about creating a space where people feel like they belong.

Tonight, we have this incredible opportunity to start the Vinai residency.

You know, our building, it's taken a while, funding and all these things, you know, it's just, the ebb and flow of the last couple of years has slowed us down, but we have this great opportunity to team up with Jeff and Ari, who they own Steady Pour, which is a venue, this very beautiful venue that they're like, "Hey, we've worked with them before," and we said, "Hey, for this summer, can we just start our residency here?"

Like, this isn't a pop-up, this isn't, like, a one-off.

This is Vinai.

We get to be able to show Vinai.

And I just feel like, 'cause we've been holding it in, I'm about ready to burst.

And this is kind of like that pressure relief valve where we can start showing, like, where our heart is when it comes to Vinai.

So tonight is our first night starting that and I'm really excited, like, there're a lot of jitters.

You know, it's like, it's like kind of doing a soft launch and you kind of have a lot of jitters at a restaurant.

The one thing I've said is Vinai has never been about a certain building, a certain location, a certain place.

Vinai has just been about, you know, Mom and Dad's legacy, it's about them, about their heritage, so it doesn't matter where it is, you know, we can plant it anywhere.

And then, then we put the call out where we say, "Hey, this is a place where we want everyone to feel like they belong."

- Man, oh man, this grilled asparagus salad, the first bite, you get a little bit of the sweetness, you get the fish sauce, you get the heat.

The asparagus is grilled perfectly, so it's still just a little bit crunchy.

But man, oh, man, all the other elements work together to create this taste of home.

It's very familiar.

It's wonderful.

The tamari-soaked egg.

You get the custardy yolk, you get that nice, beautiful consistency.

You get the brightness of the herbs, you get a little bit of the onion, the radish, the shoots.

This is fantastic.

[ethereal music] - Yeah, what's up, brother?

- Ah, hey, man.

Luke, how are you doing, man?

- I'm great; thank you so much.

This is delicious.

- Dude, thanks for coming.

- Oh, man.

- Appreciate this, man.

I'm trying not to fanboy right now.

- You're trying not to fanboy?

- It's real life, it's really you!

- Man, I'm out there trying not to fanboy over this food.

- Oh, stop.

- It's incredible.

- Thanks.

- Hey, I know that you are, like, one of the busiest guys in the industry.

- Uh-huh, well, I'm just trying to follow you.

- Oh, man, stop it.

I'm wondering if I can get you to jump in the van with us, drive to Wisconsin, 'cause I've got a place that I really want you to cook in with me, and I want to get to know a little bit more of your version of Wisconsin food, because I think that there's an amazing story in it.

Do you feel like that's something we can work out?

- Absolutely; I'm gonna check with Mona, our service director.

I don't wanna get in trouble with her.

And you know how that works.

- I definitely know how that works!

- Yeah, and then once we get done, we have about a couple, you know, a couple courses left.

Once we get done with that, dude, like, aprons off.

Let's rock and roll.

- All right, sounds great, brother.

Keep up the great work.

- Yeah, thank you.

- I appreciate you.

- Yep.

[gentle music] - All right, man, jump in.

- Thanks, dude.

- Giddyup.

- Feel like I'm getting into the A-team van here.

- This is definitely the B-team.

[both laughing] Cool, let's make tracks to Viroqua, shall we?

– Yia: We shall.

– Luke: We shall.

Crossing the big blue bridge.

– Yia: Yeah.

- Does this feel like coming home for you, coming back to Wisconsin?

- Absolutely.

I did a lot of growing up here, you know, especially coming here as a freshman for college.

You know, like, just drive, like this is iconic.

Like, driving in on this bridge is super iconic.

You know, it's refreshing.

– Luke: What was growing up in Wisconsin like for you?

– Yia: Yeah, so I grew up in central Wisconsin, you know, middle school, high school years.

It was good, but we were the only Hmong family.

A little, little town called Port Edwards, Wisconsin.

- Mm-hmm.

- And you know, it was a very blue-collar town.

- So, yeah, we're on the way to the Owl Farm right now, actually, my non-conventional restaurant space.

What do you feel like cooking today?

- You know, when it comes to Hmong food, I always say that there are four elements.

That you have a protein, you have rice, it's a vegetable, and then you have a hot sauce.

And in any way that, how we make that, I would just say that that's absolutely, it's a Hmong dinner, or Hmong food.

- Okay.

- And so, again, like, that's what I love about Hmong food is, like, we can kind of put in those categories whatever we want.

- Is it gonna change anything for you that we're gonna cook over almost all wood today?

- No, it's amazing.

That's, it's exactly, you know, what our people did in the hills of Laos, you know.

Like, I love cooking with fire because it's such this elemental thing where it kind of brings me back.

And I'm not trying to be overdramatic about it, but it really just connects me to my dad, 'cause that's where I learned how to first cook, is over wood fire, you know.

- Sweet, well, this is great.

You know, we're gonna go into the hills of Vernon County.

– Yia: Yeah.

– Luke: And maybe we'll stop off at the food co-op here, pick up some ingredients.

But I'm really looking forward to just kind of spending time in the kitchen, feeding the fire, and seeing what comes of it.

Does that sound good to you?

– Yia: Oh, man, I'm so excited.

- Definitely from the bottom; thank you so much.

[tranquil music] - Yia: Dude, this is incredible.

– Luke: Oh, thanks, man.

– Yia: Oh, my gosh.

– Luke: Yeah, we love it.

All right, so we're here at the Owl Farm.

We actually have all the ingredients laid out in front of us.

Let's give the folks a little synopsis of what we've kind of collaborated on to put together tonight.

- Yeah, so, I think we, you know, kind of started out with this idea that there are these four elements that are all part of a Hmong meal or a Hmong dish.

You know, you have a protein, you have a rice, some kind of vegetable, and then you have a hot sauce.

– Luke: Sure.

– Yia: And that's what we're working on.

- Sweet; so what I'm gonna ask you to do, and I think you had talked about wanting to spatchcock the chickens.

Chef, walk us through the spatchcocking process, please.

- Yeah, so I always tell people this, you take the little tail end here, and then like in your mind, draw these two imaginary lines that goes right down to where the neck is.

So that's where you're gonna be cutting.

Once you work through that oyster, where that oyster is and that bone.

– Luke: Mm-hmm, yeah.

- Yep, comes right off.

And then I like to just keep it even by doing the same thing on the other side.

– Luke: Cool.

Why do you like spatchcocking?

- So you could totally roast a chicken whole and whatever, you know, but sometimes, like the breast and the thighs, they don't roast at the same time.

So, you know, you always give up a little bit of piece of yourself.

But what I do is, I put it down, you hear the crack of the bone.

What it does here, is it creates this same level right here.

– Luke: Yep.

- I love getting good salt on here.

– Luke: When you say good salt.

- Yeah.

- Are you talking about, like, you want a lot of salt, - Yes.

- You want like, high-quality salt?

- Well, you know, get this good kosher salt.

This is how you get that good skin though, right?

- Nice.

- Yeah, so.

- And when you're talking about skin, you're talking about crispy skin?

- Yep, yep; you want that good, crispy skin.

And again, people always forget to season both sides.

And what, the reason, one of the reasons why I love doing spatchcocking, especially if you go straight on the grill, is you have all this bone back here that it protects this backside here.

- Sure.

- Yep.

- So you don't get that super mealy, dried out chicken.

- Yep.

- Awesome.

- There you go.

- Black pepper.

- So for me, I'm a purist, where it's like, I believe that it's like, 85-90% ingredient.

- Yeah.

- Like, you know, went to the co-op.

This is a really good chicken.

You don't wanna mess with that.

- Yep.

- And I'm a, you know, I believe in that, so.

- Cool, I love it.

- Yeah.

- On its back, there we go.

And what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna aim for right here, somewhere kind of in that tail just a little bit.

We don't need very much, but what I want is to be able to hook that through, like so.

What do you think, chef?

- That looks great.

- Cool.

Sweet.

– Yia: Ooh.

- So do we wanna start a sauce to baste our bird with?

- Yeah; so this is a very simple sauce.

So we're gonna just do is we start with our lemongrass.

- Okay.

- Okay, and what I love about lemongrass is that lemongrass, [sniffs] if you smell it, what kind of cereal is that?

- Fruity Pebbles, baby.

- Yeah, Froot Loops, Fruity Pebbles!

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Do you wanna do some shallots?

- I do.

- Just, chop up some shallots.

Then after you're done with that, do you wanna chop up some ginger too?

- You know I do.

- Please?

What we'll do here is I'll grab some, this jalapeo.

- Mm-hmm.

– Yia: Chop up some of this jalapeo.

– Luke: Thin to win on those, huh?

I like that.

- Yep, okay.

Throw it in, okay.

And then now I'll add a little salt in there.

- Okay.

- Okay, and then we'll add fish sauce.

- Okay.

- Yep, so, we'll... Yeah, so I tell people fish sauce is like that crazy uncle.

- Yeah.

- It's interesting to have him around, but like, he's gotta go, you know, you don't want too much.

- What's next, chef?

- This ancient nectar.

[Luke laughs] - The maple tree!

- [imitates French accent] Maple syrup, as the French would call it.

- Would you tell me that in Laos you had maple?

No.

- Yeah, so, no.

So what we would use is palm sugar.

- Okay.

- So palm sugar, you make a simple syrup out of it.

But being Hmong means you use what's around you, and around this area, I mean, maple syrup is the jam, right?

- Sure.

- So that maple syrup is gonna counterbalance that fish sauce.

- Sure.

- So we want it, you know, it's like that, that really deep, rich umami, and then you want that sweet, you know, and this is also, it's high in sugar.

So as we glaze the chicken, it's gonna be kind of sticky under the chicken, you know.

- I love it.

- And then it's gonna, it's gonna create this caramel color on it.

– Luke: Oh, man, gorgeous.

- And it's almost like a one-to-one.

- Mm-hmm, okay.

- Anyways, we're gonna grab some of this lime.

We're gonna squeeze some limes in here too.

– Luke: Okay.

Man, look at those lime-squeezing hands!

- Strong like bull.

[Luke laughs] - [Luke singing] Chef Yia Vang mixing - We're gonna add a little bit of olive oil in here too.

- Let's add olive oil.

- Yep.

And that olive oil is actually gonna help get all this stuff to stick on.

- Cool.

- Just gonna add a little bit more salt in here too.

Okay.

Just gonna throw the bundle of cilantro in there.

- Sweet.

- It's just gonna be kind of like our mop.

- I love it.

- Yeah.

- Do you wanna give it the first mop?

- Oh, you go ahead.

- Oh, man, this is so cool.

– Yia: It's your place.

– Luke: Man, already.

I can smell, like, that fish sauce when it hits that really hot griddle.

It totally changes the way that it smells.

And you get that kind of, like, barbecue essence 'cause you get all that beautiful smoke, but you know that there's so much flavor just being packed on this thing right now.

– Yia: So what I love about this is that it's high enough that if it flames up, the flame's not gonna touch it.

- Sure.

- But the heat, like, you think about the reflection of the heat here, like this is pure heat back here.

- It's hot!

- Yeah.

- It's really hot!

- Yeah.

- So this Hmong sausage, you know, I know you said that like, what makes it Hmong and it's the fact that there are lemongrass, ginger, garlic.

– Yia: Yep.

– Luke: Really coarsely chopped pork in there.

– This one has-- - Luke: Chilies.

- Yep, cilantro in it; you can see it.

– Luke: Yep.

But this is actually also a Wisconsin product.

- Yep, yeah.

- I mean, it's made right in the middle of the state, which I think is amazing.

And I think most people take that for granted.

Yeah.

Why the fan, chef?

- Because, when you're working with wood fire, there's no on and off button.

- Right.

- So if you wanna get that fire going, 'cause again, like, you know, like when we're doing this, we want that fire to get going and as it does, it's gonna crisp the outside.

– Luke: Mm-hmm.

– Yia: So, you know, and it's also, it kind of helps you control your heat too.

– Luke: Totally.

– Yia: Oh, dang, oh, papa likes.

– Luke: Right?

You get the smokiness, you get that fish sauce, you get a little bit of lime that you can smell, and then of course you get like, some of those aromatics like that ginger.

I definitely get that coming through here and perfuming.

It's lovely.

– Yia: Yeah.

– Luke: So as of right now, chef, we have our spatchcock chicken hanging over the fire.

We have our Hmong sausage grilling on the coals.

We also have our sticky rice.

Oh, yeah, that's satisfying.

- Yep.

So what you do is you just kind of-- - Push it out?

– Yia: Yeah.

– Luke: Nice.

- Okay, snausages are ready.

[Luke chuckles] - Snausages?

- Yeah.

- Mmm.

Look at those.

Oh, wow, that smells so good.

- Yeah.

- What do you smell?

- I mean, it's just that mixture of ginger, lemongrass, garlic.

Oh, yeah.

So what I usually do, just cut it on a bias.

– Luke: Sure.

Can I taste one?

- Oh, dude, go ahead, man.

That, you gotta do it with the sticky rice, bro.

- Gotta do it with the sticky rice.

- Sticky rice is gonna help balance out all that flavor.

That hint of that sweetness.

- Oh.

- So I really want to get more, so it's like, you know.

- Yeah.

- So we're gonna just take it off the hook and I say throw it right on the grill.

- Okay.

– Yia: Let's do it.

– Luke: I can see some of those caramel notes coming up already, I mean, even on that because that intensity of the heat is so much higher than when it's hanging above.

– Yia: Mm-hmm.

- That Maillard reaction happens real fast.

- And we're just kind of, salad right here, and then.

- Oh, yeah, ninja radishes.

- Ninja radishes.

Yeah, throw some of these ninja radishes around.

[Luke giggles] - It's so pretty.

- Yeah.

And then grab some of those nuts.

- Yeah.

- I love textures.

- Hickory nuts?

- What I love about sticky rice is sticky rice, it's like a sponge; it just absorbs everything.

- Sure.

- So we'll have the, when we put the chicken right in here, it's just gonna go boom, right into the sticky rice, and it absorbs all those flavors inside.

– Luke: I love that cilantro brush.

– Yia: Mm-hmm.

– Luke: Oh, man.

That looks amazing.

I gotta say, like, hearing you talk about the food that you make, the community that you represent, the love and care that you put into every single plate, it's no surprise to me that you've received as many accolades as you have, Yia.

- Oh, appreciate it, man.

- You're a great human.

You know, I don't wanna put the cart in front of the horse before we taste this, but I know without a doubt that this is over the top, crazy good.

- Oh, thanks, man; appreciate it, dude.

- Of course.

Look at that, though.

That is delicious.

- Dang, that worked out fine, dude!

- Yeah!

- I ain't mad at that.

I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't sure.

- Yeah, exactly; I saw it in your eyes like, "I don't know about this," but this actually, I'm gonna put a little bit of that on top.

- And then, let's, uh... - Roll one more lime?

- Yeah.

Like, I mean, I just, I just love that.

I love, you know, just that acid right at the end.

- Yeah, offset some of that grill flavor?

- Yeah.

And then, but like it's really nice to have that acid cut through that fat, you know?

- Mm-hmm.

- Little bit of... - Oh yeah, look at the cilantro.

- Bro, I always go for the legs.

- You always go for the legs, and I don't blame you.

That dark meat, mmm.

- It's like sticky, you know, 'cause like, you know, it's all reduced down.

I'm not mad at that.

- That's good.

That is so good.

I get earthiness.

I get a little bit of sweetness.

You get a little bit of that smoke, good salt.

Such good salt.

Like, honestly, you should get an award for that.

- Oh, stop.

- This, definitely.

Food is universal.

Love is universal, too.

And this definitely tastes like love, man.

- Oh, thanks.

- I'm so excited you're here.

I'm so excited to be eating this with you.

Thank you for sharing your story with us, man.

This is awesome.

- Dude, thanks for having me, dude.

This means a lot.

[relaxing music] - What's been the best part of your day so far?

- Hanging out with you.

- Oh, really?

[Yia giggles] That's super nice.

Thanks, man.

[Yia groans] - Oh, I got line cook jokes for days.

- Oh, my gosh.

I bet you your sound dude just has a lot of blackmail on you.

- Oh, seriously, all these guys.

- Like when, they're like, "Yeah, like, we need extra cash, like, this is what we're doing."

Can I just say?

That I'm still, like, fanboy-ing a little?

Like seriously, like, I'm like, here with you.

This is like, surreal to me, you know?

- Oh, man.

Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

- The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[people cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- I'm going out to pasture with the cows this morning.

– Announcer: At Organic Valley, we're on a mission to save small family farms.

– Farmer: Tasting pretty good?

– Announcer: And you can join us.

– Farmer: [laughs] Girlfriend's on a mission.

- Organic Valley.

- Twenty-minute commutes.

Weekends on the lake.

Warm welcomes and exciting career opportunities.

Not to mention all the great food.

There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.

Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Additional support from the following underwriters.

[relaxing music] Also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, where you'll find past episodes and special segments just for you.