Hmong Archives - Food And Recipe

Chef Yia Vang and his team have revamped their menu and room at 901 W. Lake St. in Uptown to start a new pop-up strategy, “Mee-Ka,” geared towards the merging of Hmong and American dishes.

Vang’s preceding pop-up store, Slurp, closed down to make place for the new cafe which will operate till early summertime 2023. The new pop-up opened Wednesday, March 29^th.

The pop-up’s identify, Mee-Ka, will come from the Hmong term for “American,” signifying the enmeshing of the two cultures and its importance for Vang.

“Growing up mother constantly asked if we desired to consume Hmong food or Mee-ka foodstuff,” reported chef and proprietor Yia Vang. “As Hmong folks, we lived in this cross-cultural condition of feeding on food that was regarded as Mee-ka but utilizing Hmong ingredients. But our Mee-Ka pop-up is not fusion food items. It is the forging of two cultures and traditions to develop a third lifestyle that we can use to join to others.”

Mee-Ka will abide by in its pop-up predecessor’s footsteps serving a restricted menu of only six dishes, together with a handful of occasional specials and desserts.

New ‘Mee-Ka’ pop-up restaurant blends Hmong and American food cultures

A Hmong spin on meatloaf is on the menu at Chef Yia Vang’s new pop-up, Mee-Ka. (KSTP)

The menu consists of recognizably common American dishes — such as meatloaf, or spaghetti and meatballs, together with a cheeseburger — whilst incorporating components and traditions from the Hmong lifestyle. Think ramen noodles as a substitute of spaghetti and meatballs that are designed of Hmong sausage.

The menu also includes dishes that are conventional within the Hmong domestic, these types of as the Nqaij Tsaws (pronounced “ngai chah-uh”), a dish that includes braised pork and greens alongside with rice and roasted veggies. Cobb Laab Salad, a cheeseburger, and a pork katsu sandwich also keep area on the menu.

“Mee-Ka is the gorgeous collision of two astounding foods cultures that impressed and made a 3rd foods society,” explained Vang. “Mee-ka was the contextual comprehending of this 3rd tradition that we unintentionally aided develop. This was a way that Hmong youngsters felt like they belonged to a new environment that didn’t look like them.”

Mee-Ka will be open up Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and for longer several hours on Friday and Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The restaurant delivers takeout as very well as dine-in selections. Mee-Ka will not settle for reservations. The menu attributes possibilities that are gluten-cost-free as perfectly as vegan and vegetarian. Beer and wine will be accessible.

The Mee-Ka pop-up arrives after the thriving Slurp pop-up Noodle Shop which opened in the exact same space in early 2023. The Slurp menu will no for a longer time be out there, but the solution of its return to the Hilltribe team of eating places is not off the desk.

Chef Yia Vang is known for sharing the stories, food, and culture of Hmong people across the Twin Cities and the world. But as a kid growing up in Wisconsin, his family’s Hmong cuisine wasn’t always his favorite option.

“At times, we would look at the food that they make, and we’d be like, ‘Oh, gross, I don’t want to eat this stuff anymore. I want Mee-ka food. I want American food,’” Vang recalled, using the Hmong word for “American”—Mee-ka. “What we were saying to our mom was, ‘We just want to belong.’”

Oftentimes, Vang said, he found himself embracing American food like grilled cheese and Lunchables alongside classic Hmong dishes like Nqaij Tsaws, a braised pork dish paired with rice and mustard greens.

“That’s the beauty of America, right? Where you don’t have to pick which one, but all these little pieces create who we are,” Vang said. “As a kid growing up trying to figure out, ‘Should he be Hmong? Should he be American?’ I really found that there’s actually this really beautiful collision that creates this beautiful third culture where I sit comfortably.”

The name of his new pop-up concept, “Mee-Ka,” represents that third culture. The menu, debuting Wednesday, March 29, will feature dishes that merge Hmong and American food.

Mee-Ka will take over the Uptown Minneapolis space Vang’s Slurp pop-up noodle shop has called home for the last three months at 901 W. Lake St. Slurp’s menu will be available until 8 p.m. Saturday, March 25. After that, Vang said, the Slurp menu will be saved inside a vault and will perhaps resurface again some day.

Similar to Slurp, the menu at Mee-Ka will be limited and only available for a few months. It will feature six Hmong American comfort dishes along with “occasional specials” and desserts:

Mee-Ka Burger: a cheeseburger spiced up with a hot pepper ranch sauce, which Vang said is “an homage to the Midwest.”
After School Special: a spin on spaghetti and meatballs that instead features ramen Hmong sausage, topped with parmesan cheese and spicy Thai red basil sauce.
Nqaij Tsaws: braised pork with rice, Hmong mustard greens, and roasted veggies.
Katsu Sando: a pork katsu sandwich on a brioche bun with housemade slaw. “One of the more exciting dishes. The more ‘Instagrammable’ dish,” Vang said.
The Meat Loaf: “We made a meatloaf with all of the ingredients we remember growing up with,” Vang said. The loaf is a mixture of beef, pork, and glass noodles served over rice instead of potatoes and topped with an oyster sauce ketchup.
Cobb Laab Salad: a mixed-greens salad incorporating ingredients from Hmong cuisine, with an option to add a side of chicken laab.

The cost of the dishes range from $12 to $22. The pop-up’s hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays; and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. The restaurant, which does not take reservations, is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Vang said Mee-Ka represents his childhood experience of two cultures merging in his family’s kitchen. At times, he was embarrassed of his Hmong food at school, worried that his white classmates would find it weird. Now, he’s sharing the dishes he often ate growing up—loud and proud.

“We get to be the controller of our narrative. That’s what Mee-Ka is all about,” Vang said. “We don’t have to be ashamed any more. We can just say, ‘Look, this is what we ate.’ This food that we ate, now we get to tell a story about it. In a way, Mee-Ka’s menu is this redemption menu.”

Chef Yia Vang stands in front of Union Hmong Kitchen on opening day of the 2022 Minnesota State Fair. Credit: Drew Arrieta | Sahan Journal

He credits his mom for creating a space where the cultures could combine. He recalled times he came back from school and praised the cheese pizza or spaghetti he had at lunch.

“I remember my mom would try to remake these dishes because it was her way of making us feel like we belong, that this is her way of taking care of us,” he said. “As I grew up, becoming an adult, I realized how important this food is—to make sense as a little eight-year-old kid trying to make sense of, ‘Where do I belong in all of this place?’”

This week, Vang also announced the name of his organization, Hilltribe, that oversees his restaurant and business endeavors. It’s a nod to the Hmong people who lived in the mountains of Laos and other Southeast Asian countries after fleeing persecution in their native China, taking up residence on land that was seen as less desirable by locals who oftentime saw them as “less than,” “dirty,” or “dumb.”

“We just said, ‘Let’s embrace that name. Let’s realize that words don’t define us—we define words,’” Vang said of Hilltribe. “I really love that idea of how our people can be made of all these different groups of people. People might count us out, but we’ll show them that we’re not out of the fight. So, that became our anthem.”

Hilltribe is based at the pop-up restaurant location. The space is also home to the kitchen where food is prepared for Vang’s Union Hmong Kitchen food stall at Graze Provisions + Libations food hall and his Minnesota State Fair food stand.

Vinai, Vang’s brick-and-mortar restaurant, is still in the works, he noted. He remains excited about the project and hopes to share more information when he is able. But for now, foodies can find the chef’s offerings at Hilltribe in Uptown and Graze food hall in the North Loop neighborhood near downtown Minneapolis.

A Hmong spin on meatloaf is on the menu at Chef Yia Vang’s new pop-up, Mee-Ka. (KSTP)

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