State Fair's 1st Hmong food vendor serves up old family recipe with love and pride
FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. -- If you go to see Yia Vang and the Union Hmong Kitchen crew at the fair this year, you'll be treated to a few new items, including a five-spice coconut Thai tea and a steamed bun made with love by Vang's mother and the rest of her church crew.
WCCO caught up with them a few weeks ago as they prepped for their second year at the fair.
"They do almost 900 a day three days a week, about 10 to 12 hours a day," Vang said.
The idea for this year's new food item came nearly a year ago. They landed on Galabaos, a steamed bun with meat and a hardboiled egg, flash-frozen only to be re-steamed at the fair.
"I've been eating this my whole life. The goal here is to take what we've been eating our whole life and share it not just with the state of Minnesota but with the country," Vang said. "This might be the first time they're having Hmong food. This might be the first time they're hearing about Hmong people. And we were like, 'How can we package this put it in a little bun and they can take it with them?'"
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Being the first to serve Hmong food at the fair isn't something Vang takes lightly.
"The Hmong people have been here for almost 50 years, and last year was the first Hmong food vendor that was brought into the fair," Vang said.
And it was a smashing success. Lines were wrapping around the block, and people could not get enough.
"That wasn't the goal going in. It wasn't like, 'I wanna be the first.' That was never the goal, but the idea was, 'Wow, we could start something here,'" Vang said. "There were a lot of young Hmong kids that were working with us, high schoolers. To be able to look in their eyes and say, 'You guys are a part of history.'"
So if you're one of the lucky ones to crack open one of these homemade buns, just know it was made with love and pride, sharing an old family recipe with a fresh crowd every day.