Chef Yia Vang was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and moved with his family to the U.S. when he was 5. They eventually settled in Minnesota, where his family was part of the large Hmong community ...

For chef Yia Vang, live-fire cooking isn’t a trend. “This is actually a part of who I am,” he says. “This is how our people cooked hundreds of years ago. This is how our people cook today. If you go ...

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MINNEAPOLIS — The Great Northern’s Festival Eve is set to begin on Jan. 26 outside of Quincy Hall in northeast Minneapolis and will feature one local chef showcasing his Hmong heritage in one of his ...

This week’s Sharing Food recipe comes to us from the Hmong Minnesota Student Association (HMSA). Qaib rau tshuaj (kai-tau-chua) is a chicken and herb dish that, in HMSA member Mayflower Vang’s own ...

“I believe that Hmong food isn’t a type of food, but it’s a philosophy of food,” says chef Yia Vang of Vinai in Minneapolis. “It’s a way of thinking about food. It tells the story of our people.” The ...

Yia Vang grew up in a family of storytellers. When he was a child, his father used to regale him and his six siblings with war stories from his native Laos. His mother would read verses from the Bible ...

It wasn’t always chef Yia Vang’s dream to open a restaurant. “I had to be dragged to this thing kicking and screaming,” Vang said, talking about Vinai, the Hmong-centric restaurant he is planning to ...

When we recently met chef Yia Vang at Hmong Village Shopping Center in St. Paul for an interview, our profile story (see related story) morphed into a second story we weren’t expecting. We asked what ...

This video documents the preparation of traditional Hmong food in a rural village in Laos The cooking takes place beside a decommissioned missile casing left from past conflict Ingredients include for ...

In the mountains of Laos, we discovered a truly surreal sight - locals cooking traditional Hmong food inside the shell of an old American missile. This video explores the creative and resourceful ...

After his family fled Laos for America, Yia Vang was at first embarrassed by his family's home cooking. Then he learned to embrace it, and found... Yia Vang grew up in a family of storytellers. When ...