Yia Vang: Secret Ingredient

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No, I want to be with around people with like-minded y same vision and say, “How do we build? What does it look like to build?” And you know what? In the
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building, we’re going to have different ideas, but we’re building the same thing. Absolutely. We’re going to have different routes. And maybe I can learn from some of those new routes, and maybe you can learn from some of these routes.
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Absolutely. And and that’s how we are in the kitchen, man. And I I tell people with our kitchen, what I love, and this is the part that I laugh a lot about, is
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you know, people have said, “You guys have the best crab fried rice I’ve ever had.” You know, we had a lady from Singapore who stopped by. She goes, “I’m from Singapore. I know crab fried rice
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and the crab fried rice that you guys make is incredible.” Now, the base of it is from Timmy and I. Timmy, he’s our CDC. He’s our chef cuisine. Timmy is,
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you know, Timmy Tron. He’s half M, half Vietnamese. I’m a M kid. We grew up eating fried rice. I mean, it was the way that our parents just said, “Hey,
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this is how when we’re not home, you can take leftover rice and frozen peas and carrots and make it happen.” Yeah. And some eggs. And maybe if you’re if if we feel rich, we’ll put some bacon in it.
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Right. That’s that’s how we did it. So that we kind of showed the base. Do you know who makes our fried rice? A guy from Ecuador named Diego. You know, you
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can learn something from everyone. I learned some of the coolest [ __ ] from dishwashers. Yes. Diego is in the back
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slanging 60 to 70 orders of fried rice a night. Diego came into this country about six, seven months ago. Diego knocked on our door and said, “Hey man,
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like I’m looking for a job. I see you guys are open a restaurant. Sure, dude.
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Come in. Diego says, “I’ll work. I I’ll I’ll wash dishes.” Started there. And we’re like, “Hey, Diego, you ever worked with a walk before?” He goes, “Oh, you’ll see chef.” You know, and homeboy
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rips it and we just showed him the technique and he is a master on it. So, when I I giggle a little, you know what
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I’m talking about. Working in New York, you know, you know what I’m talking about. People are like, “Oh my gosh, like this this this monk style fried rice is incredible.” I’m like, “Yeah,
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the dude’s name is Diego.” Yeah, trust me. Diego is not a traditional M name. Yeah, Diego is his parents aren’t from Laos.
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Know it takes a special track to do this.
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It’s just a fluid chef. I’m here to remind y’all I’m sick with it. My name is ubiquous meaning it’s one of the simple
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and plain. I’m all about my paper. The bacon chitter and pain. I got these lanes running for the border. The talented Mr. Porter keep it flowing like it’s water. But here we go. There we go.
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Creeping to a low speed. Is it him and his friend sitting in these ble
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acting like they know we the best and expect nothing less. I ain’t with Welcome, welcome, welcome beautiful
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people to the Taste Music Hear Food podcast show. the destination for
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conversations about food, music, and culture. I am your host, Ed Porter, and today we have a very very special
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special show. This this gentleman here is is a juggernaut and uh I love everything that he stands for. So, let’s get into his intro.
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Today’s guest is the definition of flavor and fire. Born in Thai refugee camp, raised in the Midwest, and now one
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of the loudest, proudest voices in American food. He’s the founder of Union Mung Kitchen, the visionary behind Vana,
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one of Time magazine’s world’s greatest places, and a James Beard nominated chef, putting Mung Cuisine on the national map. You’ve seen him on Netflix
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Zion Chef, Outdoor Channels, Feroh, and heard him on the Manglish podcast. But what makes him unforgettable is how he
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tells stories through food. Stories of heritage, hustle, resilience, and rhythm. From comic books to charcoal
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grills, Nickelback playlists to handpounded chili ta paste. This man is blending old world roots with new school
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energy. Let’s talk about identity, innovation, and the music behind the meals. Please welcome the wildly inspiring one and only Chef Yang.
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Thanks, dude. So awesome to be here. uh realizing this morning that your studio is across the street from our
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restaurant. Yeah. Yeah. You couldn’t have picked a better location to stumble out of bed and and Yeah, I know. I was just we were prepping this morning. I’m
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like, “Oh, I got to get going. You know, I got I was giving myself like 30-minute leeway.” And I looked at the address.
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I’m like, or maybe, you know, 10-minute leeway. And I was late. That’s the thing. I I the I used to I had a job actually when I came when I first came
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to to Minnesota. The closest I’ve ever lived to work was when I moved here. So I lived at 1150 Henipin and I worked in IDS to Tower. That’s where Aquave was
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located. So that was literally a 10-minute walk, you know, or take the Skyways, right? Yeah. Yeah. The closer
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you are, the lazier you become. The lazier you become to get I was I was You do the mathing. Yeah. Like ah I could
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get there. Like you know it’s like 8,000 steps. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And then then you know you’re late. Like why are you late? You live right there. And then
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never never let people know that you live so close to the restaurant because then then
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you’re the guy that that has to do all you know it’s cool Ed’s right there. He can he can eat. Well the the other thing too is like I from the restaurant here I live like seven minutes away and I’m in
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Northeast here and so uh you can also sneak away for quick naps. See you. Oh yeah. I got to go pick this up and then
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you can only a responsible person can do that though because Yeah. That nap would turn into sleep. I usually call a meeting. Oh, I got a meeting. It’s going to be about 45 minutes. Yeah. Yeah.
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Yeah. Better make it an hour. It’s a longer meeting. Absolutely. Listen, chef, we we know that food tells a story. In your case, it’s it’s an epic
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one. Um, can you let’s let’s, you know, from a refugee camp to, you know, the
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world stage, can you tell me about when, you know, food became the the thing for you? Then you decided that it wasn’t
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just, you know, a a way to survive, but it was going to be your vehicle to to have a voice. Yeah. So, for for real, uh
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I never wanted to cook. I never wanted to get into the restaurant world. Um majority of my adult life was trying to
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get out of it, right? Because like I don’t guess we were talking before, but it was like, you know, for you, you said you did food so that you can have studio
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time. you know, uh I I did food just because that was like the only thing I knew. And it wasn’t this like I would
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say it wasn’t a passion. It was like this is a means to an end, you know, like like you know worst case scenario, if I fail in life, I fail and
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everything, I can always be a cook making like 11 bucks an hour, right? You you and I both know that it’s and and I was disciplined enough to be like, “Hey,
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I know how I know how the restaurant system works. I know how back of the house works. I never wanted to get into
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it. Like and growing up for us, food wasn’t like I I think that there’s sometimes when they look at cooks or
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they look at you know people who’s been in the restaurant industry, they they think that our life started out like as a um you know Netflix chef’s table and
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there’s classical music. It’s slow and you’re standing with grandma and we’re making rice together and everything falls in slow motion. You know what I’m
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talking about. Exactly. And that light beams hits it perfectly and it’s just like this, you know, you know, Oscar winning scene. It’s like not like that
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at all. You know, I mean, like you and I probably both know that growing up food was like a means to an end. Mom, dad,
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they’re kind of like mom works second shift, dad works first shift. You guys had to fend for yourself a little bit.
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Here’s a can of sardines. Um, here’s some rice. Here’s some scrambled eggs. Uh, here’s some noodle packets.
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spam. Yeah. And and it was almost kind of embarrassing because you never wanted your friends at school to know about it because they would look at you and saying, “That’s gross. Why would you eat
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that?” And you couldn’t say, “Well, that’s all we have.” Right? And so food was this thing of like almost like shame. Like I’m like, “I don’t want
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people to know. I don’t want people to know that on Saturdays we would go out to the farm and we would, you know, um, you know, we would harvest, you know
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what I mean, chickens and pigs and we would be part of that, breaking them down, plucking them, cleaning them out,
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you know, then bringing it home. While most friends of mine on Saturdays growing up in elementary school and, middle school would be playing, you
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know, baseball or they would have wreck leagues they go to or swimming, right? I never did that. So it was just like you just kept it all to yourself. And yeah,
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so it I that’s where I started. Um my my mother and my father believed that to succeed in this country where they got us here was would meant good education.
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Um which is I’m 100% for like I’m not against that. good education, making sure that you get a job that, you know,
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my my father always says, “My my dream for my children is that you would have jobs where you would sit in a big office
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and sign people’s checks, you know, for them because that’s I don’t want you to be like me, right? I don’t want you to have to work like this. I don’t want you
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to have to be in pain like this. I don’t want you to suffer like this.” And so, so I resisted against that where I’m like, “Well, you know, like you don’t
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understand how it is here in America, blah blah blah.” And and so for a long time I I pushed against it. And I think that going through kitchen like working
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through kitchens and restaurant really gave me a glimpse of what hard work is and like what true hustle is, what is
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grit. Yeah. And it wasn’t until my late 20s, I would say. I’m 40 now, but it wasn’t until my late 20s where I was
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like, oh, like this is what, you know, this is what it means to hustle. Yeah.
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Um and and there was just something inside of me that you know felt like this calling to be like okay what does it look like for me to keep unraveling
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this you know and then as you know we always say within our restaurant we always say every dish has a narrative.
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You follow that narrative long enough and close enough you get to the people behind the food and once you’re there it’s really not about food it’s about people and that food is a catalyst into
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cultivating great relationships. And the moment I did that, the moment I followed the foods that rejuvenated my soul, I end up at the table with my mom and dad.
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And I and at that then I finally as an adult heard their stories and I started putting myself in their shoes,
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right? you know, going, “Hey, Dad, you were 13 when you joined up, you know, with the rebel troops and you you fought
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with the Americans and you you know, you be you fought in guerrilla warfare and you that’s what you and my uncles our
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uncles and and your father, my grandpa, that’s what they did. They fought for the freedom of our people.” And you were 13. Yeah. you know, um, mom, like by the
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time you were, you know, 15, 16, you had kids already and you had an escape and you were put into a war prison camp and
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you suffered and that was before your 18th birthday. Yeah. Like, and you know, and that perspective started coming in.
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Absolutely. And I just asked myself like, hey, if you’re not going to tell their story, who is? And the only way the only thing that I knew how to tell
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this the platform was food because through that you can you know draw people in and I think that there’s this really cool correlation between food and
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music. No. Oh no. That’s why that’s why this exists. Yeah. That’s why when I when when you reached out and I started looking into what you do and I’m like
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this this is perfect cuz you know you can go anywhere anywhere. Music is music regardless. A beat is a beat. A four four count is a four four count. Right.
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You don’t have to even speak the same language. You can go to, you know, like you can go to, I don’t know, Western Africa. Don’t speak the native language.
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Sit in there. And the way that they keep a beat, a tempo is exactly the same way that you would do in the Bronx. Absolutely. You do it in America, right?
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And that’s what like the beauty of music is, the beauty of food. It’s it’s it’s I always say that, you know, the kitchen raised me, right? I was raised by a
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kitchen, but I was a a kid of hip-hop, right? And food for me was was an
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escape, right? So I I could go to all of these countries without even knowing that I wanted to by just, you know,
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assimulating and and eating the foods of of that place, right? It it was so common place to do. But the kitchen is one of those places that accepts everyone, right?
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Takes on all comers. And the fact of who you are doesn’t matter at a certain
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point. And it is I I think in my humble opinion food and music are the the two two of the three great powers or four.
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Um I think like you said everybody understands a beat when they hear it.
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Everybody understands something tasty when they taste it. Yep. Unfortunately, everybody understands a left hook, you know, no matter what what language you speak. And then the other one is love.
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Everybody understands what it feels like to be truly accepted. And you get all of that in the kitchen. Yeah. You get all
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of that in the kitchen. And so it’s it’s entirely your your story and how that aha moment that it clicked for you that like, okay, this is going to be the way
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that I honor my my parents first and foremost, but also is who I am, you know, and who you are is is all of those
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things and more because of where you are and how you grew up too, which is, you know, Yeah. It’s it’s a beautiful thing.
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It really is. All right, so before we get into the the thick of things, we’re going to play a little game called On the Fly.
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Okay. Okay. We’re throwing throw you in the fire somewhere I know you’re really familiar with anyway. And this segment I’m going to toss out a word and or a
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phrase and you’re going to give me the first thing that comes to mind. Don’t think too too much about it. Just just fire it off. This how this is how people
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like cut clips and you get in trouble on you’re just like to say that editing is Yeah. Don’t worry. I got you. I got you, bro. I got you. All right. You ready,
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Chef? Yes. Let’s rock this. The flavor of home.
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Fish sauce. That’s a good one. Your kitchen playlist name.
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Oh my gosh. You’re not going to like this. It’s called White People Music. White People Music. I I love it.
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Actually, it’s like country. It’s Nickelback is on there. I love it. Uh it’s it’s like bro country music. Yeah.
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Uh Johnny Cash is on there. I love Johnny Cash. You want to know my my and I used to work with a chef uh and and
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and actually at Alexander Smalls um uh Cafe Bula and he used to put on he said let’s put on some music to to cook to.
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It’ll be Carol King Tapestry. He introduced me to and I love it. I’ve always loved it. That’s funny. Mung Heat. Uh Thai Chili’s. Okay. Culture in one word.
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Progress. I like that. I like that. I like that.
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All right, so let’s talk about the sweet spot where rhythm meets the plate, you
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know, because again, like this is I like to to draw the through lines between um food and music and I believe so in my
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humble opinion, hip-hop is the most inclusive genre of music ever.
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Absolutely. And the reason I say that is because in out of any other genre, hip-hop is the only one where you can
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draw a through line with every other type of music has been used as inspiration, whether it be sampling or
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whatever from a classic Arabic music to classical music and everything in between. There’s no other genre of music
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you can you can say that about. And I believe once you if as a producers and and artists when you respect the the
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origin of of the art you have to inail in turn respect the artist and that’s I think that’s why I think food because
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the same thing happens. I think if people really took into consideration the the culture and the person behind
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the cuisine then bigotry won’t exist. Oh absolutely. Yeah. Yet the biggest bigot
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or the most fascist person on the planet, the only thing they’re not segregative about is their stomach.
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And they eat food from all over the place with people whom they deem to be inferior on a consistent basis. But if they took the time to have a
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conversation with a person that that food culture resonates with and and and came from, you couldn’t have biases. It
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wouldn’t it couldn’t exist because you have a reverence for these things. So let’s talk about, you know, how does
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that rhythm find its way into your cooking? And we we had a conversation clip which I wish we could have recorded because this is this this is how Yeah,
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for sure. So what would you say as a musician was the birth of hip-hop?
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I hip-hop as we see it today because hip-hop is such a broad Yeah. Because it is a very broad term and it’s more
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culture based. It’s like this pillars, right? But as far as the the birth of hiphop, I would believe was was birthed
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out of necessity and and obviously the early 80s when Yeah. There there was it was just a a a bunch of kids rebelling
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and trying to have a voice. Yep. Where where did you think that that birth of hip-hop like where did it draw from?
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What would you say it drew from adversity and and pain and and and having going without? Yep. So, and then
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stylistically, where where would you say they would grab? I I think um from everywhere. So, so rock, punk, yep. Um jazz specifically, blues. Yeah. Yeah.
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Yeah. Folk music, blues, country, every everywhere. Yeah. It So, so what’s really cool I think about hip-hop when I
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look at it is it was a bunch of kids who didn’t have all the stuff. And when I
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mean that, I literally mean like all the musical stuff. They didn’t have synthesizers. They didn’t have like they didn’t have the instrument. And they
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said, “How can we use a table, right? How could we use um a beat? How could we use our voices,
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literal voices to create a rhythm, you know, and and and so it it started with that, right? And as I think about
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hip-hop, you know, and then now hip-hop is actually a culture thing. When you say hip-hop, most some people don’t even
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think about as music. It just thinks as a culture, right? How crazy is that when like a bunch of kids who didn’t have
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anything started with something that was supposed to be in this music genre, right? This music umbrella. And now not
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knowing literally what 30, 40 years later that it’s a culture. Yeah. Like that to me when I when I when I look at
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that, I want to go to those kids, whoever those kids are and wherever in the early 80s, and I’ll be like and I and I would say this say this to them
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and with all due respect, your imagination is way too small. Yeah.
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Because when they started, I bet you first they weren’t going to like, hey, this is going to be a cultural changing thing that’s going to move the world,
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right? what what their thing was. No, man. We just want to be able to do our thing with what the resources we have.
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So, sometimes it was just a little drum kit. Sometimes it was just our voices.
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Sometimes it’s just about stamping our feet, right? To keep a beat, literal beat.
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And from there, it started a whole cultural thing. And from there, people started viewing people in in the hip-hop scene like, what are they wearing? Oh,
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what are their styles? How are they speaking? What is that vernacular they’re using? How do we take that vernacular and put it into everyday
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language? Right. Right. Like today, the vernacular, the language vernacular we use stems from hip-hop. Yeah. But these
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kids started out because they only knew what they knew. Right. So, let’s take that idea.
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When we started out Vi, our imagination was way too small. I I I’m just a kid who wanted to start a fire and grill
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meats on it. Why? because that’s what my father taught me. I was just a kid who wanted to do mung food. Why? Because
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that’s what my mom and dad fed me. I I’m not going to pretend I know French food. I’m not going to pretend I know Italian.
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I’m not going to pretend I know any of this stuff. I learned it. Yeah, it was okay. I mean, I learned it through restaurants. But what I knew was the
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stuff my mom and dad fed me from their garden, from their hands every day. We didn’t we didn’t ex we didn’t we
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couldn’t foresee what was happening here right so when we started Union Monk Kitchen right we were a little popup
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restaurant east side St. Paul in this you know working out of this place called Cook St. Paul, once a month we did a pop-up and in between I would go
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teach cooking classes and then in between I also worked at Coastal Seafood cutting fish. In between I would also
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take on these little like uh women’s uh prayer meeting, catering, making kiche and French toast for like 300 bucks a
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pop. Right. Right. And and all I all we really wanted to do was to be able to cook monk food. And at times we would
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have this little rinkadink grill and we would set up at the parking lots of breweries and you know little festivals and we grill little you know monk
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sausage or or or chicken sticks with with with uh with hot sauce that mom taught us how to make and sticky rice.
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We we wanted just to do that. Why?
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Because this was just something we knew how to do.
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And then let’s fast forward to like a few weeks ago, right? where Time magazine came out and said, “Hey, you know, every year they come out with a
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hundred places in the world to visit.” And unbeknownst to us, we got an email and saying, “Hey, V9’s on this list.” Which, by the way, can I just say that
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you think when you when the when when Time magazine emails you that, you’re like, “This is a scam. It’s a joke. It’s a scam.” It’s like, “And by the way,
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send us 500 bucks and we’ll let you know if you make it’s a Nigerian. It’s a Nigerian.” Yeah. I didn’t want to say that, but it felt like a scam, right?
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And I’m just like, nah, man. If I answer this email, I’m going to get like there’s going to be like my there’s going to be some kind of virus is going
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to hit my guy and and our PR group vetted and they’re like, “Oh, this is real.” So, we’re go they’re going, “Wait, there’s this there’s this place
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in the world that we want to and and on that list like like Notradam is on that list like like like no, not the college
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like like the church, you know.” And so we we were and that hit me as saying, “Hey man, your imagination is way too
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small.” And and so that’s that line I draw between, you know, like music, like hip-hop. Yeah. And and food and
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especially take it closer to what we’re doing. We were just a bunch of kids seven, eight years ago saying, “Hey, we just want to cook food that our parents
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taught us.” But now we get to do something so much greater. And this isn’t like a, “Oh, Pat’s back.” No, no.
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I always say this. I think that sometimes we we always create we create our own villains and we create our own
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heroes, right? And sometimes we put a lot on people’s shoulder saying, “Hey, like you’re the one. You’re the bearer of our culture.” And sometimes people
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say that to me and I always say, “Hey, look, that’s an honor. Thank you so much.” But for the M people, I always say, “Hey, you see all the M people that
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are doing great things around here? The weight of our people is not on one person’s shoulder. It’s not on Sunni Lee shoulder, you know, great Olympic, you
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know, champion. No, no, no, no. It’s on all of our shoulders. So, let’s carry this together, right? You know, um and
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so that Yeah, that’s how I feel. Uh I feel that’s where I draw that parallel between music, especially hip-hop. Yeah.
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And and and food and especially if you want to go mung food. Yeah. You know, where it’s like we always start out small because our imagination is small,
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but that’s where it starts. And to to look back and go, whoa. Yeah. Look, look where we are. like look where we are and and that’s like the progress. That’s why
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when you said culture, right, and I said progress. Yeah. Culture only works when there’s progress. 100%. 100%. And you
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said something so specifically when you mentioned Vai language is is is
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a huge thing. Yeah. And so food is a language obviously and and so is music.
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And I I think that that language is is clearly
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transferred to the reason why Vina is on the list of of of that on that list of times of New York Times, I’m sorry, Time
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magazine’s list is because of the feeling that is evoked when you walk through the doors. And there’s no other
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way, you know, that that you know, being listed in it, you’re in a pantheon of of of greatest places. It’s not just restaurants. Dude, there’s there’s a
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hotel that’s on the Red Sea that’s on there and and and that hotel was like $300 million to create and we’re like,
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“Yeah, that wasn’t our budget.” Like, do you know what I’m saying? I’m like, well, that’s the but that’s the beauty of it. Like, so you you you literally
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you you bottled that that the feeling, you know, and so that’s that’s special, bro. It’s like that that is on another level when you
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that just shows you that that you know I I know there was some hiccups and and and for the restaurant to come to be and then you went through all kinds of
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things but when it’s all said and done you know job well done. You you you guys accomplished your goal and then some and like you said you’re you’re you’re
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dreaming small because you didn’t understand the impact right and no artist does. No no for sure man. And you get it, right? You as a musician, if
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everything just being like, “Hey, bro, like here’s here it is. Here it is.” There’s no appreciation to it, right?
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Like, you know, the pain like, “Dude, that sucked, man.” Like, “Oh, man. That was hard.” Like, we got we got turned down by seven different banks before we
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got our SBA loan. Seven banks. That’s like going on seven blind dates and just getting rejected. Rejected. And it’s like, well, dudes know that. Dudes know
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that. And then after a while, you’re like, “Well, am I really the problem? Like, do I am I do I just suck at this?
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You know, like that’s like the thing I kept saying. But here’s the deal. I learned really quickly the story of Veni, the refugee camp, right? Where
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where we came from, where I was born in is kind of it it parallels this story of us Vi the restaurant. You know, there
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were there was so much heartache. There was so much pain, suffering that went through it and and to be able to get to
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where we are and all the obstacle that we had. I mean, um, you know, I I learned a lot and and and I think that
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my great the biggest act of grace was my mom saying to me and and and we were going
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through co and we weren’t sure if we’re this restaurant’s going to ever going to happen. going through co I remember my mom like we were leaving the her I was leaving her house and I was just like
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tired and you know how moms can just tell like they know like I don’t care how old you are but mom always know like you do you’re tired you know and she
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held my hand and she said uh and she’s like honey can I pray for you you know and I’m like yeah and you know she prays and then she goes your father and I have
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been through war we’ve been through death we’ve been through suffering and and we and all of that passed and she
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just said she just held my hand she goes this too will pass. Yeah. You know, and she’s like, this will this will come to be. That’s powerful. And to see a woman
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in her 70s who’s been through all of that, who’s seen genocide in her lifetime. And to to be able to say, hey, this will pass. It’s going to be okay.
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Right. I like that so much weight where I’m like, I’m gonna hold on to this. And and I still hold on to that today, you
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know, and and and and I think that that’s, you know, when we we started this whole thing about five years ago, I said, “Hey, I we want to build I want to
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build a restaurant that’s a love letter to my mom and dad.” And I I I literally wrote I’m a literal person. So I wrote a letter one night. I wrote a letter. I I
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cried like a baby halfway through the letter. And I took that letter and I took it to the architect that we’re working with and I said, “Hey, man. This is the letter.” and he they read it and
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then they took actually sections from that letter and they created this restaurant. Wow. They built it out. So if you come into the restaurant, there
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are sections in that letter that I wrote about that you could tangibly see in that restaurant where it’s like, “Oh, that’s from that section. That’s from that section.” You know, and that’s and
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so that restaurant literally is a love letter to my mom and dad. And and there’s all the pieces in that restaurant, all the little structures,
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all the why they put in what they put in. And I want to be like, “Hey, this I want this to speak to you guys, too.” Cuz cuz that letter is it it’s almost
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like a son’s redemption. Like, “Hey, mom, like I screwed up. Hey, Dad, I really like you gave me love. You showed
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me love and I rejected it in my rebellious stage. And so, how do I say sorry, you know um I remember I wasn’t
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doing well in college and I wasn’t and and I remember my dad said to me he said um my dad said I want you to remember
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something and he said I love you because you’re my son and you have kids you understand that you know I love you because you’re my son there’s nothing
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you can do to work your way out of my love and there’s nothing you can do to work your way into my love and he said the day you were born I held you mom and
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I we both held you and my love for you has is maxed out Yeah, that gave me the strength to fail. Can you imagine if you
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tell your children, “No matter what you do in life, no matter what failure comes to you in life, if you fail, I’m still your father. I’m still going to love
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you. I’m still your father and you can come home.” And he always said to us, “We are your home. You can always come back. We we can restart from there.” And
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I saw him do that. I saw my mom and dad do that with all my siblings every time.
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And life hits them hard. Life is life sucks. You know, life hits your heart.
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You get it. mom and dad will come. We can always go to their house. They can we can restart from there. And so a lot
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of people say, “Hey, is your mom and dad proud of you?” Like you they must be very proud for this restaurant. I’m like, “No, no, no. We didn’t create this
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restaurant for them to be proud of me.” This restaurant comes out of them already being proud, right? So, it’s the reverse of it. I mean, that’s what I try
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to tell people. This is an homage to them. This is an honor to them. Not because this is something where I’m like, “Hey, hey, mom, dad, look at this. Look how great we are. No, no, no, no.
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This is because of that unconditional love that you set for me 40 years ago. That you’ve always gotten. Yes. Yeah.
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That you’ve always gotten. You said something that um about your parents that I think that most people, myself
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included, do not really take to heart and take into consideration. There’s a
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difference. So we as as people as humans believe that our loved ones just know, right? It’s a difference when you hear
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it. Oh, for sure. When it’s said to you, like listen, just you know, so I’m I’m And that’s that’s it’s very important
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like to to like I don’t know if you know or not, but no matter what you do, I’m you know, I’m always gonna support you like this. This you can do no wrong. You
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know, you can you’re gonna fail and that’s okay. I’m gonna love you no less.
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that that freedom that you that you felt from that is is all inspiring and I know that we as humans just got to do better
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with expressing to the people in our life that we love that it’s okay to have
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the audacity to dream. Yeah. So I mean one of the things I learned and and this this building project taught me this you know one of the things I learned is like
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the biggest issue with um failure or fear of failure is fear of rejection. Yes. If I fail I’ll be rejected right.
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So, I think like a year and a half ago, Timeout magazine came up with 10 most anticipated restaurants that’s going to come in 2024 and V9 was on there and I
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was just like in that kind of was like oh my gosh, like oh my gosh, like if we don’t do this then it’s like yeah, you know, I mean uh as a musician you get
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it. It’s like the the oh like they had the one hit wonder, right? Y are they going to what’s what’s the second album going to be? You know, what’s the next
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big one? And I think that that fear is always that fear of rejection, right?
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Yeah. You know the fear of failure is always associated with the fear of rejection. What if I told you that we remove that rejection part? You know
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that that if if this restaurant bombs and nobody comes and we’re done like mom and dad still for me my mom and dad’s like you’re still our son. Yeah.
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Nothing’s changed, you know, and and I and I love that. And and that became the impetus to push me, you know, and and
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once you remove that fear of rejection, failure is still going to come. Like we’ve since the restaurant’s open, we’ve failed many ideas in between like you
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you that’s every day but you have the freedom to do that. That’s and that’s the beauty of I love I love this idea
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that yes we can hold fear fear uh you know failure sorry I should say failure and freedom is actually in the same
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space and it’s okay and I think that that’s where innovation comes in. It def it definitely does you cannot have innovation unless you have fearlessness.
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Yes. And I think we talked a little bit about this about how like, you know, uh, like when you go to big cities like LA and New York where there’s that that
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that fear of failure, you know, cuz it’s like, well, everyone here has got all their stuff together. So, if you’re going to be a musician, you got to hit.
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Every song’s got a hit. Every album’s got to be great, right? But when you come to like smaller cities here in like Minneapolis, dude, like you and I, we’re
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saying it’s like, “No, dude.” Like there’s like, “Hey, man. We tried it. It didn’t work. Try something.” Yeah. Let’s just do something different. is that and you have that you have that creative
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freedom to to be able to do that. That’s and that’s the beauty in that is is is that’s where the magic is. Um, I
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listen as as a chef, um, I think we we just want to first and foremost, we
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want to do things that that mean something to us first and foremost. And when we, you know, we then we hope that
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others, you know, it resonates with other people because there’s no greater feeling than having someone truly appreciate something that you made from
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the heart. Um your your food is rooted in m tradition.
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How do you walk that delicate balance between tradition and innovation? Yeah. So um I
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I think of it as this uh the word tradition, we have to really break that word down, right? So when they say, “Oh, well, you know, we we we get a lot of uh
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I shouldn’t say a lot. We get some uh feedback, I guess I’ll call it that, from um uh I call it the M hardliners,
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right? where it has to be done this way because that’s traditional monk food. So the thing I always ask the hardliners if
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they’re willing to have a conversation is to me define what traditional mung food is and they’ll give me some reference to like mung village or you
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know monk town and dishes there and I’m like well did you know that if our parents looked at that they wouldn’t call that tradition to them that is
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actually innovative mung food and then if you go back to our grandparents our great-grandparents in the mountains of Laos they would feel the same way they would feel the same way about what you
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know I mean same thing you and I both know that tradition tradition, right?
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So, if we go, what’s traditional hip-hop music? I mean, you can’t really say that. I mean, you can, but you could
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say, hey, hip-hop music draws from this, it draws from this, right? It’s a creative collab of all these different
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uh genres of music around where they’re like, well, we’re going to take a little bit of this. We’re going to take a little bit of this. If you think of hip-hop music, hip-hop music actually is
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a road mapap to all these other musics out there paying homage to this jazz artist, to this classical piece, you
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know, to this folk music to it pays a little homage to that. It is a way of honoring that, right? I feel like the
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monk food we do is a way of honoring and homaging out to all these uh traditional pieces to what has built our culture.
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Right. So, so you have to break you have again you have to break down the word tradition.
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So for me, tradition has to be progressive. You know, uh, for example, you grew up in a family that had, let’s just say, Christmas traditions. You guys
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did when you went out and you grew up and you had kids around, you had your own family. You took some of that tradition and and added on and added on
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to it, right? So, I would be foolish for me to say, “Hey, hey, Ed, that’s not real like, you know, Porter tradition,
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right?” I would be a fool to tell you that, right? because you’d be like, well, yeah, well, it comes from the Porter family or whatever, you know, right? But we’re kind of I’m breaking on
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as a family man myself. I’m having my own traditions there, but it’s built off of the of the tradition from my parents or from our household, right? That’s
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what tradition is. Yeah. Tradition is um this kind of key to the past, right? And at some point it was created. It started
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somewhere. Yep. Our our problem is now what I learn is the fear of losing that tradition makes us hold it tighter and then we become elitist in it. Yeah.
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Yeah. Yeah. This is where um bias this is where if you want to call it racism this is where all of that comes in.
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Right. This is where it’s like oh no no no it has to be done this way. It has to look this way with it has to be a certain skin color only. You can only
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marry within this. Yeah. Because we’re this is tradition.
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You see where that comes in? Because you’re so afraid of losing it, you’re holding on tight to it. The fear of actually we’re back to fear now, right?
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The fear of it actually you actually destroy tradition. Yeah. You know, and and and the wholesomeness of it all.
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Yes. The in inclusivity of it all where now you now you start drawing borders.
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You start kind of putting walls up and you said it has to look a certain way.
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Do you know that the funny thing is when you start doing that, you actually block off all these other traditions or all
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these other innovative ideas that are able to come in. That’s what you’re really doing. Yeah. You know, so so
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one of the things I really learned is you’re you’re actually just kind of like cutting yourself off from great ideas.
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Yeah. You know, so with tradition, there has to be a humility to it. There has to be a humbleness to it. And and so are we doing mung food? Absolutely. Absolutely.
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Fight me on that. I’ll fight you on that. You know where I learned it from? I learned it from two M parents. Absolutely. Are they monk? Absolutely.
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Dad fought in the war in the secret war.
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Mom went through their they both went to refugee camps. They speak Mung. They are traditional like they they do Mung. I have Mung traditions. They raised me as a M boy. Absolutely.
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100%.
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Now here and here’s where I get pretty fired up. I believe that my grandfather and my uncles and my father who fought
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for the freedom of the M people who then came to America who fought for the Americans as patriots of America then had to fight their way to get into
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America, right? And then eventually became citizens of America, right? They did that not so that their children can
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revert back, right? But they did that so that children can progress forward in the future. How do we honor what they do?
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Well, we’re going to come here. We’re going to gather ideas and new traditions from the people around us from a black
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brother across the table from me and learn from you so that we say, “Hey, hey, hey, I come from our people. We’re halfway across the world. You know,
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you’re from New York, the other side of the world. Let’s put our ideas together.
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Let’s put some of our traditions together.” You know why? cuz then we can build that that to me is what progress
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in culture is. Yeah. And and so that as a black man from Brooklyn and as a Bronx
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sorry Bronx wrong be wrong. As a as a black man from the Bronx and as as a mung man, you know, from Wisconsin.
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Yeah. We can put our ideas and traditions together and say, how do we build so that maybe our children can say, “Hey, look, look, look at our dads,
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right?” you know, like if they can do it, maybe we can have a little, you know, coming together here, right?
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That’s what I’m saying. Yeah. And and the best vehicles and and I I will always say is is food and music. Period.
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Food and music. If you listen to some of the quoteunquote traditional Mung music and and look at some of the Mung artists, especially in music and how
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they taken from the the way that M musicians in the mountains of Laos, Mhm.
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the way that we did music then and see how that some of the M artists today are still pulling from some of that. They’re still singing in our M native tongue.
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They’re still rapping in our M native tongue. Yeah. Right. The M language itself is such a beautiful language. We
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before even the idea of rap or or or or hiphop ever hit the mountains of Laos, right? They had this thing called
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lucinto which literally say words that connect together. And what and and what would happen is a boy would go to a girl
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that he’s smitten on and he would stand outside her house, you know, her, you know, her father’s house and by her
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window and he would put luchin together which literally he would put words that connect or work blocks putting together
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and he would then freestyle, you know, freestyle a love sonnet to her by just using words and putting it together.
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Yeah. that. So you’re saying in the mountains of Laos exactly thousands of miles away from what was happening in
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the Bronx somehow they’re use they’re doing the same exact thing right and the beat that he was using was the beat and
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rhythm of the words he’s putting together are you kidding me amazing you know so so again that’s universal
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food universal when we talk about rice and you’re and then and then you’re going to Like let me just say uh to to
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the south and you’re talking hopping and John’s rice and beans, black black ey peas and rice beans and you’re talking about rice over here. It’s universal,
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man. The one thing I I can I I can say is that, you know, being someone that’s traveled all over the place is that, you
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know, we are all more alike than we are different. You know, every culture has a rice dish, every culture has a chicken dish. The things that change is the
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ingredients that are readily available and the method of cooking, right? Um, and the be the beautiful thing about music is that all you can think of all
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the music that you’ve ever heard, there’s only 12 notes. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There’s only 12 notes. Yeah. That’s it.
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That is amazing. So, we get all of these different styles and types and sounds
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and variations of different things. It’s like the mother sauces, right? You got all these different riffs off of the mother sauces, you know, add a little
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mustard, you know, add a little cheese, you know. So, that to me is what we were talking about. Tradition meets
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innovation. And in order to have to push forward, you have to push forward and
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be, you know, very very intentional about not being closed off and closed-minded. That’s that’s a Yeah,
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that’s a that’s such a cool way of thinking about it. Like because I I that what you said about um that traditional
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mung and that’s basically according a cording ritual is is so cool. That’s so that’s so [ __ ] cool. All right. Um
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from James Beard award nominees and and and in the Time magazine, you know,
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you’re everywhere. your name is ringing and all the accolades and we were just talking about pressure, you know, how
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how do you and I know just from uh talking to you and we know some of the same people. Matter of fact, I’ll
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give you a little background on this. I um we did uh the same thing. So, you did Stories Behind the Menu. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
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And so I I I did it last year and when I when I was talking about it, I saw that you did I like, “Oh yeah, I gotta I
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gotta do it.” You did it. So I you know, you have all the things that are happening and you you’re not one of those you don’t strike me as a as a as a
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man that does things for certain reasons. Like you’re not you’re just not that guy, you know, like this it’s a
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byproduct. This is all a byproduct of of your mission.
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How does that change your
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your goals? How does it, you know, when when when the lights are the brightest and and and like you said, you have that that, you know, top 10 uh and most
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anticipated, how how do you keep from letting that stifle you to push you in a way that you wouldn’t intended to go
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anyway? So, three things I I’ve really learned. one um the solid foundation in who I am and that’s through my parents
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right so again a long time ago my father gave me that identity of who he is you’re my son hands down win lose or
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draw good or bad at the end of the day you’re my son and I I know within our
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46 minutes
culture within the monk culture parents are not known because of their deeds but they’re known by their children
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46 minutes, 8 seconds
And in our culture, parents don’t say, “Hey, look, look how great my kids are.” In our culture, it
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46 minutes, 15 seconds
is more honoring to a parent. When other parents come in and say, “I saw your boy. I saw your daughter. I saw what they did. That’s amazing.
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46 minutes, 26 seconds
I understand that. I understand that the measure of who my mom and dad is will not be by their action, but it will be
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by their children.” Yeah. And I and when I was younger, I didn’t get that. As I got older, I realized that in our um I
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46 minutes, 43 seconds
tell this story all the time. Growing up, my dad fought in this war, and I didn’t know much about it as a kid. Uh but in my adulthood, I found out that my
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dad is a legit war hero. Mhm. And and it made sense to me until this day, it still happens. And I remember I was a
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kid and we would go to these like big house, you know, big house parties, you know, and I would run around with all the friends and I was always I was a bigger kid so I always stood out and the
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47 minutes, 10 seconds
elders would, you know, be grabbed me and pull me. It’s like, hey son, like what’s your name? And in our culture when when an elder asks you your name,
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47 minutes, 18 seconds
you it’s kind of Game of Thrones. You have to tell them, I’m ye son of so and so. Who’s the son of so? It’s like Game of Thrones style. You know what I’m talking about? It’s just like, you know, like Eric the First, you know, whatever.
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47 minutes, 28 seconds
Like son of so and so. And Slayer of dragons, whatever. Yeah. Kind of like along that line. Not as cool, but like and I remember when I would say my dad’s
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name or my grandfather’s name and say, “Hey, this is who I am.” You kind of give your, you know, you know, your your resume of your, you know, lineage,
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right? And uh a lot of the elder men would stop and look at me go, “Son, we know your father. You know, we were we
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were uh we were in the war together and he saved us. He he came back for us. He didn’t leave us behind.” That’s amazing.
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And I was like, “Okay, cool. Can I go play now?” And literally, dude, last year, uh, I was, you know, we have a little stall at the state fair. I was at the state fair and I was walking around.
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48 minutes, 8 seconds
I was doing some stuff. Literally went to the bathroom. I was walking back and older M gentleman grabs my arm. He goes, “Hi.” Yeah. How are you? And I’m like, “Hello.” And, you know, he’s like, “Hi,
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48 minutes, 16 seconds
I’m so and so.” And he goes, “Uh, your father and I fought in the war together. You know, he’s a good man. He’s a good man. I’m glad to see that he is a good boy.” Mhm.
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And man, it’s like, you know, you feel like like for me, I feel like there’s so many things I done wrong in life. Yeah.
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But for the moment, for that half a second when when that gentleman who was a stranger, I didn’t know him, who said, “Your dad and I, we fought in the war
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together.” And war is tough, man. I don’t pretend to know war. Yeah. I’ve had buddies who’ve been through wars, and you know, my my father went through war, my uncles went through war. I don’t
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48 minutes, 50 seconds
pretend to know war. I don’t be like, “Oh, I get it.” Like, I don’t even use the line like in the kitchen. is so tough. It’s like war. It’s like, “No, it’s not. It’s not like it’s not [ __ ]48:58
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war, bro.” Man, at at freaking 11:00 at night, we all check out war doesn’t happen like that. Yeah, we we know we know how this ends. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The ticket stops were good, you know, like Yeah. Anyways, so I I respect that when he says that and
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then when he said, “Uh, your father’s a good man, you know, and and he raised a good boy.” I I knew that in that moment.
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49 minutes, 20 seconds
It’s not like, “Oh, yeah, good job.” But it’s like it’s kind of like I’m so glad, Dad, that through all my dumb stuff I’ve
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49 minutes, 28 seconds
done in life, I can do this one thing that honors your name. Absolutely. And so that to me is a constant reminder.
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49 minutes, 34 seconds
The moment you’re you’re you’re on a podcast, you’re you’re out for an interview, you’re walking the streets and getting groceries, you not only
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49 minutes, 42 seconds
represent yourself, but you represent the name that has come before you, right? And so that’s one. too. Um, I’m
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49 minutes, 50 seconds
at the end of the day, like I tell people, I’m a Wisconsin boy. I’m a boy.
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I grew up in central Wisconsin, ended up here in the Twin Cities. My mom’s side of the family is up here in the Twin Cities. At the end of the day, I’m like this kind of podon country boy from a
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small town. I love the fact that my high school teachers from 25 years ago will
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50 minutes, 9 seconds
still uh, yeah, DM, email me, and say, “Oh my gosh, I saw you in this magazine.
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you’re still our boy from Port Edwards, Wisconsin with less than 2,000 people, right? And they’ll still say, you’re still our boy. You’re one of ours. And
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it to me, it warms my heart that that Miss Pilo, my seventh grade English teacher, still keeps all the little like
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50 minutes, 30 seconds
national news stuff and she’ll be like, “We saw you on this show.” Or and and it it makes me proud to be from that small little town. Absolutely. And they always say, “You’re you’re you’re one of ours.
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50 minutes, 40 seconds
You’re always going to be one of ours.” a town of predominantly white folks who say, “We don’t care what you look like
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50 minutes, 47 seconds
or who you are, but you’re one of our boys. You’re one of the boys from Port Edwards, Wisconsin.” I love that. And the third thing is I have this really
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50 minutes, 55 seconds
tight group of friends who 20ome years ago, we went to college together. And a few of them, and you know, majority of them we’re still really close with,
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51 minutes, 2 seconds
right? that these dudes didn’t care about James Beer, didn’t care about Time magazine, that they loved me and took care of me when I was that bummy kid who
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51 minutes, 11 seconds
slept on their couch cuz I needed a month of just transition to the next place and I didn’t have a place to stay.
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51 minutes, 17 seconds
You know, who now they all have families of their own and they’ve all come to the restaurants and from all around the country. They fly in for over the
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51 minutes, 24 seconds
weekend just to be there. Yeah. And these guys that you know that would tell me, “Hey man, I read this article. They wrote this big piece about you from
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51 minutes, 31 seconds
here.” And when I read it, it still sounds like you. You’re still you. And that to me is like the biggest thing.
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51 minutes, 36 seconds
That’s a huge compliment. It’s a huge compliment. And and I love it because they they’re always so funny, too, because they’ll come to the restaurant or they’ll come somewhere and they’re
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51 minutes, 43 seconds
like, “We don’t want to bother you.” I’m like, “No, you’re the guys I want to bother me, right? You know, you’re the ones who like should text me cuz I want to come out and say hi. I want to see
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51 minutes, 51 seconds
see you.” And so the these are the three areas I think that I constantly am reminded. Um and and the other thing too
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51 minutes, 59 seconds
I think that when you mix them all together, man, like I I I just genuinely am curious about people. Yeah. You know,
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52 minutes, 7 seconds
people and their culture and how how they take to me people are like puzzles.
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52 minutes, 10 seconds
Yeah. And so, you know, when if I’m doing an interview or if we’re we’re in, you know, Podunk, uh Everglades hunting pythons on a barrel, like I want to know
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52 minutes, 19 seconds
Dusty Crumb. The dude’s name was Dusty Crumb. I want to know. I just want to know his name. He’s Yeah, he’s cool. and or or if we’re out in, you know,
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52 minutes, 27 seconds
northern um New Mexico in Tal Pueblo indigenous land and out with the indigenous folks there and we’re we’re
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52 minutes, 35 seconds
out there hunting, you know, prairie dogs and jack rabbits. I want to know their story. I want to know how their great great great great great great
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ancestors are the ones who are living on the they’re living on the same land that they are and what the tradition that they’ve been passed down. Like, I’m just
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52 minutes, 49 seconds
curious about that. Yeah. All right. So, I’m going to let’s do this lightning round really quick. Yeah, let’s rock before I let you go. All right.
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52 minutes, 59 seconds
I get it. I get it. Goto hype song. Um, uh, I I forget the artist, but uh, like
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53 minutes, 9 seconds
the this is how legends are made, you know? Yeah. Like that’s that’s the one where it’s like, okay, we turn up time.
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53 minutes, 16 seconds
Yeah. It’s like we got a we got a lot of prep. Boom. We turn that on. It’s like, okay, I don’t care. Let’s go. Okay. dish
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53 minutes, 23 seconds
you would eat forever. Uh so if you go out to Mong Village, uh they have a lot of these around, but uh stuffed chicken
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53 minutes, 32 seconds
wings. Oh, I love Oh, you know what I’m talking about? Oh, do I know? So, and so they we used to call them I used to make
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53 minutes, 39 seconds
them like engine wings and chicken forest some some galanga, some ginger, some some uh some scallops, um
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53 minutes, 48 seconds
scallions, sorry. Uh, a little bit of rice noodles. Yeah. And then serve it with a a a bombass sauce. Dude, but but it’s pure technique cuz you have debone
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53 minutes, 56 seconds
the whole thing. You bone the whole thing. Take the bone out, but all the meat it’s intact. Yeah. And then steam them and then then bread them and fry them. Yeah. Oh, it’s a lot of work,
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54 minutes, 4 seconds
dude. So, the way that my mom does is she just roastes them. Really? Brh. So, chef, tell everyone what you have going
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54 minutes, 13 seconds
on and where they can find and follow you, please. Yeah. Uh I think social media is a thing. So you know if you go
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54 minutes, 20 seconds
on Instagram v9 uh you know if you go on Instagram that’s you know that’s kind of our Instagram there. My personal one is yavang70.
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Uh you know we’re always just posting things on there about what’s going on.
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54 minutes, 34 seconds
Union Monk Kitchen. It’s uh you know it’s our catering and you know we do special events. So that’s kind of our arm of that. Uh yeah, and then you know
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54 minutes, 42 seconds
from from there on where we have a bunch of dinner series that we’re doing uh coming up this year where I’m traveling to different chefs and they’re coming in
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54 minutes, 50 seconds
here. So we’re doing an exchange program there that’s super cool. It’s called Venacular. Um and then on top of it uh yeah we just I don’t know we’re just
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54 minutes, 58 seconds
kind of taking it day by day. But then you know we’re excited uh with the state fair. We have the state fair coming up at the end of August. So we’re you know planning that out right now and we’re
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55 minutes, 6 seconds
doing some R&D for new state fair food that we want to try out. Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. Yeah, I’m I’m a fan.
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55 minutes, 12 seconds
I’m a fan. I’m a fan. I love I We got to We got to do this wing thing now. Now I’m I’m I’m Yeah, we we we got
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55 minutes, 20 seconds
some things to do. Storyteller, culture keeper, flavor architect,
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55 minutes, 27 seconds
Mr. Chef Yia Vang. Man, thank you for being here. I really, really, really appreciate it. Thank you for tuning in
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55 minutes, 34 seconds
to another episode of Taste Music here Food. We have an incredible journey today exploring the delicious intersections of food, music, and
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55 minutes, 42 seconds
culture. Remember, the stories we share are the flavors of life that deserve to be savored. Again, I am Chef Ed Porter.
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55 minutes, 51 seconds
Thanks,