Episode 216 - Cooking with Yia Vang

The Cripescast Podcast

Charlie Berens

Comedy Interviews, Comedy

5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2024

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Yia Vang’s new Minneapolis restaurant, Vinai, is a place of restoration. Named after the Hmong refugee camp in Thailand where Yia’s parents met and where he was born, the restaurant serves as a love letter to his family and heritage. Both of his establishments, Vinai and Union Hmong Kitchen, are some of the first ever dedicated Hmong cuisine restaurants in the United States. On top of being a critically-acclaimed chef, he also hosts a cooking show called “Feral” on the Outdoor Channel, and has made appearances on shows like “Iron Chef” and “Good Morning America”. This week on the Cripescast, Charlie steps in as Yia’s sous chef and helps him prepare a dish using Berens Old Fashioned Brandy. While they cook, Yia shares some of the cultural details woven throughout Vinai’s decor, how he learned to cook, and his preferred method of drinking Charlie’s brandy.

Find Yia on Instagram and TikTok @yiavang70 and on Facebook and X @chefyiavang. Visit his restaurants Union Hmong Kitchen and Vinai if you’re in the Minneapolis area!

To continue supporting Doctors Without Borders, follow them at @doctorswithoutborders or donate at doctorswithoutborders.org.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Cripescast, this is the podcast where we talk to people for and or from the Midwest. I'm your host Charlie Barons and we are powered by Everlight Solar.
0:09.0	Folks, welcome to a very special episode of the Cripes cast. Today I am cooking and talking with my buddy
0:16.7	Yavang. Chef Yavang, ladies and gentlemen, is a celebrity chef based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
0:24.2	He is a Wisconsin boy though.
0:26.7	Y and I go back a long way.
0:28.2	He's been on the show before, but I thought what would be fun
0:30.9	is if we went to his new restaurant, Benai, which is a phenomenal place.
0:37.0	It's gotten right up from the New York Times and the whole shebang and it's cool to see like a kid from Wisconsin like come up the way he has and anyways long story short I went to his restaurant and I got the story of his restaurant, Vinai and I got to hear all about how his family inspired it and I got to eat his amazing food with my brandy, the Barron's old-fashioned brandy.
1:07.0	The way this worked out actually is like as soon as the brandy came out, yeah, hit me up and he said, hey, we got to cook some with that brandy.
1:16.1	I said, yes, so I was doing a show over in Chacapia, and so we connected on that and I went over there and we cooked some up and it is great.
1:24.5	So this can be a great way for you to hear about Yia's family.
1:28.6	Y is, he is among a chef.
1:31.5	He, the among people are from Laos and they helped us in Vietnam and got refugee status in the U.S.
1:39.1	And the Midwest, specifically Minnesota and Wisconsin have some of the biggest Hmong populations in the entire country.
1:49.0	So, and the Hmong food, if you've never tried it, so good.
1:54.1	So it was a real honor to go there and hang out with them
1:57.2	and kind of blend the brandy with one of his amazing recipes.
2:02.0	And also hear the story of Yia's family through not only his food but his new restaurant.
2:08.3	So I think you're going to get a lot out of this episode and I guess if you're listening to it,
2:12.4	that's great great but watching it
2:14.9	kind of adds a whole new element and this is actually a good time to remind you guys at all of our
2:20.3	podcasts you can watch on YouTube you can watch on Spotify so if if
	...

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