The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 480: Going Feral with the Hmong

Episode Date: September 25, 2023

Steven Rinella talks with Yia Vang, Jordan Vold, Ya Yang, Janis Putelis, Ryan Callaghan, Chester Floyd, Phil Taylor, and Corinne Schneider. Topics discussed: MeatEater’s Live Tour is coming; 75,000 Hmong people in the Twin Cities; dowry; Steve’s friend’s mobile bar business; when a skunk wins over a mountain lion kitten; feline favoritism; how Hmong sausage cannot be made vegan; hurt people hurt people; changing your name to get healthy again; how Yia translates to “iron skillet”; Optimus Prime Vang; growing up in a refugee camp; how every dish has a narrative; waiting for the sticky rice before you eat; how your word means everything in an oral culture; how Hmong love the mountains; Faithful, Available, Teachable; Hmong Facebook; catering Bar and Bat Mitzvahs; how your uncle always remind you who you are; go eat at Yia’s current restaurant, Union Hmong Kitchen, and his new restaurant, Vinai, in Spring 2024; watch Yia’s invasive critter hunting + cooking show, “Feral”; and more. Connect with Steve and MeatEater Steve on Instagram and Twitter MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube Shop MeatEater MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey folks, exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada. You might not be able to join our raffles and sweepstakes and all that because of raffle and sweepstakes law, but hear this. OnX Hunt is now in Canada. It is now at your fingertips, you Canadians. The great features that you love in OnX are available for your hunts this season. Now the Hunt app is a fully functioning GPS with hunting maps that include public and crown land, hunting zones, aerial imagery, 24K topo maps, waypoints and tracking. You can even use offline maps to see where you are

without cell phone service as a special offer. You can get a free three months to try out OnX if you visit onxmaps.com slash meet. This is the Meat Eater Podcast coming at you shirtless, severely bug-bitten, and in my case, underwearless. We hunt the Meat Eater Podcast coming at you shirtless, severely bug-bitten, and in my case, underwearless. The Meat Eater Podcast. You can't predict anything. The Meat Eater Podcast is brought to you by First Light.

Whether you're checking trail cams, hanging deer stands, or scouting for elk, First Light has performance apparel to support every hunter in every environment. Check it out at firstlight.com. F-I-R-S-T-L-I-T-E dot com. apparel to support every hunter in every environment. Check it out at firstlight.com. F-I-R-S-T-L-I-T-E.com. Hey, Spencer and Yanni here. Before this episode of Meat Eater, Yanni and I have a big announcement about a big announcement, Yanni. That's right. Meat Eater Live is coming to eight cities this December. Yeah, and we're going to tell you when and where to find us on Wednesday's episode of Trivia.

So please tune in to Wednesday's episode at the very beginning. We're going to give you all the details you want to know about where we're going to be, when we're going to be there, and how you can get tickets. Be there or be square. Try to think. It's a great start. How to start?

Well, I'm going to do a better start. Here, right? Start over, Phil. Here we go. Okay, beep. What's wrong with my glasses? They're fine. They're fine. We're getting a little too nitpicky around here i'm turning up my magnification

is this one of those times where you're joking about cutting it out or you actually want to like start over no i'll start over okay let's do it well i was gonna talk i don't know you decide later phil i was gonna so we recently, just to bring people up to speed. First off, this is my, the episode is called, well, it's not. In the old days, it would have been called Mung Dudes or Trouble Part Two. And we're joined by Ya Yang and Ye Yang. Vang. Ye Vang.

And Ya, you used to be Ye? I used to be Ye, yes. That simplifies things. How well do you guys know each other you've met in the past never met he's familiar with your food i i listened to the pod with when him on with you guys but other than that got it but he's he's you've eaten at his restaurant yeah yeah actually yeah probably doesn't know this, but I've been at, like, he caters fundraisers. I think you did the Hmong Museum fundraiser. Oh, sure. He catered that.

You probably don't know this, but you did a house catering party. This was pre-pandemic, and it was in somebody's basement. You came to the house, and I was in that party. Oh, cool. It was for our 40th birthday party. Oh, okay. And they had your team coming cook.

Oh, shoot. I think I remember that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You were introducing us to edible flowers and stuff like that. So, yeah. So, like,

Hmong dudes, if they meet, they don't necessarily trade information? Yeah. I mean, Steve, it's like white people. Well, no,

it's different than white people. But you guys are related, right? It's different than white people. Let me tell you how it's different than white people in america if okay if i was in if if we have how many people are in this country 330 million 330 okay okay for me to run into a white dude born in america that doesn't catch my attention if i had been born in uh laos okay and uh was displaced by activities around the vietnam war and wound up in minneapolis minnesota and i ran into another dude roughly my age who'd been

through a similar set of circumstances i don't know i feel like you'd be like oh wow yeah i think like the thing that uh people have to realize is in in minneapolis there's 75 000 mung people in the metro is it really yeah 75 000 mung people in the metro so you can't keep track everybody no i mean how does it try yeah like we like we don't all subscribe to the same newsletter but uh you know it's you know sometimes the minneapolis yeah um no 75 000 is yeah it's the largest most concentrated among people outs um outside of china the south china area where there's about two million there but yeah you guys have the problem of having too many of your culture. Because if I meet a Latvian, and if I don't know them,

I know somebody that they know. They make out. If he meets a Latvian, they make out. Well, even with the Hmong people, we have 18 clans or 18 last names. So there's our tribal names. Within that too, like there's a way of finding out like you're related to somebody, you know, some way. If you go back far enough, you know, you'll always be like, oh yeah. So like that uncle's, you know, aunt's cousin, da, da, da.

And that's kind of what makes Hmong people such a really strong united front. So like in the Twin Cities areas, they have what's called the 18 clan where each clan has a representative that, you know, and it's kind of like the Jedi Council. I mean, they have, I mean, I'm serious, dude. Like they come in, they meet and they have, you know, they have like, they put out, you know, different, you know, ideas and they're like, okay, let's, you know, go to your clan

and then, you know, tell them that, you know, this is what the new rule for this is. And then, yeah, I mean, they do that. So what rule for what is? Give me a for instance. Okay, for example, so in our culture, some culture, I mean, you can help me on this. Like bride dowry.

Yeah, dowry is still part of our culture. Dowry? Yep, yep. That's a good deal, dude. Is that just symbolic now or is there like some substance to it? A little bit. part of our culture dowry yep that's that's a good deal dude uh if you have is that is that just symbolic now or is there like some substance to it a little bit i mean there's some symbolic stuff to it there's some you know there's like all these like inside yeah there's all these inside mung jokes you know like like it's it's uh it's like one of those things where now i mean at

points where it's like for example you can trace back to like so for example it's like the yang clan wrong the moa clan this way and you can trace it back and then the dowry there'll be fines in the dowry you guys wronged his clan oh he's no i'm just using for example yeah and and and you can trace it back spend a little time steve's looking for the next big book right he's just like wait yeah he's like clan trouble in mung culture let's trace it back yeah yeah let's see we find something. Definitely. And then they would be like, oh, well, we can find that group this much. And then, you know, and then it'd be like, oh, the dowry is like 25K or something, you know?

And, you know, so I think one of the things that they kind of started talking about is just the ridiculousness of these finds that are huge. And these young couples are like, I don't have the money for this, you know? And so there was, you know, there was kind of these rules that were put out or saying, Hey, let's kind of demolish all this, um, kind of,

uh, tribal conflict from, from generations and generations ago. And so, you know, they put out a big statement about that, you know? And then they also,

they also capped the, uh, the, the, the dowry at a set amount so that everybody should just follow that versus otherwise it is a it goes all night negotiation yeah you know how i just got caught being racist like thinking you guys knew each other let me tell you something yeah normally when a white guy gets caught being

racist he'll do stuff like uh he'll be like well i'm gonna do more listening than talking right i'm not well i'm gonna do more talking than listening because let me tell you something y'all has been pitching you to us yeah i was like you should have this guy on so eventually what we got you to what we got you to come on we said to y'all you should come out and hang out yeah is that bad i feel like that's great no no it's it's awesome. It's funny, my buddy Jordan, he wrote in a little something. Yeah, so on his episode, I was like, this guy's awesome. My best friend. So you did it too. In June of 2021, I pulled it up today.

It took me some doing, but in Gmail, I was like, I totally sent an email. I don't know if I wrote it well or not. You did the same thing. Did the same thing. You're like, these mom guys would like to know each other. I don't know if I, you know, wrote it well or not. And I know you did a lot. You did the same thing. Did the same thing. Yeah, he wrote it into a meter. You're like, these mom guys would like to know each other. It was more so, this is another great moment. Like, hey, I know a white guy.

That's not exactly what I said. I'm going to intro him to you. I feel like that's not what I'm saying. But yeah, I mean, Jordan said the same thing, you know, and he's like, hey, you know, and then I kind of, it was really funny, Steve, like, especially with the whole crew here. I kind of, he told me, he goes, I'm sending this email to me or maybe they'll have you out sometime. I'm like, I prophesied this.

Yeah, and then I'm like, cool, bro. If you do and I get to go, I'll bring you. And we both laughed and were like, ha, ha, ha, ha. And then that was 2021. Here he is. Can you introduce yourself real quick? We've done a horrible job introducing everybody. We haven't even gotten to Yanni's mountain lion story yet.

Sorry, Yanni. So just do it quick. Plug yourself, plug your restaurant, plug your show. out into yanni's mountain lion story sorry yanni i don't just do it do it quick you plug yourself plug your restaurant yeah so yeah so yia vang we uh from minneapolis uh area uh we have a restaurant called union mung kitchen and then we're building out a second one that's in the works and hopefully it will all be finalized by this week uh called v9 which is the refugee camp that uh my parents met in i was born in um over 90 000 Hmong people went through there from 75 to 92. And so we wanted to name this restaurant Vinay.

It's our first big brick and mortar project. I tell people it's a love letter to my mom and dad. So that's what that restaurant will be when we get done, hopefully 2024 springtime. But yeah, we have other restaurants and all these other little things we do. Okay. We're going to dive into your food and your past and all that kind of stuff.

Based off of just that little pitch though, like I want one on the list. Love letter to mom and dad. I'm sold. Yeah. It's been really fun, man. It's been really fun. So Ryan Callahan.

Still me. And then go ahead. My name's Jordan Vold, college buddy of you. We went to school, UW lacrosse years ago. And you're the guy that he said if he comes on the show, you're coming too. 100%. That's great. He's got a bluegill tattooed on his forehead.

Let me see it. Really? Right there, Woody. That's great, man. Oh, I got to get one of them. You know, my kid has one. I mean, there's nothing like a bluegill them you know my kid has a i mean there's nothing like a bluegill no my kid has one now in a tank a tattoo i thought you were gonna say tattoo

he's got bluegill tank i love that thing so much man we feed it like worms and stuff but that bluegill is trained now he used to be kind of spooky that when you come in the room, now that bluegill is lined up. That bluegill's like worm time. I don't want to get way into it, but two summers ago, I never met my dad's dad, my paternal grandfather. He loved, you know, he was, he loved to fish, fish bluegill like any good Wisconsinite. Sure.

Never met him, was fishing with my dad and his brother, my uncle Ron. And he had like a pitcher counter. I don't know if people do that to like count how many fish are in the boat to make sure we – Yeah, I count them later. When I'm empty in my bucket. You hit the clicker and my dad and my uncle Ron were just saying, our dad, my grandpa, who I never met, would have loved this.

And I was just – that moment I was like, that'd be cool it'd be cool to do you know i was telling my kids about the other day because we uh i was saying to them i can't wait till that bluegill turns into a keeper and they're like you're not gonna eat that no but no i don't mean like that i just want it to be that looking in the aquarium and it's like a keeper bluegill in there and i was telling when i was a cat, I remember my dad made a sticks that were six inches long with your name written on it. And if you were fishing bluegills, you had to have that stick.

And if it wasn't as long as that stick, you didn't bring it home. Ah, that is awesome. Cause he got so sick of cleaning those four inch bluegills. Yup. Uh, Yanni's here.

I told you my little story about the the neighbor that fish with in north carolina he's a neighbor of my in-laws and he used to be like head of sales for some i think henry's fish and tackle maybe anyway so he went and saw a lot of tackle dealers tackle makers etc and he said he had been in the place where there's a bunch of aquariums with largemouth bass in them yeah he walked in there once with other dudes with white coats on. And as you walked down these aquariums, the fish would all just turn and watch these. And the guys would be like, oh yeah, it's time for a new batch. Because you can't test a lure on a fish that is just waiting for you to drop something

into the water. All right, we're going to come right back. Yanni's got a story. I don't even know the story. I don't even know what it is chester's here yep well my mom was uh in labor with me on mullet lake while my dad and we're fishing bluegills yep hold on keep back i just got so distracted she was late she was in the boat as well went into labor and they're fishing bluegills on mullet lake so so it was like a race to get your limit it's my connection to bluegills hold on you know i was fishing walleyes the day your kid was born

mm-hmm yeah yeah yang's here thanks for coming yeah of course um you're gonna hit youth turkeys with us again of course yeah you know they're they're gonna it's things are moving along to get youth season to four days yeah it's great and your daughter got a turkey after we hunted together yes yes correct that's good news and you got a buck last year you got a buck last year i got a turkey this year you did yeah oh that's right you said yeah that's great all right yeah you ready to tell this oh can i tell one thing before you tell your thing you bet yanni's got a mountain lion story it's not you're not in it though are you no okay second hand i'm just trying to i'm trying to think of a way to plug my buddy's uh business again

not his thought of it uh chester explain the text exchange we just had uh steve introduced me to his buddy matt matt dross he's got a little bar that he opened up mobile bar and uh is there a direct sale of alcohol with this mobile bar uh well no no you have to supply the you have to supply the, you have to buy the booth. I'll explain it for each other. Let's say you live in Northern Michigan and you're having an event. Yes. 50th wedding anniversary, a regular wedding. Yeah, but we didn't just have that in the text exchange. No, I'm just helping.

Okay. Like I said, I was using this as a jump off point. Okay. Yeah. And you want to have a great experience for your guests. Mm-hmm. as a jump off point. Okay. Yeah. And you want to have a great experience for your guests. Mm-hmm. So what you do is you go to Roaming,

N-O-M-I, Roaming Northern Michigan, but it's not. It's Roaming, N-O-M-I dot com. My buddy's a school teacher. This is his summertime business. He has a camper trailer

rigged up like a bar. When you're doing your event and you're, you know, you get married, you're like serving booze anyways. He helps you figure out what your booze order needs to be. You call in and pay for your booze at the booze store. He picks the booze up, brings his mobile camper bar to your event. Him and his wife work there, work at it. They then open the window and your guests at your wedding go up to the bar. They do signature drinks, custom cocktails. They take care of everything.

Yep. And pretty soon. I have nothing to gain from this. Pretty soon. They have tequila? If you want it. And Chester has just out of the kindness of his little heart. My parents own a cocktail garnish company out of Wisconsin.

So if you go to any grocery store or liquor store and you look for garnishes, it's probably Forest Floor Foods. But now you're going to be able to go to Matt Drozier's mobile bar. Drozd. Drozd. And order a Bloody Mary. Drozier's mobile bar. Drozd. Drozd. And order a Bloody Mary. Matt Drozier's makes Western Big Game apparel over at First Line.

But you're going to be able to order a Bloody Mary and he's going to have all the fixings for it. Or you're going to be able to order an old fashion. You'll get a sweet pickled mushroom as a garnish. Or really whatever you want. Nice cherries for a kiddie cocktail for your kids maybe even.

We throw those in there too. I got more Matt Drill stories than you'd be able to stomach. We used to drink, remember Mad Dog 2020? Well, I don't really remember it, but I've heard of it. I feel like he had a 30-30 rifle. We used to call him MD 30-30. Because like Mad Dog, you know know that's not a good one i got some good ones but i do have some good ones uh yeah let's not get into mad dog 2020 stories

all right the mountain lion story okay so this story comes from my buddy jeff flood who i met through uh bart george who's our our big game biologist friend that works for the Kootenai tribe in Washington. Jeff and our buddy Bruce help Bart with a mountain lion collaring project that you

can, I forget which episode it is, maybe Corinne will plug it in, but you can hear all about it when we had Bart on telling us about this collaring study. What episode is that, Corinne will plug it in, but you can hear all about it when we had Bard on telling us about this collaring study. What episode is that, Corinne? It was, you know, I remember it was one of the hundred. It was early COVID. It was early COVID because I remember we came into the office and it was like mid 2020.

Oh yeah, it was. It was remote because of COVID. Yeah. So they're researching how much if they can deter lions from being around humans by playing loud human voices to them repeatedly. That's not what they're doing? It's a little more complicated, but go ahead. I know, I'm trying to simplify it

so I can get to the main part of the story. So to do this, they catch cats and they collar them. They catch them the first time using hounds and they collar them. And then when they come back, they know the location of the cat because it's been collared. And they can walk up to it playing usually the meter podcast at a loud volume. And then they measure at what point the cat runs, how far it runs. Because they're creating an association. Yes.

In this cat's mind. They're creating association between trouble and human voices. That's right. Because after they hear the human voices, the hounds are released and then they're sort of, you know, run agitated by hounds up into a tree. And they make that association. Yeah. They do that repeatedly and then they, you know, take the data. So it's ongoing study.

This being, cause in the old days, if a lion so much as looked at a person, it was dead. And nowadays there's a little less social tolerance for that, for lethal control of predators in your yard. That's right. Yeah. Well, there's a lot of stuff going on over

there in Northeast Washington. We won't get into it with just the whole controversies around mountain lions and people. And just the state and the governor and the game commission. We need to do a dedicated episode on that. Oh man. We, yeah, we're hustling hard on getting

actual current commissioners signed off on interviews and stuff like that. And I think everybody over there knows that, uh, they're not, uh, really well received right now. So we're not making a lot of headway. Yeah. My least favorite governor in America used to be, uh, Murphy over New Jersey. Cause he campaigned against bear hunts. And my new least favorite governor is Ins used to be Murphy over New Jersey because he campaigned against bear hunts. And my new least favorite governor is Inslee in Washington. Go on.

So they collared a female off of a deer kill in late March. And a lot of times, this is Jeff doing this work. A lot of times what Jeff does is if he sees a deer kill and there's enough carcass left, he'll throw up a camera just to see what happens, right? So he threw up a camera and in the first night, four adult lions and two kittens show up that night. So he just said, needless to say, it didn't last long. That's kind of a little side story to the main story.

Uh, he figures with that pressure, this mountain lion, uh, moved a couple miles away. Okay. The next time they, they went to, uh, to, to catch her, they, when they caught her. When you say the pressure, you mean from the other lions? Yeah, from the other lions. Got it. And she, he figures now that he knows what he knows now, that it was because she was about to give birth. So she moved a ways away.

Didn't want to be by the lions. So the next time they catch her, he can tell that she has kittens because she's lactating. So they follow the back trail on the GPS of where they had first bumped her. And sure enough, there is three uh, three kittens, uh, like they're in a pile. I put up, I had a picture of it on my Instagram. They were holding the kittens. Um, so they put a key, puts a camera on the kittens. What was interesting. Sorry. I'm

trying to read an email while I, uh, relay the story. So I get the numbers, right? Uh, he figures they were about 10 days old and uh he said he thought it was interesting that how how long sometimes she would leave all of them sometimes and again this is just through watching pictures on a trail cam so you never know if mom's just behind the camera or next to it not getting picked up but at some point seven hours she would leave them Oh by that And not be there On May 4th at 11 8 11 a.m. Can this be Commented on as you go

The reason that doesn't surprise me is It would be that Feeding itself Is just more involved Right Like a deer could just go graze whatever 20 minutes right come back graze come back but for that thing i mean it's headed out right hunting it's on like a mission yeah

you know i mean so it seems like they would need to be able to do like some kind of lengthy stash because it's not like hey i'll be back in an hour sure you know and i guess that the reason you think that it is a long time is because you would think that, oh, how are those kittens going to survive that long without being able to get a little milk in that seven-hour period, right? Yeah. So May 4th, first thing in the morning, she moves her first kitten, grabs it by the back of the neck, walks off with it. It doesn't come back until 6 p. get grabbed. Oh, what time did it grab the first one? 8am. So who knows how far it moves it

but comes back at 6pm to grab the second one and moves it. Same day. One kitten left, right? It's like a bad children's book. It's like a bad parenting book. At midnight,

at midnight, that next morning. I want to make sure I'm getting this right. It gets the first one at what time? 6 a.m. Then it comes back in the afternoon. No, 8, well, what did I say? No, 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. It gets one at 8 a.m., brings it wherever.

Comes back that evening, 6 p.m. Now there's one sitting there into the darkness. And at midnight, a skunk shows up. Oh. Yeah. And again, it's not like documented by pictures, but the skunk was there for quite some time. There was blood on the skunk. Mom showed up the next day and spent five hours there just like looking around doing

circles before she she left and then he never saw it again the skunk ate the kitten whether it ate it or or just killed it you know but i mean think about it from this skunk's perspective that's a big win yeah take it out. That's one less dude later taking me out or my, you know, kin. Do you know how big

these kittens are at what? Tiny. At this stage? I mean, you know, little fur balls. I mean,

not even the size of a house cat. Gotcha. That's a cold-blooded skunk. I want to understand mom's like decision- making too. Like how does she select a kitten?

Is it totally random? Oh yeah. Or is she like, yeah. Oh yeah. Like my big favorite one. Right. My guess is that the two healthiest.

The best kitten. Right. The one in the middle is the best kitten. The first one to leave is super exposed or is the less scent. If you're the first one. It's fascinating. The middle is the favorite. I you're the first one it's fascinating the middle is the favorite i would think the middle is like i'm gonna bring the one i like the one i really don't like i'll figure it out later the one i sort of like i'm gonna bring it now to pioneer this new spot if it looks good i'll go get my favorite one and then if i got time later i'll get my least favorite one

we should write a maybe we could publish an academic article about this called favoritism uh favoritism pressums and feline kind colors or just write a children's book children's book called tough luck yeah you can do little backstories on each of the kittens be like this is why mom picked you as the middle one i have a picture of my daughter on my phone in the other day she's saying the reason i have her on my phone is otherwise i'd forget about her because she's the middle were you like honey you're not wrong because she's the middle i keep a lot of things on my phone that i don't want to forget about also that's episode 220 that it's called an elk hunting nudist checks the breeze

god's a good title dude it's called an elk hunting nudist checks the breeze if you want to learn all about bart george's mountain lion collaring study in northeast Washington. It was a good title. We had a good run at just having titles that didn't mean anything. What happened? We started naming them stuff that means something. We're bowing to the algorithm. Search engine optimization? Now, with the shows on YouTube,

it doesn't work to have... You can't have a name that has nothing to do with anything. Meaning, if you name something a nudist... Or a puss in the pot. Or a puss in the pot, or a nudist checks the breeze, you'll wind up in a different land. There's people that would tell you that

that would have been the same case on other platforms prior to YouTube. No, because I resisted the idea. Here's the thing. I resisted and still resist the idea... I know this. ...that people search podcasts i don't you'll hear people some people do i don't believe that people regularly do content searches for podcasts meaning i don't think people go in and search key do keyword

searches around podcasts some do but i don't think that's how i don't think that's how people discover searching for people maybe like certain folks sure and when we and we would we would bow to that in some respects with our old naming convention but now here's another thing i'll tell you uh that would surprise me what's actually the words that we're actually saying right now actually matters for how how youtube search serves you could name it like a nudist checks the breeze but then never talk about nudists and all that um and it'll be served based on content, but the thumbnail people see is based on, it'll be served based on what's actually done within the show.

The thumbnail people see will be what you present to them. So if you have, like, if you're talking about mountain lions, mountain lions, mountain lions, it might go to a person that loves mountain lions. What that person is going to see is a nudist checks the breeze. And he'll think, why is this here? So for this reason, am I doing a good job of explaining this, Corinne? Sure.

So like our guests today, Donald Trump and Joe Rogan are talking about, uh, transgender rights in, uh, bathrooms. And that could possibly help this episode, uh, pop up in people's searches. Good job, Kel.

Nailed it. That's next level right there, man. Um, you, you satisfied with that, Corinne? Yep.

Corinne's satisfied with that, Corinne? Yep. Corinne's satisfied with that. A couple of quick things we've got to touch on. The road to 2024. Go ahead, Steve. We covered roamingnomai.com again. Probably hit that a couple more times in the future. Vegan landlords. This is a Chatticab question chester hmm did you know about this

well i just read it yes i know whatever uh we'll cover it he was listening to the puss in the pot episode so the puss in the pot t-shirts came out but they're gone already but we didn't order that many are we gonna order more i don't know they were gone in less than a day i sunk a gaff into an octopus's arm and he got the gaff away from me and snuck off with it um and i'll point out they can lose their arm it doesn't bother them they just grow a new one so then we started laughing about how that octopus probably doesn't go anywhere without that gaff snuck off with it as an interesting way to put it out of my it out of my hands. We had gotten a wrestling match, and he got away with the gaff. It was a big one.

But the gaff isn't barbed, so the gaff would have just fallen out. Either way, it's funny to think of an octopus now, because you know he uses the gaff for everything. He's going to come back and get you with that gaff. If he wants to get something out of a hole, he's like, stand back, boys. And he just gets that gaff out and does what he needs to do with it. You're going to hear a little subtle tapping on the bottom of your boat.

That's what we're waiting for. Someday that gaff hook up to the bottom of my boat. I'll be like, he's back. We made a shirt of an octopus with a gaff, but it's gone. But anyways, on that episode, we were talking about, I can't remember. Oh, we were talking about i can't remember oh we're talking about a vegan we're talking about vegan landlords that were in the news for people which i supported the right to do this a landlord saying i'll rent to you but if i rent to you you are not allowed to cook meat i don't like it but i support that right. Because I generally am like, I'm generally supportive of that sort of stuff.

So, and the thing, to maintain consistency in this world, it'd be like people that get really worked up about First Amendment rights only when their First Amendment rights are imperiled. But they're very slow to defend First Amendment rights of their adversaries so the ncaa no not the ncaa that's the basketball people and the n-double-a-c-p

the n-double-a-c-p will often defend the first amendment rights of white supremacists because they're so staunchly first amendment that they'll defend the first amendment rights of white supremacists because they're so staunchly first amendment that they'll defend the first amendment rights of people who'd probably like to kill them so uh because i think that people should have more latitude to make you know like just more latitude to make these sorts of decisions around their own home and how you rent your home i was like yeah okay i don't like it but i would never tell someone that they should have to rent a house to someone doing something like that i don't know i'm just trying it on so so i'm not sure i'm committed go ahead i wasn't there because this was recorded in alaska but if i were there i would have reminded you that in the Chetaket episode with Luke Combs,

we got a question about a landlord who would not rent a home to gun owners. And I told them the lie. And you said lie and do it anyway. Well, if I heard from someone who, if I heard from someone who said, my landlord rented me a house and said, I can't cook meat,

but I'm thinking about cooking some i would say i think that you should right sure so i am it is consistent okay listen i'm not like a judge i'm not like judge judy i'm very aware yeah it's just but like i just like that's what i'm saying but this guy here has got a different situation but it made him think of it where he i don't he's part of the story i don't understand he used to live in a rural area but due to residency rules had to move into the city what would that mean he he oh this is exactly what you're talking about. No English? You live by the Hormel factory.

Well, I go down there. It's like a two-hour drive north, south, yeah. Okay, you... Yeah, when you drive down there. Two hours from your home is the place where they make Spam. Yep. And you're saying the executive leadership team at Spam... Yeah, in their bylaws, they have to live down in Austin, Minnesota. Okay. So this feller might have run into a similar thing, because he's saying, they have to live down in austin minnesota okay so this feller

might have run into a similar thing because he's saying i used to live out in the sticks but because of residency rules he had to move into the city yeah he's in buffalo new york so he's not working down there at spam yeah but what one of like while you were talking about that if you talk to the landlord and the landlord says hey you know no cooking meat here, is it okay just to move on to another apartment or another house? Do you know what I'm saying? Because that's what the landlord, okay, cool. Oh, yeah. I would be in that situation where they're like, you can't cook meat here.

I'm like, okay, cool. I'm going to move. Yeah, I'll go find some other place. Or I'm going to cook it anyway, call the cops. I don't know. I'm going to move. Yeah. I'll go find some other place, you know. Yeah. Or I'm going to cook it anyway. Call the cops. Can I? I don't know. I got to throw this out there. This is like the best article I've seen in a long time.

And it, it really strikes me because I used to have to travel around the country with a practicing vegan. And that person was obnoxious and was adamant that I go to these vegan restaurants in different places. Um, and I always was just like, it is not worth my, my money. But my assumption was that, uh, the experience would be a lot different than what it was. And I was actually like appalled when I finally did sit down at a vegan restaurant to see all of my food terms on the menu. Oh yeah. Right.

Yeah. They steal shit from. Yeah. I was like, well, what? Like I'm down for a salad, but you have.

Why do you act like it's bacon? Yeah. Reuben and fries and chicken, chicken fried steak. So the, I got to hand it to whoever wrote this article, but it's called no more cordon bleu. France's long running battle over vegan food

names has escalated as the government published a decree banning meaty terms such as steak, grill, or spare ribs being used to describe plant-based products. I think that's a little bit of government overreach. I love it. If that's what government overreach is, I

fully embrace it. I like it. Yeah. You know that we, we covered that little dust up. I'm going to come back to the story about this guy, but we covered that little dust up where that dude, this is the weirdest thing

because oh my god it's one story turned into another here so we got three stories up in the air story one is this well story one is this fella here that we're talking about who had to move to town because of the rules okay so hold that in your head story two is how is this these french people in your situation there's four stories story three is that we covered how a guy was suing buffalo wild wings because their boneless wings aren't wings yeah they're technically not wings but whatever buffalo wild wings retort was am i using retort in the right way allow me to retort yeah yeah buffalo wild wings retort was uh we don't sell any buffalo our hamburgers are not ham our chicken fingers are not chickens fingers so it should not come to you as a great surprise that our boneless wings are not wings in this article they're not buffalo's wings either no

now i'm into story four in this article they interview some dude who is like a who's made this whole issue like his axe to grind but he's not the litigant he's not the person suing buffalo wild wings but he's a person who believes and they talk about him in the article that he believes they should be called saucy nugs and somehow he weasels his way into the article i'm standing at a book event i'm doing a book signing event and there's some guy in line that looks like not like everybody else that would come to one of my book signing events meaning most of my stuff is like some dude in square toe cowboy boots with like three kids because it's a children's recognizable demographic but then here's this guy that i know i've been using a lot of people looking like weird al because i was talking about gallagher the comedian here's a guy that looks like young weird

al comes up to me and basically he's there to tell me that they should call him saucy nugs but does not know that we discussed this on the podcast like this guy independently just goes to anywhere he can get an audience wait he was the guy that was in the article yes oh and i was like we talked about this in the podcast he had no idea he's just oh i'm just he's just just gorilla marketing the word he's like sounds like there's gonna to be a crowd. I'm going to go down there and... Proselytize.

Raise a hell of a vote. Wow. Yeah. Really? That's amazing. Back to story number one. But if they call them saucy nugs, then some stoner could come in there and think that it's some ganja and sue him for that.

Hold on a minute. You guys call weed saucy nugs? I'm sure there's somebody out there. Oh, yeah. You want to talk about some saucy nugs? You ever see Chester's tattoo on his arm? Okay, moving on. Too many stories.

This comes down to why the FDA exists, right? Like patent medicine. Oh. Okay. And that is why you cannot call a vegan, whatever it is, sandwich, a Reuben sandwich. Yeah. Oh, I forgot that. Everybody knows.

Corned beef. Okay. And pastrami does not cut it as a Reuben sandwich either. Yeah. That's pastrami sandwich. Before we back to this guy that had to move into town, I do want to pick up what you're saying because it is frustrating what you're saying and it would be like if you're vegan besides people that have like some kind of major dietary reasoning to be vegan which i'm sure happens if you eat meat you're gonna die or something i don't know

but normally i would guess like 90 whatever the hell of vegans are for ethical reasons so they have come to a position where they're saying like i believe it is wrong to consume meat well say you have a give me another ethical infraction uh i'll do like i don't want to do like pedophiles well Well, that's where I went with this. Okay, I got it. Oh, no, go ahead. It is. It's like your sexual preference. Yeah, let's do beastiality.

Sexual preference is a perfect one. Like I am staunchly this way, but I happen to put things in my mouth that resemble this other thing. But don't confuse that because this is the way I am. Let's say you have a hog fetish jeepers and you recognize that that is just wrong that is not a thing that is not a thing you can be partaking in but then you uh come home with a hog suit. You see where this is going. No,

is that better? So this guy, anyway, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey guys, this is Giannis. I got a special request for you. You've heard me talk about it

before and I'm mentioning it again and asking again, but I'm asking for you guys to all help and pitch in to save that winter habitat in Vail, Colorado for the bighorn sheep that was a proposed development for employee housing. And there was a big to-do there. And finally, the town of Vail has figured out a way to purchase the land from the company that was proposing to develop it. And now they're going to save it and turn it into a conservation easement. And they're also going to conserve more land in that area. So it's actually a win-win. It went from only being 20 acres to now it's going to be over 100 acres of bighorn sheep

habitat for the bighorn sheep that live in the Gore Range. I was lucky enough to hunt there two years ago and killed a ram in there. I wanted to keep that secret, but this is a good reason to bring it out publicly. John Hayes Taxidermy did a full mount of that sheep. And I'm going to donate that sheep to the town of Vail. And they're going to use it as a marker, as a memorial to this project to forever memorialize the people and the conservation organizations that are going to work hard to make this happen. So I'm super stoked to be a part of this, and I hope you can too. And remember, every little bit helps. They have to raise about $3 million. That's right. You heard it right.

By October 3rd, there's not a lot of time. Obviously, it's going to take some people with some big old bank accounts to kick down big. But like I said, every little bit helps. So if you just got $1 or $5 or $10, I would appreciate it if you kick down towards this. If you're thinking, man, I'm not a Colorado bighorn sheep hunter, look at it this way. If someone else draws their tag there, they might take away that tag that they were trying to hunt in Nevada. Or if you are a Colorado sheep hunter, if there's more sheep here, there's more tags there. Even though you might not hunt there, it might free up opportunities for you to hunt somewhere else. Okay? So it is a win-win for everybody. Even if you're not a hunter,

this preserves wildlife, very cool wildlife in a very cool place. So if you want to help out, go to www.ValeBigHorn.com slash ways to help. And you'll find a link where you can donate. I think it actually takes you to the Wild Sheep Foundation. They're the ones that are managing all these donations. And just make sure that you click on Vail Bighorn to make sure that your donation goes directly towards this project. So again, www.VailBighorn.com slash ways to help. And again, for me and for the sheep of the Gore range,

help them out. I appreciate it. Thank you. Hey, folks, exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada. And, boy, my goodness do we hear from the Canadians whenever we do a raffle or a sweepstakes. And our raffle and sweepstakes law makes it that they can't join. Whew.

Our northern brothers get irritated. irritated well if you're sick of you know sucking high and titty there on x is now in canada the great features that you love in on x are available for your hunts this season the hunt app is a fully functioning gps with hunting maps that include public and crown land, hunting zones, aerial imagery, 24K topo maps, waypoints, and tracking. That's right. We're always talking about OnX here on the Meat Eater Podcast. Now you guys in the Great White North can be part of it, be part of the excitement.

You can even use offline maps to see where you are without cell phone service. That's a sweet function. As part of your membership, you'll gain access to exclusive pricing on products and services handpicked by the OnX Hunt team. Some of our favorites are First Light, Schnee's, Vortex Federal, and more. offer you can get a free three months to try on x out if you visit on x maps.com slash meet on x maps.com slash meet welcome to the to the on x club y'all i really this guy thought the door was open for um uh and Yada to jump in on the vegan side of things. Oh, is there anything to add? I'm cutting a lot of stuff out, but I do got to get back to this guy. You know, yeah.

Like, even with what, you know, we, I actually wrote a little article about it. I was asked once in a panel, you know, monk sausage is something that we make at our restaurant, and it's an old recipe my father gave me, right? He passed it down. And, you know, it became really just kind of popular around Minneapolis in the way we make it, you know. And there was a panelist who, you know, or somebody asked me on a panel.

Can you give us a brief descriptor? Monk sausage? Yeah. Yeah. So it is our recipe we use. And the thing that dad showed me was 70% shoulder, 30% belly. And then the aromatics inside is lemongrass, ginger, garlic, shallots, fish sauce, Thai chilies. And then it's very important because the grind is coarse it's not a lot of

people they do sausage they're more like eastern european style where it's you know um you kind of get emulsified ours is more coarse because because of the fat content so high that you actually want that fat to render and while you're grilling it you're not grilling it hot you're kind of grilling it higher so it renders now yeah you know you know you know what i'm talking about it renders and and as it does that you say you're not grilling it hot you're grilling it lower yep sorry so what i meant high was like higher on the grill i got yeah yeah you know and and you kind of let it go and and you know i i teach my a lot of our chefs and cooks who cook with us they aren't uh a lot of them aren't mung so i have to re like re um like re-engineer their mind to be like no we're

not cooking this like if it was an eastern european style you know sausage this is southeast asian sausage so it's a little different anyways there was a a lady asked and said hey you know would you ever uh can and she's like i'm vegan can you make the sausage vegan and i and i politely said to her no because because you you realize this is 100% made out of like 70, this is 70% pork and 30% pork. Yeah. So, yeah, absolutely. But I wasn't trying to be meaner. But then I also said to her too, that there's a legacy that comes along with this.

See, my father, when he came to this country, he didn't have anything. You know, he didn't have land. He didn't have anything in his name. But what he did was he knew how to do this. And then he passed it to me, you know, and it was one of those things that as kids, we learned how to do it with him. And for me, it's more than just some recipe

where I could just change it to people's preference. It's like, no, we're going to stick to this. You know, and so for me, it runs deeper than that. And to me, like there's sometimes food, and I'm a food guy, it runs deeper than that. And, and it, to me, like there's sometimes food and I'm, I'm a food guy. It runs deeper than that, you know, to say,

Oh, Hey, like let's make this vegan Reuben, whatever, you know? And it's like, yeah, but I,

we always say with our restaurant is before, before when you eat something, be curious about it. Like, why is it the way it is? And so that's where I come from, especially with this whole, like changing it this way,

changing it this way. And so that was like my big thing thing and then a lot of the vegans got mad at me uh and then you know when this article came out and everyone was like oh my gosh you you hate vegans and i'm like i never said i hate vegans i you know it's like i never said that i said that we choose to make this this way and keep it this way i mean we have people who aren't pork eaters and there's like could you do it with chicken i'm like doesn't taste the same you know it and to me why it's so important to me was that this is part of dad's legacy see my father didn't have this like he's not like my parents don't have this thing where it's like this is this land and we're going to give this to you when we pass away no he didn't but he had these recipes it's his legacy yeah and

and it's like we get to carry it and we get to pass it down. And so, you know, yeah, we could probably talk about this forever, but just this idea of like, what it means to be Hmong is to carry down these legacy, to carry down this, you know,

these things that it's not written in a document anywhere, you know, but we carry down from our parents and they took it from their parents. And so for me, when it became that vegan issue, I was just like, hey, this is where I'm at. And then everyone just, you know, everyone on the internet just got it.

Well, it's such an oddball thing, right? It's like really an inappropriate question. It's like, can you take that very unique and special thing to you? Yep. And then completely change it for my personal taste? Yeah, and that's i mean again can you leave man i don't have any ill will toward vegan i don't too yeah i think it's funny i like to laugh

about it yeah but then like even with the you know the article you're talking about i'm like i'm i'm firmly i believe in the way that you believe where it's like you know like everyone like if we're gonna stand for like the first amendment right you know if if we're gonna stand for that other side we gotta you know we gotta keep, like if we're going to stand for, like the first amendment, right. You know, if, if we're going to stand for that other side, we got to, we know we got to keep it consistent. We got to keep it consistent, you know? And that's how I believe that was like, bro, go find another place to live. You know? Well, let me tell you this dude's situation.

He moves to this neighborhood and they find out that he hunts and they start leaving them letters. Oh boy. Even to this point, this is is i'll take his word for here i don't know this is what he said he said he gets a letter that says this community is vegetarian and doesn't agree um with your hunting presence or the presence of murdered meat in the neighborhood i'd love to know the size of the neighborhood. Yeah. He's wondering, what would you do to keep the neighborhood, to keep things in the neighborhood civil?

Man, I just get confused if he's a hunter and stuff and why he's living there. Was that like in? Well, how the hell would you know? Well, I mean, if it's a vegetarian neighborhood, I mean, you'd think they'd have a sign. Was it in the contract? Yeah. You sign a renter's agreement. If it's a vegetarian neighborhood i mean you think they'd have a sign was it in the contract you sign a renter's agreement if it's not in the contract you should be able to eat meat i agree with you if if the landlord made it very clear no no this dude i don't think this is that he's just pointing out that that just happens to be where he lives oh it was so he

got a letter from a neighbor saying that about the neighborhood. This is not a formal thing. Oh, yeah. So I think he's just saying, so outside of any rule break, and he's wondering how do you maintain civility, I would. Invite them all over for a barbecue. Burgers. That's not going to work. Meat diplomacy.

You could have them over for a veggie barbecue. And then say, after they eat, say, hey, let's chat because there's a little problem. I would just chat with. And if you want to try it, I have some of this freshly killed venison over here that's pretty tasty that ate nothing but plants. I eat a lot of grilled zucchini this time of year on the barbecue. That's good stuff.

You know. Justin, let me tell you what I think. Then I want you to say what you think. That'll be the final word. I think that he should go about his business, but just just don't don't rub their noses in it like you know i mean don't or is he hanging you're hanging you're doing your backyard just as well as you can hang in your front yard hang in the backyard yeah i'm i would i don't know i would if he's getting all this these letters and stuff stuff, there's not much he can do about it other than maybe talk to,

I would probably talk to the landlord and try and have a nice civil conversation, even though they might not understand that they make the choices that they do for reasons. I don't think it has anything to do with the landlord. There's nothing about renting. This is just his neighbors. Neighborhood.

He's got neighbors that Neighborhood. Okay. He's got neighbors that are hostile to hunting. These people are not going to be appeased until he quits hunting. Okay. Well, then, yeah, just keep to yourself. Or the people that are sending you the letters, because I don't know how many people are sending him letters and stuff. Maybe just literally try and have a civil conversation with them and be like you you guys make the choices that you make for reasons that you stand by and you know please

let me make the choices that i stand by and you know i won't shove it in your face i won't be roasting a pig in my front yard i'll cook it I'd put a little chunk of Bloody Hide maybe in their mailbox. Yeah, yeah. That's gonna go a lot. It's gonna be like the Burbs. Remember that movie? Tom Hanks.

Oh, that is a phenomenal movie. Try and keep it to yourself. The, uh, kill them with kindness. I'm a big, like, you can just grind people down with kindness. And you kind of get

satisfaction out of it because you know it's just, like, irks them. Yeah. But they can't say anything. They can't respond's a good point although even get send more letters right but i had uh the impression that when i was living in in ketchum the neighbors across the street from me did not uh like me for whatever reason no Um, and I was always cordial and, uh, well, you know, would wave when they'd pull in or whatever, but, um, kind of a wide street. It's not like it was forced interaction at all. Uh, and one day I look out the window and I was always out and about working on the place,

um, running a chop saw in the front yard and stuff like that, but not like would be like normal business hours, not crazy early or crazy late. Um, one day I look across the street and here's mom, dad, the two kids, a dog, like little nuclear family. And they have a brand new refrigerator in the box in the back of this guy's pickup, and they're trying to negotiate this thing out, and it's not going well. And so I drop what I'm doing, run across the street. I'm like, hey, can I help you? And they're like, eh, no. And I was like, ah, you really look like, can i just help and kind of force the issue a little

bit in you know 15 seconds had the refrigerator out safely now it's on the ground they have a dolly i'm like i can help you get inside and they're like nope and literally never spoke to me from that day forward. Really? Yeah. Just bizarre. Some people are just that way. Couldn't kill them with kindness.

Yeah. The moral of the story is some people are just that way. Right? It's like, doesn't matter what you do. So I wouldn't go out of my way to change my life, but you know, they're miserable inside their house writing letters and you got to understand that too. Yeah. And I've, I've learned to man, like hurt people, hurt people, you know, like people that are hurt, they hurt people. Cause it's like, you have all this BS

inside of you and you got to project it somewhere. And then being hurt sometimes like they hurt people. And that's where, I mean, I've, I've learned that in my lifetime is hurt people hurt people. And sometimes that's like the final answer. And I'm like, yeah, that's it. You know, there's nothing else. Nothing you can do. Yeah. Nothing you can do about it until, you know,

they get help or until they, you know, recognize that hurt or until they, you know, confront that hurt, you know. Yach, can you tell me how your name changed over time? Yeah. So the name given to me at birth was yeah yeah so you actually can have two years in the studio um the story is um i was very sick and in the monk culture you know sometimes they you know there's there's a lot to do with the namesake. Okay. Um, and so in the monk culture, sometimes when you just don't, uh, get better, they change your name.

Oh. Um, to you and, and they'll, they'll say. Do you know what was the, I mean, did you have a specific ailment or you just weren't thriving? No, they, they just said I was sick all the time. And so one of the first, I guess you could say in brevity, they'll maybe consult with a shaman. And then a lot of times they'll just say, hey, maybe you just need to change his name. And actually in this case, my parents gave me to my aunt and uncle, and my uncle was a deacon of the catholic church okay and so um they gave me to go live with my aunt uncle and because you weren't doing well because i wasn't doing well and so at what age uh i want to say this is uh when i was just um a few months old even okay and so um he since he was a Catholic, a deacon in the Catholic church, he, the translated, there's a translated Bible in Hmong.

So, and in there, John the Baptist, the name translated in Hmong is Ja. So I shared this when I was here the first time. My name is Ja in Hmong is Ja. So I shared this when I was here the first time. My name is Ja in Hmong. And so he named me, renamed me John the Baptist. My name after John the Baptist in the Hmong translated version of the Bible. And I got better.

And then he gave, they gave me back to my parents. And so- Yeah, so in our culture, it's animism, right? So it's the belief of the ancestors are the good spirits and they're evil spirits. So when Yahuwah's young, this is from what I've learned,

I bet you it was probably like, okay, we're going to change his name because we're going to trick the evil spirits who's making him sick to think that it's a different person. Sure that's the changing of the name and so i've have friends who have had name changes and stuff like that and then even even that whole idea of like the like what the name carries along with it and the meaning and so my name yeah which you know yeah i used to be yeah it literally translates to iron skillet or a frying pan yeah yeah it's true so if you go into

and i dude i hated it growing up man dude being a are you kidding me bro that is a strong name you might think it's cool but not when you were seven years old and you're with all your cousins then like hey where's the yeah and then they'll be like, no, him. Like, no, not him. Like, you know, you got made fun of all the time. So it's not a common name? Not really. How many yeahs do you guys know? Not like a few. But here's the deal. My youngest

brother's name is Gomong, which means blessing of God. Literal translation is blessing of God. No question who the favorite kid is. Absolutely. So we have like, No question, who's the favorite kitten? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That's a callback. So we have,

so we have like, you know, like a pan, an iron skillet, and then we have blessing of God. You know, it's like, dude, come on.

We know. How, okay, how directly does that mean iron skillet? It's literal. Literal. Like, yeah,

lugia means the iron skillet or the wok or the pan. The frying pan. I hated it growing up. Can I tell you the one? I got my citizenship. I got one more question about the name. Just so I want to make sure.

Earlier I was talking about being out on book tour. When I was out on book tour, I met a kid and his name was Talon, which I thought was a great name. His name's Talon. So clearly it's a you know the foot of a predatory bird yeah it's freaking awesome yeah but it's a name so when i hear talon i'm like autumn is a name but if she were to go to another country they speak a different language and people are like what does your name mean and she would say well my name my name's autumn it means the season between summer and winter

that might seem noteworthy to someone but then this autumn would be obligated to say but it's so common no one thinks of it that way because it's so integrated into naming yeah so if your name's iron skillet it's enough that people are like hold on your name's iron skillet or is it so integrated that it's not noteworthy so so the literal translation is iron skillet you know or walk or whatever you know an iron skillet iron pan but my mom said the metaphorical name represents like like an iron skillet or pan is uh it's uh it's a vessel you use to cook with and she said that what she said to me was that it means that uh to like you will be a a servant of men like in a good way like not in a you know i mean like like uh to serve or to help you know really but yeah but then i'm like dude

he got blessing of god you know it literally means blessing of god you know? But nah, man, it's one of those things. Has he lived up to it? Yeah, I mean, he's incredible. I love my little brother. Tell me his name again. Gong Mong, or yeah, Gong Mong. What do his American buddies call him? So it's spelled K-O-O-B, M-O-O-B.

That's the Hmong spelling. So growing up, they just called him Koob, K-O-O-B. So they just call him Koob or Kooby. Yeah, so. And pronounce his name again for me in mung it's gomung okay or sometimes we just say mung so how how would how would how does how would a native speaker say your name very similar to what we're saying yeah okay i get my name butchered all the time so when i got my citizenship they asked the last question to ask

you is would you like to have a new name? Cause you can take on like an American name. Who asked you this? Uh, the, uh, the immigration officer. Yeah. Yeah.

Seriously. Oh yeah. You can get it. Dude. I had in college, I had a list of like what names and all my buddies can pick, you know? And it was like,

I literally, when he, when she said this and I was sitting in the office with her, I almost want to be like Optimus prime. Please call me. That would be my government name. Optimus Prime Vang.

Can you imagine getting credit card statements from Optimus Prime? Dude, that or Chad. Optimus Prime opening in a second location. Yeah, I don't think he pays his credit card bills. Optimus Prime doesn't pay credit card bills. Hey, MX, Optimus Prime here. You know who you're dealing with? Yeah.

You know what I could do to this place? Oh, dude. It was that or it was like Chad or Trevor. I always joke about that. Just get a good white name, a good strong white name. Did you know people? First off, how old were you? Oh, when I got my citizenship? It was like two years ago, three years ago. Yeah, it was pretty recent.

Yeah, I just kind of waited. You only was like two years ago, three years ago. Yeah, it was pretty recent. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I just kind of waited, you know. You only became a U.S. citizen two or three years ago? Yeah. Yeah. What year did you move to the U.S.? 88. So it was a long way. And what age did you move to the U.S.?

I was four and a half, five. So I started kindergarten right away. So give me the basic chronology, where and when you were born. Yeah. The flow. Because I know you mentioned the refugee camp. Yeah. where and when you were born, the flow. Because I know you mentioned the refugee camp. Yeah, so my parents met in Ban Vinhai, which is a very famous, big refugee,

the largest refugee camp, northern Thailand. It's like 10 kilometers off the borders of Laos and Thailand. That's where a lot of Hmong people came to after the war. That's where my dad spent Peace Corps there for four years teaching small engines and stuff. What year? I mean, what are the years?

Do you know? A while ago. Like what, what year was he there? Like, you know? Um, I, I'm not sure, but it was, it was a while. Like probably like. How old are you? Shoot him a text, Chester.

Maybe they overlapped. Yeah. And actually I think Ye's family and my family overlapped in the camp when did you guys leave uh we left in 80 okay yeah we left in 88 yeah my dad had a chance to leave early but then he stayed because my dad fought in the war and you know and it's man just to hear their stories of what they did uh running missions for the cia and u.s government you know northern laos there y'all sent me y'all sent me a great book about all those campaigns.

What was that book called, y'all? Tragic Mountains. Tragic Mountains is a good one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He sent me a book that details all those campaigns. Yeah, and it goes back in further history too, like fighting with the French back in the day and just back. Yeah, it was a good book.

88, we left. We landed in St. Paul, Minnesota. So, yeah, and we came there there and then we moved out to like. Oh, I'll back up on one thing. Your folks met as refugees. Yeah. So my dad fought in the war. He escaped.

My mom, they escaped. They had a horrible time. They got caught, were put in prison camps by the communists, finally escaped that. And then in 77, they met in the camp. And then in 78, they got married. And then they were there until 88. So 10 years they were there. 10 years in the camp.

Yeah. Because the Hmong people were stuck because the Americans didn't want them. Because they're like, I don't know. The Thai government was like, dude, we're borders with Laos. And Laos doesn't like you guys. So we don't want to, you know, so literally it was this really awkward, like even Hmong people that were born in the camp at that time where they weren't, they're not, I'm not considered a citizen of Thailand, you know, because I, but I was born in Thailand.

So I am. But your family came from Laos. Your parents were Laos, born Laotian, but they don't hold, I mean, there's no citizenship for them for no so do you have a second citizenship somewhere no no no i was just kind of you're like a citizenless person in a way a citizenshipless person yeah but you know but one of the crazy things like when i got my citizenship a buddy of mine who you know his friend came to me is a couple years ago and he said hey why would you want to be a citizen of america like right now like america like things weren't you know i mean this is after ever you know like things

aren't going too hot for america why would you want to be a citizen of america and i'm like bro you were born here you know you became a citizen when you were born here like my grandparents and my parents fought a war to get me here it's a little i feel like it was a little different for me you know like i was talking um, I was talking about this scene from, uh, Saving Private Ryan, you know, at the end when,

uh, you know, Tom Hanks character, Captain Miller, you know, he's dying and he looks at, uh, Tom Hanks dies in the end of Saving Private Ryan.

Yeah. Yeah. Spoiler alert. Come on. You know what I'm talking about, right? Oh yeah. Yeah.

It's like a slow bleed out. I know that movie really devolved. Like it starts out like all this grand detail and then there's that, they have that, you know, it kind of centers in on that really bad german it's like a clock winding down yeah and then at the end in the end yeah at the end well remember because they all died finding private ryan right and and he whispers captain miller to private ryan whispers and says earn this

earn this and then you know and then it goes into like the present and he's, you know, he's this old guy now that he's standing over Captain Miller's grave and he looks at his wife and he's an old grandpa and goes, did I live a good life? You know? And I, I, I tell, I tell people. So Tom Hanks meaning earned the sacrifice

that was made. Absolutely. And, and that to me, that's a, it's a good haunting I have. That when I got my citizenship, I was, I thought about my grandpa, I was, I thought about my grandpa. I never met my dad's dad who died in this war. And the sacrifices they made and all my, some of my uncles who have passed away in the war to get us here.

Right. So I've learned that freedom isn't free. Like you might not have paid for it, but somebody did. And that's, and even understanding like the Hmong, like some of our dads and our grandpas who fought for America before they even were

given the ability to step foot in America. So they fought for a country that later on denied them. And I, to me, that's true patriotism. That's where I think like, man, like that's what

really wrapped in my head as I got older. I'm like, I want to be a citizen because there comes a point for older. I'm like, I want to be a citizen because there, there comes a point for me where I'm like, what am, what am I doing with the sacrifice that was done for me? And that's why it was really important for me to go through that process,

become a citizen and to be able to talk about it and to honor them, to honor their legacy, to honor who they are through. And it's as simple as through the food we make. And we get to talk about that. It's so cool. We get to travel the country. I get to do shows and talk about the legacies of, you know, my father, my grandfather, by the sacrifices they made for this country.

And I get to talk about that by cooking Hmong food. And so that's why one of the things I get really excited about. You know, I want to get back into a little bit of stuff from earlier in your life, but I know, I think that growing up in, I grew up in Michigan, spent a lot of my life in Montana, a handful of other states as well. I know about Hmong people through the lens of hunting. Yeah. It's like, I feel like if I didn't, if I didn't know, oh, there's these, if I didn't know that there was these avid hunters in the US that came from Laos as refugees, like I wouldn't know about Hmong culture. I know it through the hunting lens if you're a mung chef and you're bringing the cuisine around i have to imagine that at times you need to go before we get to the food let me explain that we exist meaning everyone holds in

their head like all americans hold in their head like, oh, Mexican food. Yeah, it's this country to the south of us. They speak Spanish. I got the basic gist. But to say to most people, Hmong food, I mean, most, I would say the majority of people aren't going to know what the hell you're talking about. Yeah. True or not true? Completely true. So, you know, if, you know, I get some crap from, I call them hardliner Hmong people.

They're like, you aren't making real Hmong food. It's blah, blah, blah, blah. You're bastardizing our food to make money. Oh, they do that? Oh, dude. Holy cow. That's not,

you're not suffering that alone. Yeah, yeah. Every culture has that, right? Your own people kind of like, what? So one of the things I say within our restaurant, we have this mantra we always say.

We say every dish has a narrative. If you follow that dish long enough and close enough, you get to the people behind the food. And once you're there, it's actually not about food. It's about people. That food is a catalyst into cultivating great relationships. So that's why I ask people every time you eat a food and you go, Hey, I want to change it or it should be changed this way. You know how we were talking about? I always go, Hey, ask yourself why it was made like that. Because if you follow the story, you follow those crumbs, I bet you get to the people.

And once you get there, you get to know their story. And then it opens your eyes of saying, this is why the food is done this way, you know? And so I grew up not wanting to cook Hmong food. I didn't want to be a cook at all, dude. I went to school for all this stuff. Like I graduated college with a degree in interpersonal communication, a minor in pr and marketing like i i wanted to run as far as i could from what is interpersonal communication uh so you work with a lot of it's uh kind of one-on-one from when you major in that you can go to grad school you can do uh you can teach it and

then you can work uh like doing counseling you know yeah counseling you know therapy you can do all that you know after that uh but you were know, therapy. You can do all that, you know, after that. You were raised eating Hmong food? Oh, yeah, dude. Like, yeah, like that was it. That's what mom knew how to cook, and that's what we ate, and it was incredible. Did you think burgers were good?

Yeah, but at the end of the day, too, I'm a Wisconsin boy, right? So Culver's, you know, double cheeseburger, butter burger from Culver's. Come on, man. Like, you know, like cheese curds. I ain't mad at that, you know? You know, so, yeah. What's that saying? Makes butter burger better?

Yeah. Better brand of beef. Yeah, better brand of beef makes butter burger better. Yeah. So, like, growing up, it was like, yeah, do you like Hmong food or do you like American food? Or the Hmong word for American is Mika. I'm like, do you like Mika food or do you like American food? And I'm like, yes.

Like, I could like both, right? What's Mika mean? Mika means Hmong. It's the Hmong way of saying American. Oh, okay like, yes, like I could like both. Right. What's me coming? Me got means Hmong. It's, it's though it's the Hmong way of saying American. Oh, okay. So I thought it was like an abbreviation.

It's like a shortened version. Yeah. So, so, so our parents couldn't say American, you know, but in their accented alliteration, it came out Mika.

So, so when, so when you're around Hmong people and you hear Mika, they're probably talking about you guys. I'm just going to be honest. So when, when, uh, okay. Hmong people and you hear da-da-da-da-da-da-da-donald's yeah did they embrace that or were they reluctant to get into that because it would mean that it would take you down this path of of moving away from mung food moving away from mung culture or were they like down with america not not down like yeah yeah yeah that comes out wrong

you know did they embrace sort of like fast food culture or did they resist it because it would be a forfeiture of culture yeah i mean i think my parents it was survival it wasn't like hey like so right now i get this great opportunity to talk about the in-depth understanding among food and whatever it represents my parents growing up it was like how do we work our job that we're getting paid eight bucks an hour and how do we provide for our family so it wasn't like they had this moment of like oh like let me think about how our food can influence the way that our kids think about our culture no it was like what can we scrounge around to survive so sometimes if it's a buck 99 happy meal

at mcdonald's back in the day when it was buck 99, remember that boys, you know, like then that was it. Some days, you know, you know, some days it's like if some noodle dish, some bling chow dish or whatever, you know, like, and then they had to make it work with the, and with the garden and they just pull stuff from the vegetables

from the garden, then that was it, you know? But what, what I get to do is I get to look back on those moments because I have the privilege now to look back and think about that. I have the privilege to dissect and break down the thoughts of like how this, what this food represents for our people, because they sacrifice and they worked so hard for, for me, you know? And so, yeah, I, I don't think that, you know, cause I because i think that we do a lot of shows and stuff like that and i think that there are editors and you know producers who want to give me this like this is like beautiful like and you know netflix chef's table kind of

like you stood there with your mom and you guys made sticky rice together i'm like dude it wasn't like that you know like there's not that you know i'm saying where it's like all chef has is like beautiful story of like sitting with grandma she's teaching you how to make whatever it's like no man like they were hustling all the time like you know we ate instant ramen you know we we ate you know i learned how to cook fried eggs with tomatoes you know and stuff like that those were the things we did there's nothing sexy about it it was tough we lived on food stamps you know yeah and it was like i got you but like man like to me i feel so blessed to be in a position where i am where we get to interact with people who value food at a

very high economic level you know where it's like they're willing to pay a lot of money for food and we also get to tell this incredible story that comes along with it you know hey folks exciting news for those who live or hunt in canada and boy my goodness do we hear from the canadians whenever we do a raffle or sweepstakes and our raffle and sweepstakes law that makes it that they can't join, whew, our northern brothers get irritated. Well, if you're sick of, you know, sucking high and titty there, OnX is now in Canada. The

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onxmaps.com onxmaps.com onxmaps.com Welcome to the OnX club, y'all. Did your folks raise food when you were growing up? You talk about having a garden.

Yeah, man. You understand anything about Hmong people. So right now, my parents, they're in their 70s. They're retired. They have a 10-acre farm, right? My mom calls it a little garden, but it's 10 acres, and everything they grow every year, they harvest it and bring it over to the restaurant.

So, yeah, and that's what it is. Seriously? Oh, dude. So your restaurant serves food that your folks raise? Oh, absolutely. That's the it over to the restaurant. So, yeah, and that's what it is. Seriously? Oh, dude. So your restaurant serves food that your folks raise? Oh, absolutely. That's the whole point of the restaurant. Like, you know, we just got done with the state fair. So the Minnesota state fair is huge.

It's like this year they had 1.8 million people walk through in 12 days, right? And so my mom makes these galapao, or they're these steamed buns, right? So she makes these steamed buns. It's a family tradition. And this year we sold a little bit over 23,000 of them. And so my mom and my aunt and four church ladies made 23,000 of these steamed buns. And that's, I mean, that's, my mom has this thing where she says, I don't know business. I don't know math.

But my hands have been taking care of you for the last four, almost 40 years until the day I die. I will always take care of you. If my hands can make it and i can produce it i will do it for you you know and so it's like when you hear stuff like that bro when you hear when you hear stuff like that how can you not not keep talking about them you know and so i get super emotional about it but like man it's like no quit she's in her 70 No quit. She's out working half our chefs, you know, and I love it. And it's not something where I asked her to, but she's just like, this is what we do. This is how we help each other. This is what we do.

And that's what I love about our culture. You know, there's no quit. It is, if we come together, we can, you know, we can accomplish more. Dad told me that the Hmong culture in the Hmong people, what happened was hundreds and hundreds of years ago, there's always this argument

between the 18 clans, right? Who is the rightful clan name to lead these people, right? So it's like this fight. It's a Game of Thrones style, right? It's like, what clan should be the, you know, is the direct line for the first Hmong empire?

And, you know, they didn't argue about this. What clan are you? I'm a Vang. Okay. So you're the Yang clan, Vang clan. Yeah, yeah. And so it's like Game of Thrones, whatever kind of deal.

Which clan is better? I don't know. I don't know. I say the Yangs. Yeah. The Yangs are better. Everyone always, but that's how it is. The Yangs are better.

Yeah. Okay, cool. I just heard from y'all. You got it. You win. You know, but what, I mean, dad said that during the war, during the genocide of our people,

so you have to realize that in the mountains of Laos, there's about 300,000 Hmong people that lived there. Through the genocide of the Hmong people after the war in 1975 there, about 55,000 Hmong people were killed, just slaughtered.

So think about that. 55,000 to 60,000 Hmong people killed and there was about 300,000 people there. And he said, he got so bad that the 18 clans came together and said, we can't fight anymore about which clan should be the number one. We have to unite. And if we don't unite, our children will never be free. They will live in war. And dad said that they made this commitment. The 18 clans made this commitment to each other. He says, no more will we fight. We have to come together. And I always say that if you want to know our food,

you have to know our story, right? And it's kind of what you were asking me. And I always say that our cultural DNA is intricately woven into the foods that we eat as Hmong people. And I asked my mom, what's the best way to describe Hmong people to people who have, or Hmong food to people who haven't eaten Hmong food before? And she said, balance. Because you look at Hmong food, we have four basic element always on the table. There's a rice, there's some kind of protein, there's a vegetable,

and sometimes that vegetable is in a broth, and then there's a hot sauce. And she said, out of all those four element on the table, one is never better than the other because we need all of them together to make this complete meal. So I always get asked, what's your favorite mung dish?

I'm like, I can't talk about, you know, the grilled pork that my dad taught me how to make to grill over a fire. I can't talk about that without talking about the sticky rice. Well, I can't talk about the sticky rice unless I'm talking about the guac, which is, you know, the pepper sauce. And man, the mung mustard green we have that, you know, that the mom grows in her garden has this bite that cuts through the porkiness and the fattiness of the pork. So you need that too. So I can't talk about one dish. It's all about a combination of one.

And, you know, in the last few years of me being able to do the show feral for outdoor and being able to meet all these different people, I've really learned that the mung mentality, when it comes to life and food, it's basically conservationism. It is this idea that everything's on a balance. It's an ecosystem. If one thing goes wrong, like for example, like if the sticky rice,

Yaa knows what I mean. If the sticky rice is not on the table, it's like, you don't start eating. It's like, nah, man, we need the rice there first. You gotta hold off. Yeah, we used to forget about putting the pepper, the hot sauce sauce on there and my mom would stop dinner and we would quickly make it and then put it on the dinner before it comes together and it's this idea that this is this is an ecosystem everything needs to work and that's what i think about monk's food and when i talk about the

philosophy of monk food that's what i'm talking about you know so in the most in the most basic sentence level way yeah how do you what would you say like what is mung food yeah so i always say that mung food isn't a type of food it's a philosophy of food okay you know and what is that philosophy it's the philosophy that we live in a living world around us and using the living world around us to make a food that nourishes our soul and brings our community together. And so the great thing about Hmong food, and this is what I love, and I'll get pushback from some of the hardliners,

is that Hmong food is not, it's represented of what regions we're in. So we're scattered all around. Did you know that in 1980, 600 Hmong people resides in Missoula? I knew that. Yeah, they still live there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They dominated the farmer's market.

Absolutely. Because we are people of the ground. I feel like a French person that lives in the French countryside, I said, what is traditional French food? They could say the sentence you just said. Absolutely. There's got to be another way to describe Hmong food.

What I talk about with Hmong food is that like our story is involved in it. So for example, my dad always said to me, no matter where you are in the world, wherever you go, if you find another Hmong person there, you always find family. So kind of what we talked about in the beginning, right? Like, yeah, if I go to Idaho somewhere and I see another Hmong family, I'm like, whoa, what's up? But we share that same history, right? That's what happens when you don't have a country of your own, right? And so I would say that

if you want to talk about flavor profile, our flavor is representative of Southeast Asia. So, you know, you got your lemongrass, you got your gingers, you got your, you know, garlic, you know, a lot of, you know, you're kind of like the weird cousin to like Lao Thai, Vietnamese food, you know, a little bit of that. But I think that if you really want to get to know Hmong food, you have to of the weird cousin to like lao thai vietnamese food you know you know a

little bit of that but i think that what if you really want to get to know monk food you have to know the among people regionally because there's people that live out in fresno california there's people that live in boca raton there's people that live in low rock arkansas you know so they're there are you do you see manifestations of like where the where those regions have bled into the culinary tradition absolutely because the thing i wanted to ask you about is when your folks like because your folks grew up in proximity no doubt to raising food and sourcing food um all of a sudden you wind up on another continent just just the climatic with gardening food that's available right uh you had, they had to have been forced in some way to lean, right? To lean into this whole new way of trying to achieve something that made sense to them.

Absolutely. From an ingredient standpoint, right? Absolutely. And I love the fact that they did because it's about advancing our people. You know, so in April, I got a chance to go back to Laos. And I actually, I was with a production crew. We did this, you know, we filmed this little doc series. And I actually went to the village that my mom was born in.

Okay. And I found out that I have a hundred years of our family lineage comes out of that village. And I went to the exact same spot. Are there still Hmong in that village? Oh, yeah, yeah. They came back after the war. Oh, I see. Yeah.

So the Hmong people couldn't escape. They just came back and lived in the mountains. And they just kept quiet. So I'm here in this village. And I'm standing on the... What's the name of the village? I think it's Ban San right now. Because it didn't have a name.

But the government named it with the... There's this little river that comes by. And so they named it Ban. Ban in Laosian and Lao means village of, you know. Okay. So San is the name of the river. And it's in the mountains.

And when I say it's in the mountains, like you're in a car, you're in a four-wheel drive car, you're driving through the treacherous mountain for about, I don't know, you're about three, four hours to get there, you know.

There's nothing up there, you know. And there's, you know, people that live up there. And I remember standing on the plot of land where the house that my mom was born in the little hut. You're kidding me. Yeah, dude. And, and, and to find out that it was a hundred years, like my great grandmother was a shaman in that village too, you know? So like, it's like our families connected to that village.

So your mom had to, she had to explain like here, there. No, my mom wasn't there with me. It was like another cousin of theirs that lived in uh in panzerman and in laos that kind of took me up there and says hey we found yeah it was it was kind of like one of those things i'm a late processor i don't know about you guys but like i was just like okay cool like this is cool and then i remember flying back from uh uh from you know we flying back it's like 30 hour flight back and i'm like just sitting in my plane seat and i'm just like tearing up and i, and I'm just starting to tear up. And I'm like, what's going on?

What's going on? And it starts hitting me like, dang. And mom's never been back there ever. In almost 70-some years, she was born there. And they had to escape right away. They had to leave because it was like – And so I was standing there, and I'm watching all of this and I go, wow. Other people, there's people living there.

Yeah, there is. People living in that spot. Yeah. And, and I was watching the way that they make the food and stuff and man, it still carries a little bit of like, there's these flavor tones and these notes that still carry. But if you go to those villages, their technology is barely past the bronze age for real like you go in it's just all like you know they it's very very primitive but the way they do things i loved it you know because i'm watching them do things and i'm like bro i'm like bringing that technique back

like that and i felt like you know i've never been to laos before right but i felt like the best way i explained it was it was like going to a home that you never been to, but you still feel at home there. Yeah. So that's how I felt up there. I was like, dude. And it was, you know, seeing your own people there. And it was funny because like, I'm a bigger dude.

So I don't look like most Hmong kids, you know? Oh, is that right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. So a lot of times, like I was there, they didn't think I was Hmong because the crew we were with had Lao, Thai, and, you know, like white people people and so they were just like they just thought i was one of the other helpers and i started speaking among them and they're like what you know and i i'm

was it clear to them you know yeah i don't know if yeah if you deal with this but like i get like i i work with like a lot of non-mung people so when i do speak mung i go when i go home right you know with mom and dad and then i'll speak m. But I don't speak Hmong daily a lot. And I was really nervous. I was like, shoot. Because the OGs up there, man, they will wreck you if your Hmong is like, if your Hmong isn't good or if you have the wrong accent. They're like, dude, you're a stupid kid.

Don't even say that stuff to me. You know, Yanni says something similar about, we had a conversation recently where the Latvians in America police the Latvian. Then you go to Latvia, they just want to talk English. Yeah, yeah. Because they want to practice English. It's rough. And when I got there, there was something inside of me. I don't know if it was like flight or flight inside of me that I started just speaking Hmong.

And I did some of the translation part of the show. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm actually doing a lot better than I am. Can you give us a sense of what Hmong sounds like? I don't know. It's weird. Can you just say some stuff? Just to give a sense of what the language sounds like for people. I'm guessing most people have not heard Hmong. Yeah. If you want to talk about the white

people at the table with y'all, we can. That's fine. I'm hearing a bunch of white people talking about the Hmong. I don't even know how to start it. It's so weird. I don't know. I'll just say it. I don't know how to start it. I don't know how to start it.

I don't know how to start it. I don't know how to start it. I don't know how to start it. I don't know how to start it. I don't know how to start it. I don't know how to start it. I don't know how to start it. How much overlap is there with

I'm a little ignorant on the language structure Is there a Laotian? There's Laotian Is that the native language is called Laotian? Yeah, Lao Is there a lot of overlap or not a lot of Laotian? There's a few words They're like distinct

So for example, the word burrito is not an English word, right? Sure. It's a Spanish word, but it's part of the English language. We say burrito, burrito, right? You can play it and scrabble. Yeah. Yeah. But in Hmong words, there's a few words that I wouldn't say overlap, but it's like art

just because our cultures like are right with each other. They, they use different words. Like when I was in Laos, bathroom. And Hmong word is hona. That's bathroom. But for the Lao word is honam. You know? So it's like a little bit of accent.

That would be an example of a similarity. Yep. You know, yeah, so stuff like that. Or the word go, like pai. Pai.

Pai. That's, like I've learned that was, that's Thai. Yep. Got it. word go, like, that's, that's like, I've learned that that was, that's Thai. Yep. Got it. So Thai, Lao, you know, and even, even a little bit of Vietnamese, like they share, like culinary wise, they all kind of share the same kind of word, right? Even a little bit of Chinese, you know, like the steamed bun, you know, like the Chinese steamed bun is called Bao, but the, the, the Lao, Thai and Hmong version of it is called Bao. Oh, okay. Because you have the word Bao at the end, you know like the chinese steam bun is called bao but the the the lao tai and mung version of it is kalabao you know because you have the word bao at the end you know so so like

there's all these little like you know i don't want to say that they're crossovers but there's like you you you pull from each other right again like like my my example is always the word burrito when i tell sometimes i told this guy once the burrito isn't no no that's like an american word i'm like bro burrito is not an american word okay and i like i had to burrito. He's like, no, no, that's like an American word. I'm like, bro, burrito is not an American word, okay? And I had to explain to him. He's like, what? I always thought it was an American thing. I'm like, stop.

I'm like, stop, you know? But, you know, kind of like that. Could you guys understand Thai? No, I don't speak Thai. No, no, no. And, you know, growing up, like, yeah, you grow up. I grew up. Hmong is its own totally different language.

And our language has eight tones to it. So our language is completely tonal, right? So here's a funny one I always tell people. So when you don't know something. This isn't related to the number of clans. No, no, tones in your language. So, for example, like, when I say, I don't know. Like, you know, the word I don't know is guccipo.

You know, but if you do it with the, it's gucci ball, you know, but if you do it with the wrong tone, gucci ball, which means I smell like fart. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah.

Farts. Yeah. Uh, it's so, so it's like that. So it's like when, when I have white friends, what a minefield,

man, dude, like when I learn the language, the thing is when you have white friends, like teach me a mongla phrase. And I'm like, okay, but if you say it in the wrong tone, you're going to totally say something horrible.

Like, what do you mean? And then it's always like, it sounds the same, right? And I'm like, no, dude, you just said you smell like fart. Yeah, Steve, the written form of the Hmong language wasn't actually created by a Hmong person. It was created, it was founded by a French priest. Yeah. So he came into, and I shared this a little bit when I was first here, he came into, um, that,

that region, worked with the Hmong, understood the language, learned the language and came up with the written version of it in the early. Using English letters. Yes. Using English letters. And tried to dance around the tone issue. Oh, he figured a way to. Oh he letters. And tried to dance around the tone issue. Oh, he figured a way to, he found, he figured a way to, to, to capture the

tones and he created this in the early forties. Yeah. You just add a lot more words. Uh, clarifying. Yeah. By which I mean, well, like what, what was incredible with what he did when he took our language from an oral history to a written history is he didn't realize what he did was he changed history for our people. So in our culture, everything's oral, right? So it's like you tell a story and the next person tells that story and they have to keep it to exactly the T, right?

You can't divert from it. Because for us, like, for example, like my father would always tell us like two, like two fathers making a deal it was you just said it you have people witness to say it and then you shook your hand and that was it it wasn't like we write a contract then we sign it out so in our culture our your word means everything being a man of honor being a person of honor being a person integrity that means everything you keep to your word you say i'm gonna be here on tuesday to help you i'm gonna be here on tuesday help you. There's no contract that needs to be done. That's our culture. When the French priest came in and said, Hey, I'm going to put this into written form. He changed our world because before the way that we would tell our history is you

hand it down from generation to generation. One father talks about his father that who taught them a story from his father, right? Our elders right now, they are elders that are in the seventies and eighties that are passing away there. They are our historical archives inside their minds, hold our history as they are passing away. Our history is going with them.

So there's a project that we're, I'm working on saying, how do we record this? How do, how do we write these things down? How do we film this? How do we record this? Because the idea of just writing something down for our people was so brand stinking new in the fifties. It's not going to adequately capture it.

Yeah. But what it does is you were able to record history. Like for example, my father, when he came to this country, he had to make up a birthday because he didn't know when he was born. So he chose January 1st is his birthday. A lot of- Just the first date that came to my mind. Well, a lot of, if you look at a lot of refugees and immigrants from Southeast Asia at the

time, January 1st is what they use because it was the most simplest, like, hey, this is the day, you know? And then he was asked to give a signature, but they're going off the Gregorian calendar and not the lunar calendar, but they just knew that it was a day. They just did that because, because of the NGO workers that were in these refugee camps,

it goes, well, January 1st, that's the first of the year. I got it. And so that's what they did. I mean, and then it was,

then he had to learn how to sign his name. And by, at the point, because he didn't have to, but now when he signed his name on those documents, like it was literally what he said was the, the NGO worker wrote out my dad's name in cursive. And then my dad put a paper on top and he traced it. So dad had to learn how to write in English. The first thing he wrote was his name. To sign his name on those documents for our family to come here, it changed the course of history for his family and changed the course of history for me.

So to me, writing is very important. And how it preserves our culture, that's very important. Because anytime we need information, what can we do? We go on our phone and we, you know. I don't second think, like reading, I don't think much about it. It's like, we can do it. We go on our phone and we, you know, I don't second think like reading. I don't think about much about it. It's like, oh, I read. My parents can't read English and they can't speak English.

And so growing up, when we went to doctor's visit, eight-year-old Yia had to be the translator. So I would imagine. Oh, really? Yeah. Imagine how awkward it is as you go into the doctor's office and you have to translate about your mom's health issues somewhere on her body to the doctor. And then the doctor had to tell you these other things about some infection, whatever. And then you had to explain that at his eight-year-old.

We did that growing up. That's what we did. And I just thought that was normal. But it's incredible about like the reading and writing and how that changed the course of history for our people i purposely text my dad in mung just to to keep up with uh you know the the reading and the writing i learned because i learned how to read and write it is there a mung keyboard on an iphone uh no we're gonna talk because it uses we'll talk to apple about that yeah it uses the f you know the regular you know alphabet and so

if you know the eight tones also the monk there's no mong elf there's no no no no no the french is all phonetic yeah it's all english letters it's not phonetic because if i wrote some stuff out here and you read it you it wouldn't it'd be gibberish right so if you didn't know kind of the conventions of the language in order to use the alphabet. So it's using the letters as symbols, but it's not phonetic. It's not phonetic, but you're using the letters as indicators of, you know, like, for example, the last letter in the word. If I wrote out a word, the last letter indicates what tone you're supposed to say that word in. Okay, let me hit you with

this you see i'm using this this conventional qwerty keyboard or whatever i'm using like these letters the the english alphabet and i put down a okay and you see a what do you see when you see a in with your mung brain that's a not that's not a mung word yeah then okay but i'm saying the letter uh i i guess i would go with um i i would start it would start out as kind of phonetic so i would say um you're trying to get ah yeah ah oh okay yeah yeah all right i thought you meant maybe that they were it doesn't matter what i thought i thought you meant that it they were, it doesn't matter what I thought. I thought you meant that they use these symbols, but assign them totally different meanings.

No, no. No, I think it's like if you wrote out dog, but then at the end of dog, there was an S, and then you wrote out dog, and then there might've been an R, you might say dog one way, that means one thing with the S, and then you might say dog with R a different way.

He's right. Something else. And then don't forget that in the Hmong language, we also have two dialects, too. Yes, correct. Eight tones, two dialects. Well, sometimes three, because if you like the Hmong Yalana,

they have their own dialect, too. Then the Hmong Shua, they have their own dialect, too. Yeah, but basic Hmong, there's two dialects. You have your white and your green, or blue. Because the Hmong word for green and blue is the same word. Jua, there's two dialects. You have your white and your green, you know, or blue. Because the Hmong word

for green and blue is the same word. Jua, which means blue and green. I got a couple questions. Okay, here we go. Just putting that out there before we get too late.

Well, no, I'll tell you what I was going to ask. You just weave this in. I was going to ask, when you went to that village, did they have air guns and did they hunt and whatnot?

Oh, yeah. No, no, Yanni's got questions. You want to go there? No. I was going to have you throw it into the mix. Oh, real quick one about birthdays. Mm-hmm. whatnot on yeah oh no yanni's got questions you want to go there no i was gonna have you throw it into the mix oh real quick one about birthdays like prior to having a birthday or like picking a

date did they celebrate some sort of version of our birthday like did the mong celebrate that before being americans annual milestone of some sort yeah that. Yeah, that's a good question. Go ahead, Bo. I would say, even if they did, it probably wasn't like how we do it here. No big cake? Yeah, it's a big deal. Candles. No cake and candles. The mountains of Laos,

candles aren't like the number one priority to buy. It's like, oh, hey, we have 30 cents. Candles. That's where we're going. And you know, for the longest time i you know i i would say that i don't even know my true birth date right it was kind of just something that was given to me right and so and so they kind of go by oh actually if you you ask our parents they'd be like oh yeah you were born in this time frame it's like a guess the same thing with my mom you don't my mom. You don't know your actual date.

Like job application time or school application. He's got a government birthday. I have one, but is that really truly the day? You know if you were born in the spring or the fall. Yeah, it's more like a guess. It's like, yeah, this. It's really funny, though. This is exactly like talking to my mother.

She'll be like, well, you're born in calving season. I'll be like, yeah. Calving season. Yeah. Well, you know, it's like the harvest season. You know, like Steve was fishing walleye when you were born or something. I don't know. Right.

Yeah, that's awesome. I do want to hear about like the proteins, like the cooking side. So not a lot of fish. I guess specific to your region. It depends. Oh, like for our restaurant? Or like just for Hmong food in general? I guess Hmong food in general.

No, it depends. You know, I think that a lot of our people are mountain people. So it's what you get from the mountains, you know. And then, you know, if there's streams and stuff like that, you get, you know, little fish, you know, and stuff like that. But it's not, you know, we're not, we're not like, you know, we're not in the lowlands by, you know, the ocean. So it was like, like, so the idea of shrimp and different kinds of octopus and stuff like that and crabs and, you know, that's really later on, you know, because that's kind of

like the high life. Like, and when I say in the mountains, dude, I'm talking about like the reason why why in 1980 there's 600 among people that ended up in missoula was like they love the mountains because they just want to be left alone that's like our people has been like we want to be left on we want to be farmers that's all we want to do and so for them to for for them it was like when if you go to a city it was like back in you know back in the day my mom's times they were said it would be like a five to six hour walk that you would just trek down the mountain. And then you, you know, you sell some vegetables, you get enough money to buy salt, and then you just trek back up and you'll use that salt, you know, and then it's like, when you get down there, you're like, whoa,

you see these shrimp and crab. And it's like, wow, just to have one would be incredible, you know? And so, but again, a lot of that changes with our people changing, you know, as some people came down from the mountain and started living in the lowlands. And then even us being here in America, you know, and, you know, I mean, I love seafood and, you know, but normally you don't, you don't see that. It's, you know, it's a heavy pork, a lot of small games and a lot of vegetables, a lot of broth, you know, a lot of soup, a lot of stew. And if you want to go old school, I mean, it's a lot of the meat is actually jerky to basically, you know, like they, they, they, they season it real hard and then they hang it and they have a

fire inside. They hang it. And it was so cool to be in these villages and see them still using this technique and they hang it from the top and they dry it. And then you take the meat out when you're done. And what the meat really is, is it's a flavoring to your soups and your stews oh yeah she's conservatively absolutely yeah did you still see some uh did you still see some hunting going on when you went back oh absolutely yeah

yeah we were hunting like these like little small squirrels and you know uh lizards you know like monocle lizards and it's just anything that the jungle provides you know and that's like that's the thing i love about being mung and that's what was the hunting deliberate meaning like you were going out or was just that you would encounter stuff throughout the day of raising your crops and traveling around so again i in every culture it's like the idea was like hey boys you want to go okay cool let's go you know and so like sometimes it's literally like hey let's go out or a lot of times dude one of my favorite scenes where we went

was, they weren't Hmong, they were Lao, but there were like five or six of them. They have scuba gear and they had a little gear set and they jump in the river

with little spear guns and they would go spear, like in the river, they go and they would go spear little tilapias. And they came out and they freaking look like a bunch of Navy SEALs

coming out of the water. And these little, like, you know, these Lao kids and they all have little spear bunch of Navy SEALs coming out of the water. And these little Lao kids. And they all have little spear guns and then just fish on the other hand. And it was the most B.A. scene ever, standing on the river. And I'm like, man, you would kick the crap out of any American kid. I'm like, if North Korea ever attacks, I want you on our team. And so, I mean, that's what it is.

It's a lot of times when you're growing up, especially with the boys, it's like, you go out with dad, you go out with your uncles, you learn. They have little like snares and stuff they set up, you know, and then, you know, you follow grandpa and you go and grab the snare and say, oh, look, they got a squirrel today or whatever, you know. And yeah, and so it was just part of the repeat. I mean, like we went and we even caught bats, you know, and so we ate bats and people were, you know, freaked out. They're like, they're like oh why would you do that i'm like you have to understand we don't

have a whole foods out here like we have a whole jungle and you just get what the jungle provides for you how they catch how they target bats uh so you figure like they figure out a bat cave you know um and and then uh during the night the bats will fly out. And so like 6.30, the bats fly out and they just put up a big net and just catch all the bats in there. Coming back into roost? Well, when they're leaving. They're catching them as they leave. Yeah, sorry.

Yeah, they just leave. And then they come back at like 6 in the morning. So it's like you know that it's like a million of them and you put on that and they get all caught. And then you braise them and you eat them. Just braise the hair right off of them oh well they throw it over the fire to kind of char the hair off and then they don't cut it out you know there's no you know whatever and then guts it all right into the pot and then and then you they stick it in the bamboo actually and they so they season it with like garlic ginger you know you know and all that stuff and they put it in a bamboo and they close the

bamboo off with you put it in there like a container. The bamboo. Yeah. Like, yeah, as a container. And then they put a little water in there and then it, that becomes a steaming vessel and they throw that water over the fire. So bamboo is like.

Oh, that's awesome. Dude, like cooking inside a bamboo is like, by the way, that's going to be the thing where we want to try to do to just like, I don't know. I mean, it's just an old school way of cooking when you really got to know how to do it. But like my father was telling me about it, where it's like, I don't know. I mean, it's just an old school way of cooking, but you really got to know how to do it. But like my father was telling me about it,

where it's like, basically the bamboo itself is, it's a vessel and it's, bamboo is just water and moisture. So you put, you know, your meat in there and then you close the end off with banana leaves and you just stuff it and you throw it right on the fire and just keep turning it and it just braises inside.

Problem with that shit is, I brought a bunch of that home uh our buddy clay he's got a bunch of bamboo in his yard i brought a bunch home but it's cool but as soon as it dries out just cracks to hell yeah yeah so you're gonna need a steady supply yeah and it's really funny you won't be able to have you won't be able to have one down in north carolina north carolina there's a bunch of monk people that live down there uh they uh planted bamboos in the back of their yard and now it's like invasive there yeah and so they're just cutting down if you i got some cousins down there you call them they'll just send you a bunch up okay yeah yeah green bamboo real fresh oh yeah what was your earliest experience uh in in uh how old were you when you came to the u.s

uh i was like four and a half. So I'm assuming that they, that, that your people, they didn't hunt and fish in the refugee camp just because of the nature of the camp. Right. They did too. Oh,

really? You could, they could go as they please within a certain limit. Kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah,

yeah. I mean, it was, it's a huge, so, so you got to realize that that refugee camp held from 75 to 92 held 90,000 people. So it's like, it's a city.

Yeah. And it was big. And there wasn't like, here, here's the borders. Here's the wall. It was just like, you know, you can go into the jungle and you can hunt and you can do things. There were people that were, they had gardens and, you know, they were, you know, people that were selling stuff in there too.

So, yeah. Then when you, in the U S what was your earliest your earliest exposure to hunting here in the U.S.? My parents, like, hunt. My aunts and uncle, or, you know, my uncles and them hunt. And so it was, you know, when deer season came around and, you know, like, we always had a deer, you know, one or two. Yeah. And the cool thing about the moon culture, and yeah, you can contest to this, is, like, the way that it works in our family, because I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin. It was all cousins, right?

Uncles and them all living around there. And if one of them got a deer, no matter the time of the day, like if it was like nine o'clock, we got a deer, they call and then our whole family would just go over there and everybody just breaks it down. And then we just make a meal out of it. Oh, really? Oh yeah, dude. Like I didn't understand.

I didn't know that you can get the deer process. I was just like, wait, what? Like you pay someone else to process your deer. I'm like, don't you guys just do process. I was just like, wait, what? Like you pay someone else to process your deer? I'm like, don't you guys just do it? And they're like, no, why? Or, you know, and it's just like, it was always like, and when I got into the food world, everyone was like, oh, nose to tail cooking, man.

That's the cool thing. Nose to tail cooking. I'm like, do we call that a Tuesday at our house? Like that was an everyday thing. You know, and so it was normal. It was normal growing up. You know, we didn't go to the grocery store for pork. Like we went to an Amish farm and then like picking lobster, dad goes, that one.

And then he, you know, and then he does his thing to it. And then we all kids was like, okay, everyone grab a knife and then we help break it down. You know? And I was like, I didn't, I didn't grow up playing basketball, didn't go to basketball camp or, you know, throwing, learning how to throw a baseball. This is what I did. And I thought it was normal. I thought it was like every kid did this. I remember the day I found out that

wait, you can just buy pork at the grocery store. All chopped up. Yeah, like what? It blew my mind in college when I figured that out. That's amazing. I love that. At what point did you think that you were going to get into the food biz, like the restaurant biz? Did it seem like a lot of obstacles?

No, I, I, I was always, so I, I'm a, uh, I'm a, like, if I touch it with my hand, I can understand it better. I'm not, you know, my, my brothers and sisters are super academic. They're really smart. They're incredible. But for me, I was like, I'll read a book and I'm like, duh, I don't know what happened here. You know?

But like, if you put stuff in front of me and says, hey, break down this chicken and I'm going to show you where the joints are. Or they're like, hey, this is how we break down a deer or this is how we break down a rabbit. My dad would show me. He'll break it up and goes, here are the joints you need to cut. Here are the four cuts. And I'm like, oh, cool. And it made sense to me. I didn't like – my parents didn't want me to cook because they felt that that was

a very hard job. You know, my father said to me, he said, we came to this country so that, uh, you can sit, I want you to sit in a nice office somewhere and signing people's checks. Doctor or lawyer. Doctor or lawyer. That was it. That was your choice. Doctor, lawyer, or some kind of business person.

We heard that we had a, had a South Vietnamese dude explain that. He said, you're either a doctor or a lawyer. You're not my kid. And I remember as a kid growing up. Yeah, three choices. Yeah, and as a kid growing up, I hated that. I was like, oh, frick. I'm not smart enough to do this.

And I remember this actually hit me probably about three or four years ago. And I realized what my father was saying because he would always be like, I don't want your hands and your knees to hurt like mine. Because my dad was a carpenter. He was a welder. He built homes, you know. And he goes, I don't want this for you. He goes, I take the pain so you would never have to.

And as a kid, you didn't understand that. You're like, whatever, dad. As an adult, like, it, like, he always said, my dad always say, don't be like me. I'm dumb. Yeah, I want you to be smarter than me. I want you to be better than me. And I get super emotional about this. But, like, I remember I was cooking at this grill out, and it was huge.

It was a long day, and my hands were all sooted up from the you know from cutting all day and from working the fire and my hands are just like tired and my knees are tired in that moment i was like i feel the closest to my father where i'm like i am you and i want to be you you know like like he's a great man. He's like a hero. And I'm just, and I get what he was saying. Like, I get what he was saying. He's like,

I don't want you to be like me because I'm dumb, but I'm like, no man, like everything that's good about you, integrity, honor, how to be a man. Like I learned that from you.

How to butcher meat. I learned that from you. I want to be like you. And that's why I love being a cook. Cause. Right. And you're like, how can those things be bad?

Dad? Right. Yeah. But all he wants is like, as any refugee and immigrant is like, I want what's better. Like you guys are fathers. You get it.

You want to set up a life that's better for your children that you had. You want, you don't want them to go through pain and struggle. And I get it. And when I was young, I was dumb. I didn't get that. I was just like,

what dad doesn't care. Now it's like, yeah, like I i i love working the field with him i love breaking down animals with him you know you know i think that a thing that he's probably thinking about too is that like if he knew that you could do if he knew that you could work with your hands and, like, be around heat and struggle, but then find some level of security, it would have been different. But he's probably associating, he's associating labor and struggle with struggle. Yeah. And not labor and struggle with some sort of success and security. Yeah, because. You know what I'm saying?

Because you could probably do, I bet you now, like now he probably looks at you and he's probably proud as shit. Yeah. You know, it was one of these things where we did this event and the lieutenant governor came by and gave me this little award and whatever. And it was like, he said, um, he said something along the lines of like, I live in a world now where my son can speak and leaders will listen to him. And like in our culture, that's huge. And I, and, and it's not like I don't ever believe that my dad was never proud of me,

but in that moment he said, I think he even said to me, he goes, I'm sorry. I just didn't know what you do yeah you took an unexpected pathway like you took a really unexpected pathway to get to somewhere that made sense to him because what made sense to him was just that you that you knew how you were going to eat you knew how you were going to take care of yourself you knew how you were not going to struggle yeah and not be under someone's thumb. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And so it's like, it's very different now, but man, like I said, you know, and even with Korean, we were talking to our pre-production, we were talking about this and I was just like, dude, my life was pretty simple.

Like it, it is what I do is I get to speak on their legacy. So about five years ago, my dad had a horrible accident from work or five, six years ago. And he was in the ICU and he fell. He shattered his skull. Doctors, like, we don't know what's going to happen. And I remember I just started this whole food stuff. And, you know, we were getting some, you know, some push and people were like really excited. And at that point, it was like, hey, man, this is new kid.

He's making monk food, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. And I remember visiting him in the ICU. It's my dad's my hero, man. Like he's a freaking's a fricking warrior, right? He fought a war. Like he, like I thought to myself, I remember holding his hand at the, in, in the intensive care unit. And I just thought to myself, this is not how warriors die. This is not how heroes die. They either die on the battlefield in a great fight, or they die as an old man around like all their grandkids and all the people around them. Like they don't die by slipping on a stupid ladder at work you know and and and fracturing their skull on a job that they didn't ever need to be in right and i was so pissed at myself i'm like

what the frick dude and i remember driving back it was like three hour drive and they were in marshville wisconsin at that time and i was driving back to minneapolis and i just thought to myself my life's got to change man like i can I can't, it can't be about, oh, we're going to make this stuff to be about Hmong food. No, man, it's going to be about their legacy. And because we have to, why do we always wait for people to pass away to talk about them, to talk about how great they were, you know, like why not now? Why not when they can see it? And so, man, life is pretty simple for me. Now we get to travel the country. We get to make food for thousands of people through our restaurant, through events we do around the country where at the end, like we talk about Hmong food, but at the

end, I can take that story back. And I'm like, I want you to tell you, I want to tell you guys about this legacy that means so much to me. And, and for me, one of the things that I really love doing, that's why I think that it really shows in hunting. Right. And I think in hunting, it's about legacy, right? It's about like, Hey, if there's this piece of land that belonged to my great, great grandfather that was passed down, passed down, we can hunt in it. We can enjoy it. Our kids, kids can enjoy it. And it was one of those things where it becomes this initiative of mine.

You know, my parents have always worked these gardens and there's all the property is always rental. And so it's like, yep. My, one of my goals is I'm going to buy them a garden. I'm going to buy them a piece of land. That's like in their name. The LLC is in their name. Yeah.

So that before they pass away, before the Lord takes them away, like they have a piece of land that's like in their name. The LLC is in their name. Yeah. So that before they pass away, before the Lord takes them away, like they have a piece of paper that says, this is yours, you know? And so that's kind of another initiative where I'm really passionate about, you know, because that's all they want to do. And so, yeah. So we, again, I get to do all that and that's why I get excited about it, especially when we talk about monk food. Hey, folks.

Exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada. And boy, my goodness, do we hear from the Canadians whenever we do a raffle or a sweepstakes. And our raffle and sweepstakes law makes it that they can't join. Whew. Our northern brothers get irritated. Well, if you're sick of, you know, sucking high and titty there, OnX is now in Canada. The great features that you love in OnX are available for your hunts this season.

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Some of our favorites are First Light, Schnee's, Vortex Federal, and more as a special offer you can get a free three months to try on x out if you visit on x maps.com slash meet on x maps.com slash meet welcome to the to the on x club y'all when uh to to get into the food business did you have to go cook someone else's food before you could do mung food or just get right into mung food absolutely i did not want to cook mung food because i was super embarrassed about it because i was super embarrassed oh my gosh yeah i was just like you know what food did you think you had to make to be legitimate uh i didn't think i had to make a certain food i just had to be good at cooking. Yeah. You know, I mean, I mean like cooking is, it's basic, right? It's like, you know, it's like breaking down an animal.

If it's, it's a four legged creature, it's, they're all basically the same kind of, you know, breaking down the parts. So, so my whole thing was I was decent. Like I was never, I don't think I was ever a good cook. I was just fast enough to keep up with the tickets that came in. And I was the only one, I remember I started cooking. I was the only one that lived like kind of like a straight life, you know? So like, so my chefs are always like, dude, I just know that tomorrow you'll get a seven

or at, you know, on Saturday at 10 a.m. You're going to come in and you're not going to be like in jail or hungover or whatever. So, so they just- They respected that. Yeah, they just like, dude. And that's what I tell any young kid who wants to get into food or any kind of work. I'm like, just show up, bro. If you show up like, oh, these kids I got today, Steve,

I'm gonna tell you. I just say, show up, just show up. And my old mentor of mine, Mark Brockberg from college would always say, he used the acronym FAT, F-A-T, faithful, available, teachable. Show up and be faithful, available, and teachable. And that's just what I did. And it wasn't like a strategy. It was just like, that's all I know how to do. faithful, available, teachable, show up and be faithful, available, and teachable, you know? And that's just what I did. And I was, it wasn't like a strategy. It was just like,

that's all I know how to do, you know? And, and eventually I just learned and learned. And, and so what my goal was, whatever kitchen you want to put me in, like, I might not be the best, but I'm going to show up. I'm going to work hard. I'm going to outwork everyone here. And even if it means like, I'm the last one out, I'll be the'll be the last one out and that was and again that was something my father instilled me and i just i didn't realize that at a young age now it's just like you know you see it all these young chefs who comes in and they're like oh look at my 500 life i like oh yeah i want to start my own youtube channel and you're just like okay dude like go peel like 8 000 pounds of potatoes then we'll talk you know it's just like that was that there's that quote that's attributed to one of the guys from leonard skinner um which was learn how to play

your guitar and then get sexy yeah yeah in a restaurant i just go learn how to use a knife and i don't know if you'll ever be sexy but you know so what was the first chance to do like how did it happen that all of a sudden you got to start doing your, you know, your traditional food? Yeah. So I was working through all these different restaurants in Minneapolis. They're incredible restaurants. The chefs are amazing. Like high-end places?

Yeah, yeah. Like fine dining? Yep, yep, yep. And I had this ability to learn from some really, really great teams. And then I was like, okay, well, let's start out with this little pop-up. So we started like a little pop-up and people are like, what's a pop-up? And you're like, I don't know, just come in on Friday and you were open for five hours and just eat.

So we did that. And then we're like, I don't know. And who was showing up? Hmong people. Yeah. Okay. So Hmong people, here's the thing. There's a, you know how there's like.

So they don't mind throwing down some box on food. Well, here's the deal. Here's the, you know how there's like- So they don't mind throwing down some box on food. Well, here's the deal. Here's the deal. You know how there's black Twitter? There's Hmong Facebook. Okay. I didn't know about either of these things. Oh, okay.

Well, yeah, there's black Twitter and there's Hmong Facebook. And let me tell you, the thing with our community, it's a big community, but it's a small community. Y'all know what I'm talking about. If one of your sons went and wronged some other girl from another clan, trust me, his picture will be up. Everybody's going to know. They're like, oh, we know what clan he's come from. Oh, we know what village he lives in or what town he's from.

Oh, yeah, we know his cousin. You will be ratted out so fast in there. So there's Hmong Facebook. Apparently it works for you and against you. Absolutely. So there's Hmong Facebook. Now, as much as- And apparently it works for you and against you. Absolutely. So somehow on Hmong Facebook said, hey, there's this new kid that's doing like Hmong food in East Side St. Paul in this little place called Cook St. Paul. My buddy owned this place.

It was a diner. So it was open in the breakfast and lunch and it was evening, it was closed. And then Friday- So you took over the evenings. Yeah. So once a month, that was it. And I still, and then at that time I was still from Monday, no still from Sunday to Thursday, I was working at Coastal Seafoods. I was a fishmonger. Because I did the birch tree stuff and I'm like, I want to learn more about fish. So I would do fish. I smell like fish all day. And then Friday, Saturday, once, yeah, I want to go start my own business. Like people, like, you know, right now you have all these like, how to be an entrepreneur. That's not me.

I'm like, this is so dumb, you know? And then eventually we were very blessed to have a few media people pick up on it and said, hey, let's talk about this, you know? And then, yeah, that was like seven years ago. But when you first did the pop-up, you had, it was Mung coming. Yes, we had a lot of Hmong coming. But at some point, it just organically caught on with people who just wanted to try new things? Well, in the Twin Cities, Hmong are really well known, you know? So we have a few big shops in there.

Oh, so people there are likely to know the cuisine. Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, 75,000 in the Metro. We are the, you know, largest BIPOC group, you know, in the Twin Cities. So, like, I mean, it's Hmong and Somal are the you know uh largest uh um uh bipoc group you know in the twin city so like they're i mean it's mung and somalians you know and so it's it's huge uh so what happened was uh you know we had some mung people come but then like and this was a while back and this was the beginning oh how do i say this i have this like love hate with quote unquote food influencers, you know? And so this was the beginning of like Instagram food influencing or like quote unquote foodie.

When people say foodie, I'm just like, everyone's a foodie. You eat food, right? There, you're a foodie. Just chill, right? It's a concept that's kind of dying off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. People were real excited about it for a while though. Absolutely, right?

And so we had a few who were just really gracious and they were like, hey, we really love what you're doing. So they just kept following us around and they just kept putting social medias like, hey, like Union Mung Kitchen's here. I was so embarrassed of being mung in the beginning too, bro. Like I'll be honest right here with you guys. It was called Union Kitchen.

I didn't want to put the word mung in there because I didn't want white people to be deterred. Right. And I had a buddy, he was a PR guy. He works for a big PR firm. And he goes,

dude, don't be a chicken, man. He's a white dude, white Jewish dude. He goes, put the word mung on there. And I'm like,

really? Like, is it, do you think he's like, do it. And so for the first like year was just Union Kitchen, Union Kitchen, you know?

And, and, and I, we changed it to Union Mung Kitchen and people were like, yeah, like this is amazing, you know? And so like, I changed it to Union Monk Kitchen and people were like, yeah, like this is amazing, you know? And so like, I, I still went on my own little journey of like, I don't know if people are

going to like this. And again, we were very blessed. And then after a while there was like different, you know, stuff came in and, you know, we were just like hopping. We eventually got this little food trailer at a brewery that we did food out of. But what really helped us was, no joke,

the catering world. Like catering weddings. We catered bar mitzvahs and bar mitzvahs. That was so awesome. Are you serious? This is what I talk about. We always say about food is a universal language we can use to speak to each other. It's amazing. I mean, I think

it's what I love about what you guys do, where it's like we're not just only hunting animal, but we cook it it together and it's just it's like oh i might not be like into the hunting scene but the cooking thing is like dude that's really cool like food has this ability to bring everybody together and so we i we got a call in this uh this person was like you know the saint paul mayor like they i think they were like they knew the mayor of saint paul or something then they're like hey my uh I have a bar mitzvah coming up. And we were like, we can't do pork, obviously, but we'll do everything else. So we're like, okay.

And so we catered a bar mitzvah. And then through the Jewish community, they heard about it. And then another Jewish family is like, yeah, can we do a bar mitzvah for us? I'm like, sure. And we were in a synagogue. We were like a nationless people. Bring them on. Yeah. I I'm like we are kind of weird cousins let's do this

you guys don't do pork we do beef what's up they try to run you off we even had inquiries for quinceañeras too and like I kid you not and that's kind of where we were and we went from like women's prayer group brunches from Lutheran churches.

I kid you not, gentlemen. Making quiche and French toast. I'm like, okay, I'm down. This was like wild bag where it's like 400 bucks. Yes, that's gold. Let's do it. We went from that to bar mitzvahs, bar mitzvahs. And then we had big events.

And then Melvin Carter, who is the first african-american mayor in uh saint paul when he won and he had his big bash party they called us and they hey we love you come and do the food and so we like the catering in the private catering scene where you know where i was talking about like that's kind of where we started you know and that's kind of it wasn't because people always ask me like who's your marketing person like where did you guys go to do i'm like bro like i went from door to door catering events i would go all the time and i i felt like uh um what's yeah you know my joke was i felt like a like a lady of the night you know like you would go in and do something special for the client and they tell their friends and then i get a call next time. It was the Johnson's call.

They said, you did that special thing for them. Like, can you do that? I'm like, well, what's the budget? And they'll give me the budget.

I'm like, well, the Johnson's gave me a little more. They're like, yeah, yeah, we'll take care of you. And then you go in and you carry like a few suitcases.

You come in, where do I set up? And you know, you do your thing and then you leave and you paid and you shower and you feel better in the next day kind of deal. You know, that's how we started. And I even went, I did like a bachelorette parties too like that was one of the weirdest one

where i did like a private dining uh cooking scene for for but i didn't know it was a bachelorette party i walked in like literally i had like a a few boxes of like the food and stuff i walked in and it's just all women i'm like what's going on like oh yeah i didn't tell you this is my um sister's bachelorette party and we wanted you to do like a private dinner. And I'm like, oh my gosh. You guys know I'm like a cook, right? In these clothes, right? Yeah.

The apron's covering everything, okay? I could do the shirt off, but that's going to be a little extra. So that's how we hustled. And then we were very blessed. The restaurant grew. We brought in more people. We have incredible operators. we grew an executive team and then when it came time to saying hey how do we grow i think one of the next growth path was how do we

expand and build our own restaurant you know going uh our own brick and mortar restaurant that is and you know we have two little guys but to get our big guy we you know i had to go do the song song and pony dance and go to banks and find investors and then that's when it's a gut check you know of like do you really believe in what you're doing because when you stand in front like when you go sit with some of these investors or potential investors who like write like 150 000 checks like you know they're giving out five bucks for you know starbucks or something you gotta like they look at you and like, woo me.

And you, it's a gut check of like, do you believe in this? Do you like, it's like, yeah, you know, and I said, I said to, uh, I get to talk to a lot of among high school kids. And I said, in life, you're going to go around in life and there's going to be these people in your life and they're going to believe in you. And they're going to tell you incredible things about yourself. And I'm like, think of that as equity. And you put in a little piggy bank in your heart. And one day there's going to come you incredible things about yourself. And I'm like, think of that as equity. And you put in a little piggy bank in your heart.

And one day there's going to come a moment in your life. You got to break that piggy bank and take all that equity and you got to go bet it on yourself. And that, I mean, that was like the hardest thing was to go and say, oh, this building project is a million dollar project. And so, okay, okay, we got to go. We got to talk. And when you get in these rooms or these guys who are making million dollar deals for them or like nothing, you know what I'm saying? They need to find out

if you're weak or not. Yes. And that's when you go, do I believe? And that's, you know what I draw from? I don't draw from years confident. I draw from mom and dad.

Like I think about them. I think about all the hard work they put in. Like I think about the war my dad fought. I think about my mom being in that war prison camp for a year

and where she told me that she would pray every morning that God would allow her to die because it was so horrible in that camp that they had to live in. And she said that one day, she said that one day I was praying in the morning. She said, she was this young girl. She said, I was praying and I said, God, will you let me die today? Because I can't take life here anymore. And she said, there was a voice inside my heart that says, I can't let you die because your children is going to change the world. So I need you to hold on a little longer because your children that you've never met, they're going to change the world.

And the day that I was announced as a finalist for the James Beard, she called me and told me that story. Oh, really? Oh, man. I'm like crying. The frying pan. Yeah. Not even the gift from God. No, no.

She kind of just said, today when I heard that you were nominated as one of the best chefs in the country, I knew why. Like, I needed to keep moving on. So I think about all that. She's like, I can't wait to see what your brother does. Yeah.

I mean, if my second pony gets this. Y'all can contest this, man. You can be the most successful whatever in your family, but when you're around your uncles, man, they remind you you're 10 years old. When I freaking, when we have like big parties and grills and I'm standing by my uncles and they're grilling, they're like, let me tell your kid how you do this. And I'm like, you know what I end up doing? I end up becoming the dude who holds the plate for all of them to put the meat on and they're all like,

let me tell you, if you want more people in your restaurant, this is what you do and I'm like, I just want to be like, Uncle, here's the deal, man.

You work at like Anderson Windows, okay? I know where you work at the plant. You've known really cook but apparently, the country has said I'm pretty decent

at what I do but sure, I'm pretty sure you have a secret. Yeah, we can't really overcome the age and the wisdom. Yeah, your uncles, man. It was a high priority point. They make sure they remind you who you are. Yeah, you get reminded.

Yeah, I remember when you were five. Are you guys going to do that to your nephews? No, I will not. Do you know why? Well, I do because at the state level. Don't make the mistake of, I see people, this is not. Do you know what? Well, I do because at the state level. Don't make the mistake of I see people. This is not like cultural. It's just human.

It's human. I see people all the time throw out because of not liking something about their parents or how they were brought up. They throw the whole thing out. I completely understand. Instead of just doing a slight tweak. Yep. up, they throw the whole thing out. I completely understand. Instead of just doing a slight tweak. Yep. No, I do the same thing. My niece and nephew, they work at the State Fair.

We have a stall at the State Fair, and this year they work there. And they're from Wisconsin, so they come up and they stay up with grandma and grandpa for a week, or two weeks, and they work there. And I remember I was harsher on them than the other kids, because I was like, dude, you guys need a double time. Let's go. And I realized, I'm like, oh, dude, I sound like harsher on them than the other kids, you know, because I was like, dude, you guys need a double time. Like, let's go. Yeah. And I realized I'm like, oh dude, I sound like my father.

Like, like when we're working, you know, he's just like, Hey, like I need you to, you know, keep working at it. And I believe in allowing kids to struggle a little bit, you know, when they're working, you know, cause I, I really want to be like, where's the creativity to, you know, figure things out. And I think we worked that with our chefs too, you know, like allow them a little, a little line to, uh, to,

to struggle, you know? Yeah. I'm way more like, I'm way more financially comfortable than I ever thought I would be. And I worry constantly about my kids being too soft all the time, man. You know,

it's like, yeah, you want to over, not overdoing it, but you just worry about them being like, do you have the grr, you know, about them being like do you have the grr you know am i like depriving you of the grr yeah it's a it's a weird thing that it's like this first world problem that you had to think about because when you're you know your dad he didn't

think any other way other than like i don't want my kid to struggle the way i did i need to find him a better place we grew up in a place where life was pretty darn easy in our circumstances, I believe, speaking from most of us here. From a global perspective, real easy. Exactly. Couldn't get easier. And so you have to then think about how are you going to instill

that to your kid because they're not seeing us struggle like the way you saw your dad struggle. But I also think too that one of the things that i love like one of the things i i get to do i love to do is there's a lot of high schools up in the twin cities area that are like you know they have a higher population of monk kids and so i get asked to come in as a speaker and and i and i the thing that i love doing is like i love looking them in the eyes where it's like a big auditorium,

like 300 kids. And you see the group of like 50 monk kids. And I look them in the eyes and I said, Hey guys, I'm like, I'm like to all my like white brothers and sister and friends out there. Like, I'm going to put you guys on pause.

I'm just talking directly to the monk brothers and sisters. And I say, here's the deal. Your, your grandfather and your fathers, they fought a war and they, they, they fought a war and they fought a war that wasn't their war, but they fought it with honor. And then when a promise was made that they would have free passage to America for fighting for America, it was denied for them. They still got

to America and they worked here and they worked for years and years and years to get you where you are. And so anytime you feel like you can't do something or anytime you feel like, oh, I don't think I'm like strong enough. You remember that the blood that pumps through their vein is the same blood that pumps through your heart, you know? And to remember, I mean, I think that that's one of the biggest thing is like, remember where you come from. And for me, that was a big, like big part of, look, man, the restaurant industry isn't easy. It, it sucks, you know? And I was explaining to one of our, uh, one of our workers, uh, or, you know, man, the restaurant industry isn't easy. It sucks, you know? And I was explaining to one of our workers, or one of the kids that work with us,

about how for the restaurant, the profit margin is like 8%. And if you're a really good year, you get 10, you know? And that's like a really good year. And she was like, what do you mean by that? I'm like, so imagine if you did something and you got $100, and all I said is, you can only keep $8.

And she's like, that sucks. I'm like'm like yeah that's the restaurant and it hit her she was like a younger high college kid and she's like oh my gosh really i'm like yeah you know and so so you're like so now let's circle back to the fact that you threw the shanks in the trash or i get people that are like oh it's it's so amazing what you do. I get young mom kids that come up, bless their heart. They're like, I want to be a chef. And I'm like, and I do the Billy Madison scene, you know, where you like you squeeze their face. You know what I'm talking about? Where you're like, don't say that.

Stay where you are. Never grow up. Billy, I want to go to high school too. You know, and that's how I feel. But then again, there is this thing of like, man, there's just something about the grind and the grit that happens in my heart, especially. And that's what, one of the things I love about being Hmong and being able to talk to younger Hmong kids where it's like, you're going to struggle and it's going to suck. So you make, yeah, it's American elbow grease, dude.

Yeah. It's Hmong elbow grease. Yeah. And I don't, and that's my big thing, man. I love talking to people about it where I'm like, this isn't a Hmong thing only. This is a human thing. Yeah. This is a human thing. Like, yeah, you, your Hmong thing only. This is a human thing. Yeah. This is a human thing.

Like, yeah, your parents did great things. Not a universal human thing. Yeah. Select few. Yeah. But do you know what I'm saying? Scattered across the globe. But even what Janus was saying, how you guys are like, hey, you guys, your parents set

you up for a little bit better, but you guys still worked hard to where you are. It wasn't like, okay, now I'm just going to play with all this. No, you guys worked. And then being able to pass that down too you know and i i think that man like we got a little more like yana we got a little bit more you know heads up and more step up you know from where our parents are and you know i don't have any kids but one day you know when i do like well my kids will have a little bit of oh 39 dude married no what's going on there oh Ugh, man. Is your mom and dad bummed about that?

Bro, that's a whole new point. I'm sure he hears it every day. So I'm the only one in my family that's not married. Everyone's married and has kids. My parents have 21 grandkids, so they love it. They love being grandparents. Tell them I'm too busy making you proud. Right.

But in our culture, though, what makes family proud in culture is uh raising a family having a family having lineage having you know so so that's that um every three to four weeks my mom gives me the talk uh i get it and i don't i don't push it away i know that she gets to this point where she's a little older now so she's nervous like i want to instill everything i have to you if if something was to happen when she had some health scare, you know? And so I get it. I listened to it. It's about a 20 minute speech.

It's the same. It's usually on a phone call. I'm driving into work. It's the same one she gives every three to four weeks. And I listen and I say, yes, mom. Yep. Yep. Great.

And then sometimes she'll be like, wait, we have some cousins who have some daughters that are coming to visit from Michigan. They're at the house. Like your dad and I would love some fish so bring some fish over and i'm like i know what you're doing you know and stuff like that but i mean i get it she comes from a good heart you know both of them it comes from a good heart and so i totally get it uh tell us before we wrap up tell us about your show yeah uh you know we got this show called feral it's on outdoor you guys might've heard that channel.

I've heard of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, one of the craziest things was about two and a half years ago, Patrick, one of the producers came

up and goes, Hey, I have an idea, bro. And he calls me up and we've been doing a few TV stuff for like food network. And then we were very blessed to be able to do this thing with Netflix with Iron Chef. And so he's like, I have an idea. It's kind of crazy, but let me pitch it

to you. And he's like, this idea is that you're going to travel crazy, but let me pitch it to you. And he's like, this idea is that you're going to travel the country. You're the host of the show. You travel the country and we find either invasive animals, animals that are destroying

their ecosystem or animals that most people just won't eat. And we're going to go out with a guide. We're going to hunt them and we'll go outside and we'll, you know,

in the area where we hunt them, we set up a grill and we set up a little mini kitchen and you cook out there. And I'm like, the first thing I said to him was I'm like, dude dude this show is so mung it's not even funny the idea that we're just going to go in the wild find some kind of creature hunt them down and cook it i'm like are you freaking kidding me i'm like what if this show like you know at that point we didn't know

if the show would be picked up or not i'm like if this show gets picked up every mung uncle and cousin will be like dude like that's the show and so they uh they said yeah so we ran like a testing and outdoor came back i was dude we won eight episodes as rocket and then in one calendar year they greenlit three three seasons so we just got done filming season three season one was released last fall and then season two will be released in December. How many episodes are you making per release, per season? Eight. Yeah, eight.

And man, I'm a small Wisconsin boy, right? I'm just from Wisconsin. I had this moment where I had this like come to Jesus moment where I'm like, I'm like literally chest deep in chocolate milk water in Oklahoma oklahoma city area uh noodling for catfish and i just thought to myself man if you would have told me this 20 years ago 18 year old kid going off to college go hey one day like you're gonna be doing this cameras around and i was just like college leads to this yeah yeah stay in school kids uh but it was like do you know i'm saying like it was that moment it was like i don you know what I'm saying? It was that moment where it was like, I don't know if you guys ever had that surreal moment

where you're like, whoa, what am I doing here? This is so amazing. And yeah, and then the guide, Nate was like, okay,

now get your hand in there and let's go looking for catfish. I'm like, okay, buddy. You know, yeah, but man,

it's such a- You should talk about some of the critters that are on season one. Oh, yeah. Yeah, season one, we did- Because that whole season's out. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Season one, we did. Because that whole season's out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Season one, we went all out. So we first, wild hogs, that was really, really fun. A Burmese python with a guy named Dusty Crumb. Dusty Crumb, you can find him on the History Channel. And he's got a few other little shows down there. And then we had iguanas which was the iguana was really special for me because I showed my dad I said hey dad we're gonna go hunt iguanas

and he goes oh we used to hunt those as boys oh really yeah in Laos and I'm like really yeah on the trees we see them all the time we hunt them we shoot them and he said that they had these like little 22 guns like like they're like they're like a one loader type thing and it's like it basically it's like a stick you know and it's like and I was thinking to myself how did you guys aim do you know I'm saying because it's like, it basically is like a stick, you know? And he's like, and I was thinking to myself,

how did you guys aim? Do you know what I'm saying? Cause it's like, it's, it's barely a gun, right? It's a stick with a little like fire pin that you just hit, you know?

And, and he goes, yeah, that's what we used to do. And then he told me the recipe they used. And it was awesome to be down in Southern Florida, hunting iguana after we killed the iguanas to cook it the same way. My father cooked it in the mountains of Laos, like 70 years where where i'm like dude this is so amazing it's so special

for me to be on national tv and being able to say yep dad did this 70 years ago in the mountains of laos uh we did uh carp with bow um lionfish lollian lionfish oh man yeah lionfish that was a well i didn't do the scuba diving because i'm not scuba certified, but they thought it'd be fun to put, it's always a thing, I found out producers think it's fun to put a big guy in a wetsuit and just do like a 15 minute segment of funny, goofy movie, I mean trying to squeeze into a

wetsuit, so I squeezed into this wetsuit, got into the water, and we were in Destin, Florida, and they were like our captain that was taking us, he's like, I don't know why you put the wetsuit on.

It's like 75 degrees and I looked at our producer and I'm like, I thought it'd be funny and I'm like, screw you, dude. Are you seriously? I'm sweating

getting into this wetsuit. I'm a big dude. He's like, I just thought it'd be funny. I know you didn't need it and I was like, I'm trusting your producers. This is what happens.

They learned that in producer school. Yeah. It's like, what kind of position would we put him? Oh, the Burmese python. I went to catch it and it bit me. You know?

And so I guess that, I guess one of our producers says, like after the outdoor guy saw that, they're like, dude, that got us season two. Get bit more. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now that's like the funny thing, you know, where I'm like, oh, let's just try not to get bitten.

You know? Like we did one season, we did alligator gar and it, it wasn't dead yet when we pulled it on, you know, we shot in the head, but we pulled it on the boat. It wasn't dead yet. So I'm like,

you know, the camera guys, one of our camera guys, like get near it. Like kind of, you know, I'm like, yeah.

And then he like snap back and I'm like, screw you guys. You know? So that's kind of the fun thing where it's like, how can we make you a scream? Um, yeah. And then what else we have? Well, we have, yeah, we had a, that was

really fun. Uh, and then season two was, you know, really fun. And that one we did, uh, we did whitetail cause up in, um, uh, kind of Northern outside a little bit, half an hour North of Minneapolis. Uh, there's, you know, just the, uh,

population of doe, uh, uh, control with a white tail. So that was. In a suburban environment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, uh, you know, um, I, I grew up in La Crosse, Wisconsin college there. And so I got to know the, um, uh, Matt McPherson, the Matthews family, you know, Matthews bow.

So we were able to use one of their bows and it was like the first time I've ever, you know, and I had a crash course in bow and I was just like, after you get done shooting a Matthew's bow. So we were able to use one of their bows and it's like the first time I've ever, you know, and I had a crash course in bow and I was just like, after you get done shooting a Matthew, I'm like, I don't know if I want to go back to anything else, you know? And so it was like really fun just to, to, to, to go and learn the whole system with bow.

And, you know, I grew up hunting and fishing, but I'm by no means an expert. And that's what makes the show really fun is like the first half of the show is like, I'm fish out of water. You know, a guy takes me in, I'm'm going and then what i've been told is what the producers really love is the fact that the second end of the show it's a reversal so the guide he you know they cooked what you know they do you know and then i get to you know show them

like you know what i would do with you know with the meat or with the animal. And, um, I think one of the funnest ones was, uh, uh, central Wisconsin area, kind of near my hometown. We, uh, we went, uh, beaver trapping, never done it before. And man, like beavers are just, oh, just big old fricking yellow teeth looking back at you. And you're just like, oh my gosh. You know? And they're like, oh, yep, oh yep yep go pull that out and i'm like pulling this thing out it's just like thick fur and i was like oh yeah nothing better man and then we broke it down and like we ate it i'm like this is delicious yeah like i love it it's surprising but it's just i mean it's a big rodent you know and you're just like okay here we go you know um but yeah i mean we have some you know we shot season three and hopefully we'll hear back

about season four but it's a really really fun show it just came out on they have it streaming now on uh my outdoor tv yeah yeah well i don't know there's like this other show i see on there too call me eaters or whatever something like that yeah yeah i don't know i don't know every time i go on there you know there's a picture of some guy i booked a hotel room uh driving into a town a couple weeks ago and she's like what email and i gave her the email yeah which is the at the meat eater and she immediately started laughing oh and and i was like nope that's what it is and she's like oh okay it's like it's like why is. And she's like, oh, okay. It's like, hmm. It's like, why is it Seymour Butts at me?

Wait, are you serious, sir? So tell people how to find you. Yeah, we have our social. So do the restaurant. Yeah, restaurant is at Union Mung Kitchen. Union Mung Kitchen. Yep. So, you know, know on instagram all those other

platforms and then me is for me it's at yeavang70 got it yeah you can find all the and then outdoor channel oh yeah outdoor channel my outdoor tv app yep my outdoor tv app it's like great man first was it the first 30 days are free or something like that yeah i don't know you're coming over for dinner tonight well if you're you're invited. Do you know about that? Well, Karan said something about it. I was just trying to be cool about it, you know? Do you know how many friends text me and goes, dude, what are you doing in Bozeman? And I'm like, ah, stuff.

And then somebody goes, is it you're going to go on me and you're with Steve and the boys? And I'm like, I don't know, maybe. And then they're all like freaking out a little bit. So I'm like, dude, just be cool, man. Well, I hope he did a good enough job. You'll have to just hold the plate as steve grills yeah and then i'm not gonna grill it's home cooking right now it's already on oh yeah it's already cooking that's awesome yeah um so we're gonna have some chips potato chips oh yeah

is this montana culture you're teaching me well thanks for coming out, man. I appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for having me, man. It's awesome. It's awesome to be here, man. It's my first time in Bozeman. So Jordan and I's first time in Bozeman.

We got a chance to enjoy the mountains. And Ya Yang, thanks for coming out, man. Yeah, of course. Thanks for inviting me. I'll see you sooner. I'll see you at Youth Turk. Yeah, exactly. You know where I'll be.

Am I invited to dinner, too? You are invited to dinner. But yeah, looking forward to it. I get that high feel that Youth Turk again. Alright. It's going to be opening morning. Well, Dog said if I came for the first time with my girls, he'd give me that spot.

No, no, no. He did. I'll call. I'll take care of it. I'll let you know. I'll let you know what he says. Alright, thanks guys. Thanks. He did. I'll take care of it. I'll let you know. I'll let you know what he says. All right. Thanks, guys. Thanks. Oh, ride on. Ride on, let it ride on.

I want to see your gray hair shine like silver in the sun sweetheart we're done beat this damn horse dead taking the new one and ride on with a gun beat this damn horse to death so take your new one and ride on hey folks exciting news We'll see you next time. now at your fingertips, you Canadians. The great features that you love in OnX

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