Hmong Village – St. Paul, MN

D.Rough sent me the newspaper article for the grand opening of this Asian mall back in October of last year and we’ve been meaning to go ever since. The place has gotten great write-ups in the paper and on various food blogs, so we rearranged our schedule to make this happen. We are glad we did.

The first thing the articles warn you about is the parking. And frankly, the parking isn’t’ atrocious. It’s just packed and insanely busy. The parking lot is enormous and there are TONS of spots. However, ALL of the spots are taken. It is seriously that busy at this place. Just drive around and circle the lot for a bit, you’ll find something. The traffic flows fairly well, so you won’t get too trapped or anything. Just be patient.

We went in one of the many lettered-entrance (door D, I think), and found ourselves in what looks like a mini-storage unit facility. Seriously. I think it is. If it is, it’s probably the best use of a storage facility ever created. There are over a hundred small booths and shops set up in small spaces. Stores are selling everything from DVDs, clothing, custom made clothing, bubble tea, food, jewelry, herbal bust enhancers and stimulants, to hats, sunglasses, ice cream, swords, toys, lingerie, and insurance. It’s an overwhelming hodge-podge of consumables in an indoor market atmosphere. There’s even a large refrigerated fresh fruit area that has huge amounts of fruits and vegetables.

We roamed the aisles for a while – the vendors were very friendly without being pushy. If you stopped to look, they asked if they could help and then left you alone. No hard selling or hawking of items. On one side of the building, we found an entire row of food stalls. Some of them are smaller booth-versions of larger established restaurants and some are just stand-alone booths. Many of them have some of the same items, but most of them have some sort of specialty items they’re known for. D.Rough and I cruised the entire area before deciding on a place. We kept seeing signs for papaya salad (which neither of us had ever had) and we knew we wanted that. Fortunately, most of the booths made it fresh right there in front of you (you can select what goes in it and how spicy you want it). There’s also all sorts of fried meats and tons of wraps and rolls.

We decided to eat at Moon's Kitchen – the food looked delicious and the line was moving quickly. I ordered fried crispy pork and fried rice. And we got a papaya salad, of course. The counter lady (who turns out is the owner’s wife and does much of the cooking) asked me how hot I wanted it and what I wanted and she cut it all up fresh and threw it all in the salad for me. Delicious. Her husband came out and chatted me up for a while – SUPER nice guy and hilarious. She cut up the crispy pork and put it in a to-go container with some very dark fried rice and handed everything over. It was extremely inexpensive – see for yourself on this one.

D.Rough and I hadn’t had any of these things before, so we were anxious to try it out. I loved the pork most of all. It was like extra thick cut bacon mixed with ham and the deep fried. I’m sure it was pork belly – which is exactly what ham and bacon combined is. There were a couple of fatty pieces that D.Rough steered clear of, but those were the ones I went for first, so we made a great team. It had a delicious spicy dipping sauce that went extremely well with the cooked meat! The rice was a very dark color and ended up being like sticky rice. I didn’t know if it would have an odd flavor, but it really didn’t. It just tasted really good. It wasn’t plain rice, but it wasn’t soy or hoisin or anything else we could figure out. It was just delicious.It is a little weird upon first seeing it, but I assure you, it IS delicious.

I think we are officially undecided on the papaya salad. It’s a cold salad, but it’s got cut up peppers in it along with papaya slices and tomatoes and these green things that I have no idea what they are. The flavor changes from weird to delicious to spicy to weird to a little off and then back to delicious and then weird. Overall, I think I liked it, but D.Rough currently is down the middle on this. We will both change our minds the next time we talk about it. I think it takes getting used to, but you could tell it was fresh – even if I hadn’t seen her cut it up in front of me. That’s what made us happy. A Fantastic meal from Moon's Kitchen!

We walked towards the door where we were parked and got sidetracked by Blueberry – a bubble tea stand that has more than bubble tea. They have bajillions of flavors and the guy working the counter was very friendly and helpful. D.Rough asked if the cupcake flavor tasted like cupcakes and the man working assured us it did. He had us pair it with another flavor (coconut) and we got a shake of some sort with lychee jellies in it. I really don’t like bubble tea, so I had low expectations for this. It blew me away. I was really mad I didn’t get one for myself. It actually tasted like some freaky liquid cupcake. It was awesome. Go to this place.

All in all, we had a super successful day at the Hmong Village. I didn’t buy any martial arts DVDs, as my willpower was particularly high. We will go back to this place many times. People there were friendly and some asked if we’d been there before and if we were having a good day. It is a very friendly place. Don’t be intimidated if you aren’t of Asian descent. It’s perfectly fine and you won’t be black listed. Simply ask what certain things are if you don’t know and maybe try something new. You’ll be glad you did.


1001 Johnson Parkway
St. Paul, MN