Hmong New Year

Happy Hmong New Year 2009!! I went twice and once again my pictures are all out of order. It is so rad. I love the food so much.

If you were the Hmong Master and you were thinking of making a sign for your booth would you think to yourself "hmm...what would add some flair? oh yes, fake cockroaches and rats"? Despite the bugs, the Hmong Master Grill booth was extremely popular.

Look at this vest posse.
I prefer dijon mustard.
Fried plantain in a bag.
Once again, I roamed around snapping pictures of people and feeling like a dork.
This beautiful lady seems to be saying "stop taking my picture you dork".
This woman and her crew had the best outfits. They were doing the ball toss with some dudes. I have heard that during the courting ritual of the ball toss one is supposed to make self-effacing comments, and then the other ball tosser does that, too. They probably don't do that anymore.
Ka Poon! Coconut milk chicken noodle soup.
Picture that EC took.

There were a lot of ladies with this style of hat hanging at this booth. I assume that the different styles of hats are worn by people from different areas.
I kept trying to get a good picture of this couple and not succeeding.
That's how much smoke was in the air from the grilling food. At times it was hard to breathe.


I liked this papaya salad but smiller was not crazy about it. I told them two chilies and it wasn't really spicy enough. I liked that they put the lemon with rind in there.
And then I found a little surprise in it: salted crab claw.
Here's a guy frying plantains.
This was the most scrumptious dish, and the one we went back for-fish larb. They were out the second time we went. Figures. This had a heavenly lemongrass flavor. The fish was cooked. It was kind of like the best tuna salad you ever tasted in your life and was great on toast the next day. Smiller's Hmong coworker claims that it's easy to make but she says that about everything and that is not true! It's easy if you have a bunch of helpers chopping herbs for you, and she also pointed out that it's best to toast your own rice flour, which I've done and which takes forever.
Nab vam. I love this stuff. That is dyed young coconut in there, not jello.
This is a meal I composed at home. That steamed fish was the bomb. It was golden pompano fish steamed in banana leaves and somehow the most salty caramel flavor had completely infused into the fish flesh. If I could find a restaurant that made fish like this I would love it.