On Thursday before her three-day pop-up dinner weekend at Alchemy Distillery, Pangnou Vang had plenty to do but only one worry: mustard green pickles. “I’ve been pickling it since Tuesday,” she said, a process that normally takes three or four days, depending on the weather. “I’m just hoping and praying it turns out like I’m hoping.” Hmong mustard greens native to the parts of Southeast Asia from which many Hmong people in the U.S. hail — Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar — can be tough to source in Humboldt.
“Thank God my auntie had some growing in her garden,” said Vang, who supplemented what her aunt picked with mustard greens from Redwood Roots, a favorite local farm. “My mom used to make it, and we’d just eat it with sticky rice. It goes really well with fatty pork belly,” she said with a hum. “That’s one of the traditional main pickling styles and I need to share it with the world.”
Over the weekend, she shared the greens with hundreds in Arcata. The Friday, Saturday and Sunday dinner services were her second collaboration with Alchemy Distillery, using its small commercial kitchen, dining room and Arcata Marsh-facing, open-air counter. The menu focused on a fusion of Vang’s beloved cuisines, Hmong and Japanese.
Vang grew up in a big Hmong family with 13 siblings and parents who’d fled Laos after fighting in the Secret War and aiding the U.S. At 9, she came to Humboldt, already helping cook for the family. Working at local restaurants in her teens eventually led to training behind the sushi counter at Masaki’s Kyoto Japanese Restaurant and, after a decade, working in Portland sushi restaurants. After returning to Humboldt, she took over as chef at Sushi Blue at Blue Lake Casino.
Since leaving Sushi Blue, Vang has been a kind of itinerant sushi chef, setting up shop in Shelter Cove at Mario’s Marina Bar and, since November, at Humboldt Bay Social Club on weekends. “I’ve been enjoying it. It’s been an adventure, always something new.” Sometimes “new” means workarounds depending on the venue and the logistics of bringing all the equipment to prep on site, all with one rice cooker cranking out three to four batches a night.
Slammed early, the kitchen had an hour-long backlog by 6:30 p.m., though most seemed content to while the time away in late sun and buzzy craft cocktails from Alchemy proprietors Steve and Amy Bohner, who zigged and zagged behind the bar. In the kitchen, Pangnou Vang had help from wife Sarah Maier (whose own cooking Vang is quick to tout), sister Kaozong Vang and Amy Cloninger, a colleague from the Kyoto years. All were hustling.
The Alchemy kitchen doesn’t have the kind of grill Vang would normally use for the Hmong chicken leg entrée ($28), so she adapted her recipe to marinate the chicken with ginger and lemongrass before roasting it in the oven. The result was crisp, smoky skin and soft, aromatic meat. The sweet sticky rice mixed with purple rice for color and a nod to celebratory meals, as well as the mustard greens that hit the mark with crunch in the stems and dark leaves that held pleasing bitterness, salt and tang.
Those who struggled with choice had the option of the Hmong Sampler ($38). Around a center scoop of purple sticky rice were a ring of morsels and a trio of sauces — hoisin peanut, sweet chili and traditional Hmong pepper sauce. Candidates for dipping and/or eating with a pinch of rice included squares of pork belly with crisped fat and a whiff of earthy spice, tender Hmong sausages stuffed with pork, ginger, cilantro, green onion and herbs, and a delicate fried spring roll. The fresh spring roll showcased remarkably sweet lettuces, while ahi poké seasoned with the herby-minty flavors of laab and the crunch of fried shallots was a stripped-down approach to the Hawaiian dish, or a playful take on sashimi.
For dessert, Japanese and Southeast Asian flavors mingled again. Traditional layered coconut jelly cakes were amped up with stripes of zingy yuzu, nutty purple ube and fragrant green pandan ($7).
Though Pangnou Vang dreams of her own brick-and mortar spot, “The plan is to stay like this for a minute because the world is kind of going to shit right now,” she says with a sigh. If finances, the economy and the world at large grow less tumultuous, she’d like to do more of the fusion she presented at Alchemy. “I know Japanese food, and I grew up eating Hmong food, so why can’t I do that?” she asks. “I think that would be a good combo.”
Jennifer Fumiko Cahill (she/her) is the managing editor at the Journal. Reach her at (707) 442-1400 ext. 106, or jennifer@northcoastjournal.com. Follow her on Bluesky @jfumikocahill.bsky.social.
This article appears in ‘Everybody’s Gotta Bring Their Skills’.
