Outdoor traditions and good food link cultures

Story and Recipe By Yia Vang

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It wasn’t until last year that I was able to go back to my father and mother’s homeland, Laos. I was born in a refugee camp in Thailand after the Secret War that took place in northern Laos.

My father and his brothers at a very young age joined up with the SGU (Special Guerrilla Unit) backed by the CIA and American military. Their job was to run night missions that would counter the northern communist soldiers’ movements and also help rescue downed U.S. Army and Air Force pilots who were shot down in the region. My father was 12 when he joined up to fight for the American interest.

Before the Hmong people in the mountains of Northern Laos became soldiers, our people were traditionally farmers and hunters. We gleaned from the land. I asked my mother, “What is Hmong food?” and she would say to me, “It is about balance. We take from the earth and take care of it, and it takes care of us.”

It is about preservation. It is about responsibility to the land and being stewards of it so we can pass it down to the next generation.

As our family and people settled here after the war, we found that Hmong culture does not stray too far from the traditions and ideology of rural America.

My father taught me how to fish and hunt small game like rabbits and squirrels. He showed me how to break down a deer, and butcher hogs and beef. He taught me how to grill over a wood fire. My mother showed me how to make rice and cook vegetables from our garden.

My mother and father believed that if they could teach their children to glean from the land, they would be able to provide for themselves in the future.

My first time pheasant hunting was with my friend Ryan Lamp. His father Jim Lamp has been training hunting dogs, and their family has been hunting and fishing, since the dawn of time.

Ryan and I met each other in college and spent time fishing on the Mississippi River, and Ryan would take me out hunting. His family was all boys, and they were big boys, so all the hunting and fishing gear was provided. That was amazing for a poor college kid like me.

There are three things I took away from my first pheasant hunt.

One, this is a team sport. Just like growing up playing football in high school and college, when we are out there on the field we work together. The pointer dogs are like the quarterbacks. They set the tone. We watch them carefully. The moment they stop and their heads pop up on point, we pause and wait. They flush out the pheasant and we shoot.

Two, pheasant hunting is not just about the pheasant itself. It is also about the land. We need to make sure that the lands for pheasants, quail and other upland birds and small game animals are protected and preserved. If we lose these lands we lose a part of ourselves and our traditions.

Three, I learned that regardless if you were born in a refugee camp in Thailand or in America, we all have another common thread: food around the table. We are creatures that were created for community. After the hunt we broke the pheasants down and began cooking together. We shared our food and traditions with each other and forged a deeper friendship through our hunt.

One of the first dishes my father taught me was fried rice. It is a simple dish using cooked rice and most any protein. How about pheasant? Or any other white-breasted upland bird for that matter.

One of the simplest ways of cooking breast meat from a bird or two is to have it be part of the fried rice dish. In our family it is about taking a little and having it go a long way. The lean meat is perfect for the high intense heat of the wok, and the flavor of the meat will go very well with the mix of the fish sauce and soy and also the fresh herbs added at the end.

Featured Podcast

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Yia Vang, a Hmong American chef, restaurant owner, and host of Outdoor Channel’s television show “Feral.” Vang talks about growing up as a small game hunter, going on his first pheasant hunt in Wisconsin, and his perspective on the Hmong “balanced” approach to food.

Recipe

Yia Vang says "Food + People = Community." He is the host of Feral on the Outdoor Channel, and has been featured on National Geographic and CNN’s United Shades of America, and in Bon Appetit magazine. He has two restaurants in the Twin Cities — Union Hmong Kitchen and Vinia.

This story originally appeared in PF & QF's 2024 Upland Bird Hunting Super Issue. If you enjoyed it and would like to see more delicious recipes in the pages of the magazine, become a Pheasants Forever member today!