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Hmong Cafe closes
Published: 6/28/2012 12:03 PM
Last Modified: 6/28/2012 12:03 PM


The duck lahb was a spicy, popular dish at Hmong Cafe. Tulsa World file

Hmong Cafe, 11197 E. 31st St., closed recently, ending an almost five-year run in east Tulsa.

"We weren't able to renew our lease," said Joey Yang, who opened the restaurant in September 2007 with his parents, Kia and Doua C. Yang.

This was Tulsa's first, and so far only, introduction to Hmong (pronounced mun or mung) cuisine, a fusion of food from Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and China.

Joey Yang said future plans are undecided.

"I think my parents probably are ready to retire, but if the right situation came along, who knows?" Yang said.

The Yangs' story is one of those heart-wrenching tales of survival under difficult circumstances.

Doua was one of thousands of Hmong -- an ancient ethnic group with its own culture and language that lives primarily in the mountainous regions of southern China and the Laos highlands -- recruited by the CIA during the Vietnam War era.

Following the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975, those Hmong men became targets of persecution from those countries under communist rule.

Doua, then 22, carried his baby boy, Joey, in one arm and an M-16 rifle in the other as he and Kia, then 20, made their monthlong escape through the jungle along the Mekong River, from Laos to Thailand, without being captured.

By the time they reached the U.S. in 1980, they also had a daughter, Bao.

"The restaurant was good for our family," Joey Yang said. "We made a lot of new friends."




Reader Comments 1 Total
stillafan (8 months ago)
This is a terrible loss to tulsa and the Hmong community and those who believe in their lives. Doua and Kia should be an inspiration to everyone who truly cares about great heroism in the face of enormous danger. The Yang's are truly modest, unassuming people whose story is beyond the imagination of most of us.
They will continue to contribute to our community in some way.
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Tulsa World restaurant critic Scott Cherry is in his second tour of duty with the Tulsa World. He was a sports writer during his first stop, covering college football and basketball. Since returning to the World in 1992, he has been the food writer and now restaurant critic and wine columnist.

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