Hmongtown Marketplace is an indoor-outdoor marketplace focused on Hmong American products and culture in the Frogtown neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Hmongtown was the first Hmong-owned and operated marketplace in the United States and is today noted for its cuisine and produce.
Locally it is variously referred to as the Hmong Farmers Market or Hmong Flea Market, or simply "Hmongtown" to emphasize its role as a cultural hub like a Chinatown, not just a retail location.
Two buildings in north Frogtown at 217 Como Ave[9] contain more than 200 vendors who sell traditional food, clothing, and home goods especially from Hmong and Hmong American culture, including from Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.[10][11] The market is designed to simulate open-air markets in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Vientiane, Laos. Produce vendors sell culturally specific fruits, vegetables, nuts, and other edible plants.[12] Hot and ready-made food vendors sell a variety of dishes such as roast meats, boba tea, papaya salad, and bánh mì.[1] Home goods include green market, electronics, religious supplies, and garden tools.[13][14] A bank branch staffed by Hmong-speaking employees was added in 2024.[15][16][17]
It's easy to forget, when you're walking past the crowded indoor stalls or outdoor vegetable stands in Hmongtown Marketplace that you're in the American Midwest. The sounds, smells, voices on TV and faces proclaim, "Southeast Asia!"
— Why you should visit St. Paul, Washington Post[18]
In the summer the market nearly doubles in size with an outdoor market in the surrounding paved lot that brings the number of vendors up to 300 or more.[5] The outdoor market is sometimes referred to as the Hmongtown Farmers Market and sells produce as well as meat, clothing and textiles, herbal medicine, live potted plants, and home products.[19][20]
The large size and foot traffic have led to the nickname "Hmong Mall of America". 600 people work inside, as many as 20,000 customers have been noted during events, and there is capacity for more than 300 stalls.[6] The interior footpath complexity due to the many stalls has been described as "labyrinthine" and "byzantine".[21][19] Because of the wide variety of products and services offered at Hmongtown, it is referred to as many different kinds of markets, such as a mall, a supermarket, a flea market, a farmers market, a marketplace, and a food hall.[22][23][24][8] Locally it is variously referred to as the Hmong Farmers Market or Hmong Flea Market, or simply "Hmongtown" to emphasize its role as a cultural hub like a Chinatown, not just a retail location.[5][23][25]
The idea of a "Hmongtown", so named as a Chinatown, has been documented in the Hmong American community for some time. In the 1997 book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, which documents one Hmong refugee family's difficulty with the United States' healthcare system in the decade after Hmong began seeking refuge in the United States, author Anne Fadiman details a Hmong community leader in Merced, California named Blia Yao Moua who at one point pursued a Hmong American-oriented housing complex he called "Hmongtown" which would be designed to remind demoralized refugees of Laos.[26] Hmong American poet Bryan Thao Worra describes Fresno as a Hmong American city alongside other ethnicities, and entitles the poem (and Fresno) Hmongtown.[27]
Hmongtown founder Toua Xiong said in 2000, four years before Hmongtown was realized, that the goal of his neighborhood business ventures were to "turn Frogtown into Hmongtown".[28] His marketplace concept was opened as International Marketplace in 2004, and renamed Hmongtown Marketplace in 2009. Xiong has since encouraged leaving "Marketplace" out of the name in order to emphasize Hmongtown as "[n]ot just a bazaar but a community unto itself."[5]
Hmongtown was the first Hmong-owned and operated marketplace in the United States.[29][30] The market was founded as International Marketplace[29][31] in 2004 by Saint Paul, Minnesota entrepreneur Toua Xiong.[1] Hmong people were persecuted in their homelands following the Laotian Civil War known as the Secret War and Xiong wanted a place for first generation immigrants such as himself to gather as though they were at home. The marketplace originally had many video stores that sold footage of and movies set in Laos and Thailand as part of that nostalgia.[30] Hmongtown serves a similar role to the Minnesota Hmong community as Hmong villages and ethnic Hmong marketplaces in countries of origin such as Vietnam and Laos, which are cultural and social hubs.[32]
Xiong spent his childhood in Laos before his family escaped to a refugee camp. Xiong, a younger brother, and his parents joined his teenage brothers in an American-run refugee camp when he was twelve. In 1986 at seventeen years old, he and his wife immigrated to St. Paul, Minnesota and settled in Frogtown.[5] In three years he gained college degrees in business and accounting.[10][29]
Painted depiction of Foodsmart on a Hmong American business corridor
Hmong American politician and artist Cy Thao includes Hmong businesses like Foodsmart in the upswing of Hmong American history: "After 25 years of being in America, our communities are beginning to take root. The children are getting a first rate education. Opportunities are beginning to open up. Hmong businesses are popping up everywhere. It’s a sign that we will make it here too."[33]
Prior to opening Hmongtown, Xiong owned and operated the Asian grocery store Foodsmart (now doing business as Sun Foods[34]), part of the Unidale Mallstrip mall on University Avenue in Frogtown, with a second location in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Opened in 1996, the grocery hosted an 80 stall farmers market in its parking lot, a ready-made hot food restaurant and caterer, an event hall, and a Hmong sausage processing facility which sold 700 pounds of sausage daily.[35] His goal was to "turn Frogtown into Hmongtown".[28][36][34][37][38][39] (From 1981 to 2005, the number of Asian businesses on University Avenue in Frogtown grew from one business to more than sixty businesses.[40])
Foodsmart was involved in community initiatives: hosting the Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans get-out-the-vote events and community engagement about the Metro Transit light rail Central Corridor construction in 2007. Representatives from Foodsmart served on the Central Corridor Business Advisory Council.[41][42][43] It hosted fundraisers for local Hmong institutions such as the Hmong Cultural Center Museum, which was founded during a meeting at Foodsmart.[44][45]
The 6-acre[6] Hmongtown site was previously Shaw Stewart Lumber Co. on Como Avenue, north of the St. Paul Capitol building.[48] The two original buildings remain as the East Building and West Building. Xiong didn't realize the obstacles to redeveloping the property for grocery and retail when he rented it from the lumber company, having only recently become a business owner and an English speaker. Renovations to meet regulations included a sprinkler system, more toilets, exhaust fans in restaurant spaces, and an upgraded larger sewer pipe to connect to the municipal system. Despite setbacks, he opened International Marketplace in 2004.[5][49][50][51]
In 2009 he bought the property from the lumber company and renamed it Hmongtown Marketplace.[6][29]
Hmongtown aimed to provide a social and economic hub to newly-immigrated Hmong.[10] It has been credited with creating hundreds of jobs and other entrepreneurial opportunities for much of the Minnesota Hmong diaspora.[52] Most of the vendors speak only a Hmong dialect and not English, which Xiong says has allowed them to maintain employment and start a business while still acclimating to America.[5][10][29]
Hmong are the largest Asian diaspora in Minnesota, and Minnesota has the second-largest Hmong population in the United States.[57] Hmongtown is a staple of local Hmong life and creates a sense of community and belonging.[1][25] Less than four miles away is a similar Hmong American marketplace called Hmong Village. The markets and surrounding Asian businesses are in the Little Mekong Cultural District, a business district with a high concentration of Asian businesses and cultural sites.[49][58][11][59]
While the focus is Hmong culture, the marketplace contains shops and stalls with proprietors and products from any of the cultures that can be found in the surrounding neighborhood Frogtown, which in the 20th century became the most ethnically diverse neighborhood in Saint Paul.[60][61][62][17]Nepali, African American, and Mexican vendors have been noted.[63][64] More than half of Hmongtown's visitors are white. Owner Toua Xiong aims for the market to be welcoming to those new to Hmong culture.[65][10]
Vendors at Hmongtown sell traditional Hmong textile art such as kawm (woven baskets) and forms of Paj Ntaub (flower cloth) such as batik dyed cloth (Paj Ntaub nraj ciab/cab[66]) and story cloth, which depicts scenes from Hmong life and history.[67][64] Basketry includes Blue Hmong baby carriers.[68]Embroidery thread, coins, beads, metals, and other materials for making Hmong textiles are available from multiple vendors.[69] Some textiles are made abroad and sold by family at Hmongtown.[70]
Hmongtown provides a place to perpetuate Hmong culture such as textile art. A participant in a study on Hmong youth recalled how spending time at her mother's Hmongtown stall encouraged her to become a Hmong Paj Ntaub embroiderer: "Over winter break, my mom had a stall at Hmongtown Market so I went with her to help her. I was tired of not doing anything so I started embroidering again. That’s when I realized that if I did not continue to embroider then I would not know how to embroider in the future. And if I had children, they would not know as well, and if my sisters did not know how to embroider, there would be no one who would know."[72][25][71]
Light boxes of photography from Hmong American artist Pao Houa Her, whose work was selected for the Whitney Biennial, decorate the West Building food court seating area.[77][78][79] The exhibit is accompanied by text from Hmong American poet and playwright May Lee-Yang.[80] Her's artwork being displayed simultaneously at the renowned Walker Art Center and Hmongtown was praised by Walker’s curatorial fellow in visual arts Matthew Miranda as a "break in the art world decorum" that "subverts the white view in museums."[81][82]
Other featured artists have included Tetsuya Yamada and HOTTEA.[83][84][82]
Hmongtown is noted for its prepared food and quality produce, with the Star Tribune calling it "one of the state's top culinary gems"[14] and Saveur enthusing it is a "destination" for cooks.[49] Five-time James Beard Award-nominee Diane Moua recommends the prepared food.[85]Food criticAndrew Zimmern says it is "the country’s best little-known ethnic market."[86]Minnesota Monthly included Hmongtown in their "'culinary canon' of essential local eats"[87] list the "Foodie 40", saying Hmongtown is "one of the great, affordable flavor adventures in the Twin Cities" and calling it "ground zero" for good chicken wings.[88][89]
The average price of a meal is less than $15 and restaurants are open all day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.[90] Individual restaurant stalls and a food court serve traditional Hmong and Southeast Asian meals, snacks, and street food.[91] Because Hmong are a diaspora, Hmong cuisine is a fusion, so dishes at Hmongtown come from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and even China, Japan, South Korea, and Mexico. Difficult to find outside of Minnesota, Hmong-style barbecue is prominent, including traditionally prepared and cold Hmong sausage (nyhuv ntxwm hmoob), which is a pork sausage flavored with Thai chili and herbs like lemongrass, and sai krok, a traditional fermented pork sausage.[49][92][93][94][95] Dishes popular among Hmong such as pho (or the Hmong version of pho called fawm[96][97]), khaub poob (red curry noodle soup),[98][99]larb (minced meat salad), nab vam (tapioca dessert), purple rice,[22] boba tea, mangonada,[100] and papaya salad are widely available from multiple restaurants.[101][102][103]
Notable vendors and dishes include:
5-Star Deli: fried chicken wings with egg roll stuffing (kooj tis qaib nitim[104]); chicken meatball skewer; nab vam (colorful jelly and fruit dessert)[105][14][49][88]
An outdoor market that sells much of the same merchandise as the indoor market operates from May to October. It has an emphasis on fresh produce and starter plants for gardening vegetables.[110][111]
Produce commonly available at Hmongtown has Southeast Asian origins and is difficult to find in mainstream groceries. A large portion of the produce is locally grown by Hmong farmers.[19][94]
In June 2016 Hmongtown held the first Hmongtown Festival, a two-day music and cultural festival focusing on Hmong history and culture. The festival is held annually.[10] Owner Toua Xiong who learned to sing and play guitar in a refugee camp played at the first festival.[5] Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan took part in the festival in 2019.[115]
Hmongtown vendors sell traditional Hmong and Southeast Asian medicine such as herbs and imported over the counter drugs.[49] Traditional Hmong herbal medicine is difficult to find, so vendors at Hmongtown attract customers from all over the world and play a role in preserving Hmong culture.[2] Local hospitals such as M Health Fairview and Regions Hospital purchase post-partum Hmong herbs from Hmongtown as part of an effort to improve birth outcomes with culturally competent care.[116]
Because of its reputation as a Hmong community hub, Hmongtown is often targeted for public health initiatives. Hmongtown participates in outreach around testing for breast cancer and reducing consumption of heavy metals from skin lightening products and fish.[117][118][119][120] The market also held vaccine clinics during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.[121][3]
In June 2013, law enforcement raided Hmongtown and confiscated hundreds of pounds of illegal medication, including penicillin, opiates, and mislabeled over the counter medication. Vendors were subjected to full body searches. Cultural differences and language barriers were blamed, although Ramsey County Sheriff's office spokesperson Randy Gustafson said that vendors had been previously warned against selling the products confiscated. 14 vendors were ultimately charged with "selling misbranded drugs, possessing and selling drugs that require a license, selling syringes, and unlawfully possessing poison."[122]
The Minnesota Department of Health started an educational series with Hmongtown vendors to explain drug safety and American regulations in response.[123][122] A similar incident occurred at the nearby Hmong Village shopping center in 2018.[124]
Hmongtown plans to expand to Hmong senior daycare and senior housing, and include more Hmong cultural activities such as an art gallery, music performance, and permanent history exhibits.[5] Underground parking and an office building are also planned.[6] In 2018 a joint state grant was issued to Hmongtown and the Saint Paul Port Authority to investigate the rehabilitation potential of a contaminated lot for future residential and commercial mixed use.[125]
Off-site expansion includes nonprofits and museums. Through Hi Hi LLC, Toua Xiong and his wife Nou Xiong founded a Hmong and Karen cultural center and museum a few blocks from Hmongtown. He also runs Hmongtown Connections, a cultural exchange program that runs Hmongtown Festival.[29][126][127]
In 2025, Xiong plans to open a second Hmongtown location in the former Sears space at the Maplewood Mall.[128][129] The 14 acre space would be developed into a marketplace and additional services aimed at younger customers than the original Hmongtown targets.[130]
In 2009 a group of Hmong American entrepreneurs opened Hmong Village in St. Paul. Four miles from Hmongtown, Hmong Village offered a similar experience, with a large warehouse renting individual stalls to vendors to sell wares and goods. It is also known for its food and produce.[11][58][49][131]
^ abKFAI (July 23, 2012). "St. Paul's Frogtown Neighborhood". AMPERS. Retrieved October 30, 2024. This is now the most diverse neighborhood in the most diverse county in the state of Minnesota.
^Vang, Pa Der, ed. (February 25, 2020). Staring Down the Tiger: Stories of Hmong American Women. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society Press. p. 58. ISBN978-1-68134-150-7. OCLC1142813312. Project MUSE89648.
^Clapsaddle, Diane (2008). "PinkMonkey Literature Notes on... The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down"(PDF). PinkMonkey. p. 32. Retrieved October 30, 2024. Two of these included Blia Yao Moua and Jonas Vangay. Both had studied in France and had been offered jobs there. However, they believed if they stayed there, they would feel guilty, because of their obligation to the Hmong community. They had earned leadership roles in Merced, but little money and little peace of mind. They helped the community negotiate the public assistance labyrinth and were part of a group of four or five people who had no private life whatsoever. Blia had an ambitious housing scheme - called Hmongtown - that involved the purchase of land and the building of houses that would remind the people of Laos. He thought it would boost their morale, and they would take good care of it. But when the author returned to Merced a year later, no one had heard of Hmongtown and Blia had left. He had burned out and stopped working for the community.
^Thao Worra, Bryan (2018). "Hmongtown". In Lewis, J. Patrick (ed.). The Poetry of Us: With Favorites from Maya Angelou, Walt Whitman, Gwendolyn Brooks, and More: More Than 200 Poems that Celebrate the People, Places, and Passions of the United States. Washington, D.C: National Geographic. p. 160. ISBN978-1-4263-3185-5.
^ abHarris, Phyllis Louise (November 22, 2007). "The elusive Hmong cuisine". Twin Cities Daily Planet. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
^ ab"Hmongtown Marketplace". Religions in Minnesota. Carleton University. Archived from the original on May 23, 2022. Retrieved October 18, 2023.
^Harris, Phyllis Louise (November 22, 2007). "The elusive Hmong cuisine". Twin Cities Daily Planet. Archived from the original on October 25, 2023. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
^Yangh, Saulkdi (August 11, 2023). "Agriculture & Land Relations in Hmong Culture". Learn Uake. Hmong Museum. Archived from the original on April 21, 2024. Retrieved May 10, 2024. Bustling Hmong farmers markets such as Hmong Village (MN), Hmong Town (MN), or those in Brooklyn Park, MN would become social hubs where family, friends, and Hmong kin connected. These spaces would quasi act as a mini-Hmong village at the heart of a foreign country.
^"#49, Cy Thao". Minneapolis Institute of Art. 1993–2001. Archived from the original on June 3, 2024. Retrieved October 28, 2024.
^"Ethnic Consumers Propelling Category Growth". Supermarket News. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Penton Media, Inc., Penton Business Media, Inc. and their subsidiaries. September 17, 2001. GaleA79291243. Retrieved November 7, 2024 – via Gale General OneFile.
^Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotan (November 1, 2011). "Sunset Review Report"(PDF) (report). Archived(PDF) from the original on November 18, 2024. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
^Larson, Susan R (September 7, 2007). "Abroad at Home: Report from a Southeast Asian Food Court". In Nightingale, Kimberly (ed.). 2008 Saint Paul Almanac. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Arcata Press. pp. 182–183. ISBN9780977265121.
^Patronas, Ellie (August 29, 2022). "History of Frogtown". ArcGIS StoryMaps. University of St. Thomas. Archived from the original on September 28, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2024. According to St. Paul Historical, by the late 20th century Frogtown became the most ethnically diverse neighborhood in the city.
^Boyd, Cynthia (June 13, 2011). "Frogtown park and farm: An idea taking seed". MinnPost. Archived from the original on March 2, 2020. Retrieved October 20, 2024. Frogtown, also called the Thomas-Dale neighborhood, is profiled on the city's website as the "most racially and economically diverse ward," with a "rich tapestry of people and history."
^Quote originally in Hmong: "Over winter break, kuv mom mus ua tshav puam tim Hmongtown Market ces kuv mus nrog nws zov taj laj. Ces kuv laj laj nyob ces kuv rov ua paj ntaub dua. Ces thaum kuv ua ces xav tias yog kuv tsis ua tiag ces ntawm ntej no mus kuv yuav tsis paub. Thiab yog kuv muaj me nyuam, lawv yuav tsis paub thiab kuv cov viv ncaus yuav tsis paub ces peb yuav tsis muaj leeg twg paub ua lawm." Translated by the study's author.[71]
^ abZimmern, Andrew (April 23, 2014). "Only in Minnesota #OnlyinMN". Andrew Zimmern. Archived from the original on October 31, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
^ abcdeDerusha, Jason, and Joy Summers. 2018. "Hmongtown Marketplace: Sample Authentic Asian Flavors in St. Paul.” Minnesota Monthly 52 (4): 60. [2]Archived October 20, 2023, at the Wayback Machine.
^Grumdahl, Dara Moskowitz (June 15, 2010). "Best Barbecue". Minnesota Monthly. Archived from the original on September 13, 2024. Retrieved September 13, 2024.
^ abGrumdahl, Dara Moskowitz (May 25, 2010). "Foods of Home". Saveur. Retrieved September 13, 2024.
^Walker, Benedict; Armstrong, Kate; Bain, Carolyn; Balfour, Amy C; Bartlett, Ray; Clark, Gregor; Grosberg, Michael; Karlin, Adam; Kluepfel, Brian (2018). Lonely Planet Eastern USA. Lonely Planet. ISBN978-1787019584. Archived from the original on October 20, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2023.