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Panda Fest, a traveling outdoor Asian food festival, is making a stop this weekend at the Mall of America. While the ticketed event consists of 100 food and merchandise vendors from across the country, many locals are representing, serving dishes from savory Vietnamese crepes to durian ice cream.
Banh Sizzle
Founded in 2022, Banh Sizzle is a mobile food stand selling Vietnamese crepes made from rice flower, shrimp, coconut milk and turmeric, or Bánh Xèo. The crepes are then wrapped in lettuce and Thai basil and dipped in a sweet and tangy sauce.
Co-founder Hang Jauquet said that there are many types of bánh xèo across Southeast Asia, but the kind she makes is specific to where she grew up in Vietnam.
“Whenever I make Bánh Xèo, the smell of it always brings me back the memory I have when I was in Vietnam, when I was a little girl with my mom,” said the Minneapolis resident.
Càphin Mpls
When Jenny Nguyen traveled to Seattle and saw the Vietnamese coffee shops there, she was inspired to create her own. For the past three years, she’s been serving and creating new drinks at Càphin Mpls in southwest Minneapolis, which she runs with her husband.
All the coffee is made from beans grown in Vietnam, and the store serves traditional drinks like Caphe Sua (coffee mixed with condensed milk) and Nguyen’s own creations like Caphe La Dua, a pandan-flavored latte.
It will be the business’s first time participating in a multi-day festival, and Nguyen said she’s excited to share her culture with those who may not have tried Vietnamese coffee.
“Asian culture here has started to grow a lot,” Nguyen said. “[Panda Fest is] fueled by all the Asian community here in Minneapolis ... we love the community aspect, and that’s one thing that we really wanted to be a part of.”
Mía-Sota
This Vietnamese sugar cane juice stand mixes their drinks with flavors like passion fruit, coconut, and matcha.
While the stand is only two years old, co-founders Sam Herold and Tony Le have been best friends since 2010, when they met at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Their dream is to turn Mía-Sota into a franchise, and they hope this festival will help them toward their goal of opening a brick-and-mortar store.
While sugar cane juice is drunk in many parts of the world, it’s not commonly found in Minnesota.
“It’s fun to watch their reactions [when they] try our sugar cane that they haven’t had in years, maybe since they were kids,” Herold said.
Muddy Tiger Indian Bistro
Muddy Tiger serves classical Indian street food — with a fusion twist. When Bloomington resident and co-founder Jyotiee Kistner immigrated to the United States 15 years ago, she struggled to find food that reminded her of her home in Pune, a city in western India.
Seven years ago, she and her husband left their jobs in tech and started Muddy Tiger, which is a brick-and-mortar restaurant that rolls into a food truck format during the summer.
Jyotiee Kistner said she grew up watching her father run a catering business, and now she wants to show Minnesotans facets of Indian cuisine they might not have seen.
“India has around 50 different cuisine types,” she said. “[My favorite part is] meeting new people and hearing that they enjoy our food.”
Oday Creamery
Oday Creamery is still finishing construction on its Burnsville location, but that’s not stopping them from having their big launch this weekend at Panda Fest. Co-founder Justin Bui works during the day as a systems integrator at Google, but at night he and his co-founder Kim Tam experimenting with new creative flavors, like Ube Caramel Crunch and Pandan Gooey Butter Cake.
The Plymouth resident says he’s inspired by his travels and his childhood. His favorite flavor to make is lychee.
“I’m raised by my grandmother. And growing up, I just always remember her getting lychees,” Bui said. “Now I look back and I’m like, these are awesome memories with my grandmother, who would always take care of me and get me to try these types of fruits that are about my Vietnamese identity.”
Oday Creamery will also be serving durian ice cream. Durian is a spiky fruit eaten around Asia that has a pungent smell.
“You either really hated it or really loved it,” he said. “I used to not like it growing up, until I had it [as a] dessert.”
Panda Fest starts on Friday, July 11 at 4 p.m. and runs until Sunday, July 13 at 8 pm.
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