
duck and sauce on plate
Honestly, no one wants to eat a grey duck. So THANKFULLY, Yia Vang is stepping up to save the day with a new riff on an old tradition. Having its weekend debut at Slurp Noodle Pop-Up Shop: Whole Roasted Stuffed Duck.
According to Yia, "This whole dish came from the idea of the Hmong Stuffed Chicken Wing that's one of my favorite dishes made by my mom. I would watch her small little hands work a paring knife deboning those whole wings and stuffing it with egg roll stuffing (side note ... her egg rolls are freaking amazing). I was asked once what my last meal would be and I said ... mom's stuff chicken wings with her hot sauce and purple sticky rice. Well, what we did was take the inspiration of the stuffed wings and amped it up to a whole stuffed duck. We deboned the duck and stuffed it with mom's egg roll stuffing, added a few more sauces, and we want to share a little of our childhood with everyone."
This whole duck is stuffed with glass noodles, wood ear mushrooms, and childhood happiness. On the side you get both orange demi oyster sauce and Mama Vang's hot sauce, plus butter lettuce for the wrapping, pickles, fermented radish, and fermented mustard greens. This is a sharing moment, these are not small ducks.
A limited number of them will be available this weekend, Friday and Saturday, Feb. 10-11, and you should reserve them ahead of time. This is a dine-in situation, and the whole platter serves 5-6 people and runs $225. It's a very limited first run, there will only be four open slots each night. They may be gone already or they may not, if you're a lucky duck.
"If it all goes well, and people like this, we'll run it again. I think it's a fun play on tradition and gives us something to look forward to in February," Yia told me.