Hmong Sausage Papaya Salad appears as a signature dish in 1 United States cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Hmong sausage and papaya salad · Minneapolis
Lemongrass-and-galangal pork sausage griddled to order at a Hmong market stall, paired with som tam papaya salad pounded fresh with chili, lime, peanuts and tomato.
Saint Paul holds the largest urban Hmong population in the United States, about 80,000 in the metro, descended from Lao and Vietnamese refugees who arrived after 1975. The Hmongtown Marketplace on Como Avenue and the original Hmong Village on East Johnson Parkway became the city's twin Hmong food halls in the 2000s. Chef Yia Vang's Vinai opened in Northeast Minneapolis in 2024 and was nominated for a James Beard Best New Restaurant award in 2025; Vang's pork sausage and papaya salad combo has set the canonical version of the dish for Twin Cities diners.
Where to eat in Minneapolis:
- Hmongtown Marketplace
- Vinai