Inventive sushi and Hmong cuisine, out of a food truck
When Noel Vang was growing up, he’d barely even heard of sushi — that is, until his older brother Jesse took a job at now-closed Peter’s Sushi in Virginia Beach.
As a teenager, Vang would go down and watch his brother at work delicately slicing the fish and rolling it into maki. He was already a seafood fan; now he was hooked.
And so when his brother moved to Charlotte to learn from an old Japanese master, Vang followed, learning the ratios of vinegar and sugar in sushi rice, and how to chop the cooked grains without smushing them into clumps.
After a stint bartending when he returned to Virginia Beach, Vang returned to sushi, having learned he was going to be a father. At first he cooked on the fly at Chemistry nightclub, putting together left-field flavor combinations and fried rolls. “I was selling sushi through their bar,” Vang said,
“and people kept asking: ‘Can you do a pop-up here? Can you do a pop-up here?’ It was like being a DJ. They’d put me on the fliers.”
Vang pulled together capital to start his own business, and brought in his brother Jon, who’d likewise trained in traditional sushi with their older brother.
After serving out of Shadowlawn spot Zeke’s Beans and Bowls while waiting for a health inspection during the pandemic, Vang’s in June became the rarest of things: A wandering sushi truck you’re actually excited to see roll up at the brewery, with oddball fish creations and a bit of a beachy stoner vibe. It also amounts to a welcome chance to eat sushi al fresco, during pandemic times when tight-quartered sushi bars might be a source of anxiety.
Vang’s inspiration to start a truck was both unlikely and familiar.
“I watched the movie ‘Chef’ ” —
a Jon Favreau vehicle with a touring Cuban food truck — “and I said, ‘You know what? I'm gonna do that.' ”
From Tuesday or Wednesday through Sunday, Vang's posts up at a rotating menagerie of spots — Vibrant Shore Brewing in Virginia Beach, Smartmouth in Norfolk, residential neighborhoods in Chesapeake — serving serranopepper Hot Boy crab rolls, or mango-shrimp-salmon Sunny D maki.
So far what sets the truck apart isn't necessarily the quality of the fish, which is similar to that in a number of spots around Hampton Roads, but the adventurous combinations and the Vangs' devotion to developing the flavors of their yellowtail or tuna or salmon with unexpected accents.
A tako (octopus) sunomono special might be marinated not just in vinegar but chili pepper and ginger and lemon before being drizzled with Japanesecitrus ponzu sauce. A salmon sashimi also takes ponzu along with scallions and roe, while a seared salmon crudo is draped in garlic-ginger olive oil.
Among the rolls on the set menu, the most successful we've tried are that Peruvian-inflected Hot Boy, and an unorthodox Bloodmoon, a fusion roll made with avocado and shrimp tempura, then topped with soydrenched tuna poke: a world of fat and crunch and architecture. An under-soaked cucumber salad, the un-accented $6 basic rolls, or rolls that feature crab salad too prominently, are more skippable.
But along with the sashimi and crudo “starters,” it's on the specials menu you'll often find the most fun flavors — including that octopus sunomono and a recent Claw Daddy roll topped with fluffy local blue crab.
This is true especially because the specials also include food rarely seen on American menus: the cuisine of the Hmong people of Laos and Thailand, which the Vangs grew up eating with their Laotian-born father.
The Vangs are Hmong royalty of sorts, grand-nephews of Gen. Vang Pao, the major general of the Royal Lao Army whom CIA chief William Colby once called the “biggest hero of the Vietnam War” for his role commanding anticommunist forces in Laos. But in Virginia Beach, with its relatively small Hmong community, the Vangs' connection to their roots came mostly through family in Charlotte or their father's home cooking.
Hmong-inspired dishes show up often at the truck alongside sushi. That includes a cilantro-citrus-soy-garlic sauce chunky with scallions and pepper seeds, sold by the bottle. The sauce is usually served over rice, but as it turns out, it's also a bracing dipper for sashimi.
The specials menu often features tomato beef, a soothing and umami-rich blend of gentle-spiced tomatoes, mushrooms and ground beef. Originally a rice bowl the Vang brothers made for each other as a shift meal, it's now served at Vang's in burrito or lettuce wrap form. (Get the lettuce wrap and you'll taste the beef better; get the burrito if you're hung up on burritos.)
Depending on the day, you might see Hmong-style marinated chicken made with brown sugar, soy, cilantro and chilies. Or you might find a guarded Vang family recipe of pork-lemongrass noodle soup that's also the inspiration behind the “Been Sendin Noods” shirts the Vangs sell at the truck, featuring a noodle-filled VW bus. The Melo sushi roll also features the cilantro-garlic-soy-scallion mix favored in much Hmong cuisine.
But don't be surprised to see the menu change between visits to your neighborhood park or brewery. The food truck is a mere 4 months old, and the offerings are still developing. The Vangs hope to soon elevate and broaden the sourcing on their fish, said Noel Vang, now that the truck has begun to take off and they don't need to be as spartan about their inventory. Meanwhile, the family's tomato beef has caught on enough they plan to add it to the regular menu.
“It's been a hit,” Vang said. “But we're going to change things up, too. We got content after starting out, and a little overwhelmed with the number of people coming out to support us. But now we're trying to experiment again.”