Hmong's Golden Eggrolls

(608) 782-0096
La Crosse
929 State Street
La Crosse, WI 54601

Hmong's Golden Egg Rolls' Golden Sign

Menu that hasn't been updated in years

Hmong's moved from the strip mall near UW-L with the Quick Trip a couple of years ago.  The new place, which was a branch of Marine Credit Union (and it still has the drive up teller setup), feels comfortable and friendly.  Before moving to La Crosse West Coast Guy (WCG) found Hmong's on the internets.  His first complaint was that they need more menu.  But they in general do what they do well.  This is Hmong food, which involves combined influences of Thai, Lao, and Vietnamese cuisines, which Hmong people encountered over their arduous journeys from China to Laos or elsewhere to - most often - refugee camps in Thailand, and finally (if they were lucky, I suppose) to places like California's Central Valley, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.  (Although I am told that Hmong communities also exist in, for example, Australia and France.  Here, by the way, is a PBS story on a Hmong shaman who came to live in Appleton, Wisconsin.)

Hmong's has the closest thing to the Southeast Asian food that WCG learned to love elsewhere (Japan, Thailand, and the West Coast) in La Crosse (forget about the "Thai" food served at Onalaska's Bamboo House, which has its sauce thickened with corn starch, as with Chinese food, but that's another review).  As one might expect - judging from the restaurant's name - the egg rolls are quite good (but the sauce they serve them with is a little weird, seeming like a combination of a SE Asian sweet and spicy sauce and mayo).  But something good about eating at Hmong's is that there is an array of condiments at every table (most typically poured into bowls of pho noodles as per individual eaters' desire).  These condiments include fish sauce, soy sauce, a sweet soy-based sauce similar to Indonesian Kecap manis, Sriracha sauce, and a few other things.  The egg rolls can be ordered individually, and one can choose from chicken, pork, shrimp, or vegetable.

Hmong's Golden Egg Rolls Condiments (At Every Table)

Indeed, the pho is something like the star of the show at Hmong's and it is good.  The beef salad is nice.  It is tripe, by the way, so stay away if you don't dig organ meats.  The curry (not on their online menu), which is either chicken or shrimp is passable.  The flavor is good, something like Thai style, but unfortunately some of the ingredients are from cans (for example, mushrooms) and not fresh.  They also offer a sausage or stuffed chicken thigh with sticky rice and a dipping sauce, which is a spiced fish sauce with bits of green onions.  These dishes are quite good.

For WCG the best of Hmong's offerings, however, is the papaya salad.  Papaya is a fruit, but don't expect something sweet.  This SE Asian dish uses shredded green papaya to make a very spicy (they will ask you how spicy you want it) and (in the case of Hmong's) delicious salad that features peanuts, as with much Thai cuisine.  This spicy and savory dish tastes very good with the relatively bland and neutralizing side dish of either Hmong's sticky rice or the basic drier rice they also serve.

One should - by the way - order at Hmong's with the knowledge that every thing is more or less a la carte.  A good meal would be the chicken or sausage with sticky rice AND papaya salad (WCG's mom always made sure he had square meals and it is a habit that is hard to break).

Also, where one orders - on the counter - at Hmong's they often have two items that are not on the menu: one is a kind of dumpling (?) made of rice that has been transformed into a solid film (something like Japanese mochi) and rolled up with bits of what seems like seasoned ground pork.  Three of these come with the fish sauce based dipping sauce and they are quite good.  They also often have a kind of confection, which is a sort of doughnut (probably made with rice flour) that is nicely chewy and a bit crispy on the outside if it is fresh.  Inside this doughnut-like thing is a kind of sweet bean paste that is similar to what is often used in Japanese confections.

Lastly, their fried rice is pretty good, and according to Friend of West Coast Guy (FWCG) their fried fish is quite nice.  WCG will probably try that pretty soon.  Oh, and truly lastly, the people that run Hmong's are quite nice and friendly, so when you come in smile at them and they will quite probably smile back.