The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

The menu at the new Red Pepper in Saint Paul combines Vietnamese, Thai and Hmong dishes, but since the first two cuisines are pretty widely available elsewhere, I decided to try one of the Hmong dishes. Number 27, sweet pork belly with eggs, turned out to be a savory stew with big chunks of roast pork, (not nearly as fatty as I had feared), hard-boiled eggs, red bell pepper, fresh pineapple green onions and ginger, in a rich brown slightly sweet gravy accented with star anise (I think), served with steamed rice. Delicious, and served in very generous portion.

Good morning,

Business wasn’t great at the little budget steak house in the St. Paul Midway, so the Hang family, Hmong refugees from Laos, decided to try something different. They brought in cousin Christian Hang, a recent culinary-school graduate, as chef; remodeled the dining room with a tasteful black and orange décor; and added Asian fusion to the menu.

“A photo is all I have left of her,” Chris Lang, the boyfriend of murdered college student Dru Sjodin, told a Judiciary Policy and Finance Committee at the Minnesota House of Representatives. His testimony culminated with a heated statement about Level Three sex offenders: “They’re not like normal people. I think they’re wired wrong. They’re like animals. They need to be treated like animals, and animals are kept in cages.” The committee, including freshman legislator Cy Thao, remained impassive.