(relaxing music) - My name's Thay Yang.

I'm a Hmong American here, living here in Milwaukee.

And today I'm going to show you bamboo stir fry with ground beef.

Bamboo is really abundant in Southeast Asia, and it's a staple meal because it's so easy to get.

I have a special friend that brought this all the way from North Carolina, cause they harvest it down there.

So they package it up and they get them right when they started shooting off of the ground.

But basically we just take the bamboo, I blanch it first in boiling water and then I just take it out here and just start slicing it into thinner size, like this.

Bamboo is like one of nature's most useful plant.

Cause you can eat it, you can make shelters out of it, structures out of it.

Even the board that I'm cutting on here is made of bamboo.

Back in our country we didn't have that much protein, such as beef, or pork, or chicken, I mean we use them sparingly.

So a lot of the vegetables kinda takes place of, you know, filling your stomach.

Let me start up this wok.

And you know, a lot of Hmong families here in this this country like to cook outside because it's, you know, first of all, it doesn't smell up your house.

And second of all, you know, we like the high heat stuff.

Add in the vegetable oil.

You can control your heat, so this is why we like to cook outside.

And you know, a lot of times we cook this, I usually start it pretty slow.

Let the meat cook slowly.

This is like a mushroom seasoning.

So it kind of acts like a blender.

Just a little bit of that.

And add in some garlic.

Throw it in.

Stir it around.

As you can see, it's pretty fat, so, you know, heats up pretty good.

Just kind of stir it around, and then gonna start prepping some of my onions here that I'm gonna throw in there.

And these I usually like to chop up sideways like this, so that it's easier to chew.

And we eat fresh onions like this kinda big, so when it goes in the stir fry it shrinks up a little bit.

And then this is oyster sauce.

Just add a little tablespoon there.

This is one of our sauce that we use here that kind of it gives a unique Asian or Southeast Asian taste to stir fry.

We kind of just stir it around, and just what's so nice about it, with the wok, is, you know, you can just cook it thoroughly.

The meat is all browned already, so I'll just throw in the bamboo.

And one thing I like about this plant also is, you know, during the time of the Vietnam War, when the Hmong refugees were persecuted for helping the United States, I think, you know, the bamboo, and they had to run into the forest, and, you know, escape Laos to seek refuge in Thailand, this is probably one of the plants that probably saved their life from starvation.

I mean, they can find it in the forest.

So it's a survival plant for a lot of our people too, you know?

As you can see, the liquid is starting to melt down a little bit.

Add a little bit of cooking wine here.

So the thing is, you know, cooking outside with a high heat like this, it gives you the nice charred flavor into your stir fries.

It's not like where you're cooking inside electrical stove, or anything like that.

But this is why we like to cook outside, because of this high heat.

(relaxing music plays) And that's it.

That's your bamboo stir fry with ground beef.