- Washington Grown is made possible by funding from the Washington State Department of Agriculture and the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program.

And by The Potato Farmers of Washington.

Learn why Washington is home to the world's most productive potato fields and farmers by visiting potatoes.com.

[light music] - On this special season of "Washington Grown", we're following Washington produce around the world.

Here we go.

- I mean there is just stuff happening everywhere.

- Breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

- Breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

[Kristi laughs] I'm doing all the work over here.

- That's a Tomás deluxe.

All good things are better shared right?

- Cheers my friend.

- Cheers.

[Val laughs] - I can't even walk.

Hot diggety dog!

- We got a lot to explore and a lot to do.

So let's get to it.

- To Washington.

- To Washington.

- Washington.

- Hi everyone, I'm Kristi Gorenson, and welcome to "Washington Grown" from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

Now shopping for produce is a little bit different here in Vietnam than it is in Washington, but the goal is still the same, trying to find the best produce in the world.

In today's episode, we're gonna see how Washington products are sold around the world.

Tomás is visiting an influencer who teaches people about apples.

- You want people to feel like they're alongside with you, so you're kind just carrying them through.

- And I'm making a special Filipino soup at Musang in Seattle.

- This is a hard soup to eat with a spoon, though.

You kind of need a fork - A fork and a spoon.

- and a spoon.

- Plus the team and I are visiting a Vietnamese wet market.

- We've been in a lot of places all over the state of Washington, but this is not Kansas anymore.

- No, not in Washington anymore.

All this and more today on "Washington Grown."

[soft music plays] Walking into this craftsman home here on Beacon Hill, you might feel like you're meeting up at a good friend's house for dinner.

From the warm smells to the familiar decor, everything here at Musang will make guests feel like longtime family friends.

- Everything here is just so amazing.

- These flavors are, kind of remind me of home.

My mom's cooking.

- There's a ton of flavor in it.

It's a lot of spices.

They were saying it's kind of like the whole Filipino pantry.

- The fish is amazing.

[laughs] - Owner and chef, Melissa Miranda wanted to bring her patrons the full experience of being a guest in a Filipino home.

Whether it's the art, the service, or the food, Musang is a love letter to Melissa's childhood.

Even the name of the restaurant has a story.

- So Musang means wild cat.

- Okay.

- My dad had a black Mustang.

- Cool.

- And then the "T" fell off and so he became Musang and his friends just called him that.

- Yeah.

- I spent a lot of time cooking with him.

He really instilled with me like the Filipino food and culture and the importance of it.

- I mean this area has a lot of history, especially with the Filipino-American community.

It's a really great opportunity to share our culture with the rest of the community.

- The food actually reminds me of how my parents cook.

In fact, my parents love the food at Musang and that says a lot because my parents are very picky about their Filipino food.

- Filipinos, when they first immigrated to Seattle, they've been here for a really long time.

But Beacon Hill was a neighborhood that a lot of folks actually came and moved to.

So I have a lot of memories coming here.

I think that what it does for representation for our community, is really what's the most important, and being able to hopefully be an example for like the next generation.

That there are people that look like me that can have success and do this too.

- Stay tuned because later in the show, chef Melissa and I are going to make a special Filipino soup called Pinakbet.

- I won't be able to mimic my mom or my grandma, but what I can do is at least try and trigger a memory of nostalgia for them.

- Do they ever like, "Okay, listen, this is not the way I did it."

- Yeah.

[laughter] [gentle music playing] - Way up north in Tonasket, apples and pears are almost ready for harvest, and here among the trees you'll find one energetic person spreading the word to thousands of people.

- We are doing our first picking of Honeycrisp apples.

And it's a little crazy.

It's a bit sunny today, which is wonderful for picking but terrible for filming.

- Kaitlyn Thornton considers herself an agriculture influencer teaching thousands of followers on TikTok, numerous things about apples and orchards.

Now, although she has three other siblings, it turns out that her passion and love for farming led her to be the only one to follow in her dad's footsteps.

- I was the one who's like, "I love agriculture."

Now he has me who was like always like, "Dad, can we hang out?

Can I, can you tell me this?

Can you?"

He's like, "Alright, relax."

[laughter] - Right now Kait's a marketing major at Washington State University, but her involvement in both ag and business started early on in high school.

- I wanted to make a little side money.

So we had these apricot trees.

He's like, "If you sell 20 boxes, I'll be impressed."

And I sold 44 that year.

- Okay.

So that was his reverse psychology motivation happening.

- Yeah.

He knows what works with me 'cause I'm basically the female version of him.

- Okay.

- Sold over 400 boxes that first year.

And then my senior year I sold 1200 boxes of fruit.

- What?!

- And I just keep it going.

- When she isn't studying in Pullman, Kait's here working in the orchard and today she's using that business acumen to put somebody else to work...me.

- We bring out all the bins and then we load 'em up on the truck here and then we have to throw straps.

So that's like the final part right here.

- Hold this.

- Okay.

- Whichever hand you throw with, you just want to get it over the bin.

- Right, - So aim above the- - And you don't let go this, obviously.

I want to hold onto that.

Jeez.

We'll see.

We'll see what we can do here, right?

- Oh, that was pretty, that was good.

- Yeah, that first shot.

- There we go.

- Go home, take a break.

- Alright, take a break.

[laughs] I got it.

Alright, now let's go tighten this down.

Okay.

Because this is what I do now, I'm gonna leave "Washington Grown" and I'm gonna start driving truck.

- And when I was younger I really didn't have a whole lot of muscle, so this is like, I really had to use my leverage- - When you were younger, right.

- In my younger days.

- [chuckles] Right.

How tight does it need to be?

- Yeah, that's good.

- Okay.

- That's the sound you want.

- Nice job.

F sharp.

Okay.

- F sharp.

[laughs] - Our last stop was way up in the hills where a special variety of apple was nearly ready for harvest.

- So this is like one of our top varieties that we grow.

So it's a new apple called SugarBee.

- SugarBee.

Look how beautiful, shiny that is.

- Yeah.

So that's what we call fruit finish.

So one thing I've made videos about this is how we check fruit finish is my dad's always told me to take your lip and just kind of rub it along.

- Okay.

And what am I feeling for?

- You feel how smooth that is?

- Yeah.

- I've done the same thing with my pickup after I wax it.

[laughter] - When you hear it...[bites into apple] - I know.

- Come on.

- Speaks for itself.

- How do I make a TikTok video?

What do we do?

Let's make one right now.

- Alright.

You want people to feel like they're alongside with you.

- Okay.

- So you're kind of just carrying them through.

Hey y'all.

So I'm with my friend Tomás.

He is from "Washington Grown" TV.

He's all the way up here in Tonasket, Washington.

I'm showing him one of our new apple varieties.

This is called a SugarBee.

Let's show him a little crunch action.

- Yeah, listen to this.

[apple crunches] - You just got a free promo.

- Yeah.

You see that?

- I'll bill you.

- There you go.

Oh shoot.

You see that?

Millions of people are gonna be watching that and she's gonna send us a bill.

[soft guitar music plays] We've been in a lot of places all over the state of Washington.

But this is not Kansas anymore.

- No, we are not in Kansas.

We're not in Washington anymore, that's for sure.

We are in Ho Chi Minh City at the market.

This is how people grocery shop in Vietnam.

Although Vietnam does have a rising number of the grocery stores that Americans are used to, the traditional way of shopping is here at the wet market.

Anything you're looking for from fruit to meat to fresh fish can be found right here on the street.

Fresh everything.

Because Vietnamese, they like to buy fresh and eat fresh and part of that is Washington Apples.

And look at this.

- Here we are and so far from home across the globe.

But look, there's Washington State represented right there.

- That's right.

- So home is always with us no matter where we go here.

It's so cool to see that there's a different way of like grocery shopping.

We go to a supermarket, but it's just here on the street.

Anything kind of produce you want and it all looks so fresh and beautiful.

- So fresh, so colorful.

Many, many items that I've never seen before and I don't know what they are.

But one of Vietnam's favorites is the Washington Apple.

So Tomás and I split up to find out what the people of the market think of Washington's famous fruit.

[speaks Vietnamese] What we found was that everyone in the market loved Washington Apples because of how sweet, crispy and colorful they are.

- She eat every day.

Every day one apple.

- One apple.

- One Washington apple.

- Oh, that's great!

That's why you're so healthy and beautiful.

- Yeah.

- Yeah...

I love it!

[laughs] [speaks Vietnamese] Buyers also said that apples and pears are perfect for Vietnamese new year to be given as gifts or to decorate for the holiday.

As I walked around, I stumbled into one of the busiest spots in the market where the meat was being sold.

As our team got ready to set up a shot, everything around me started changing.

Something's happening, what's happening?

They had their meat set up here because, 'cause they have like a whole pig the head, the snout, every part of the pig that they were chopping and presenting and then all of a sudden they just moved really fast, got out of the way and not sure what happened.

[laughs] But really interesting.

This is like the meat part of the market.

So the butcher shop basically at the grocery store.

And so you see just all kinds of cuts of meat, a lot of chicken, a lot of pig, and it's so busy.

Their favorite mode of transportation is the moped.

And so there's millions of them in Ho Chi Minh City and you really have to...watch out basically.

But they're very good.

They're very good at not running you over.

At the end of the day, Tomás and I met up to share our thoughts over a fresh Washington apple.

- That is not the grocery experience that we're used to back home, but pretty cool nonetheless.

So where are we going next?

- I don't know, but I know it's gonna be exciting.

- Alright, well let's go.

We got a lot to explore, a lot to do.

So let's get to it.

[soft music plays] - You might notice that a lot of apples have these white spots all over them.

They're called lenticels and what do you think that they're for?

We'll have the answer for you after the break.

- Coming up, I'm making a special Filipino soup at Musang in Seattle.

This is a hard soup to eat with a spoon though.

You kind of need a little fork and a spoon.

And we're in The Kitchen at Second Harvest trying Chef Laurent's zucchini chutney.

[soft music plays] - These white spots on an apple, they're called lenticels and they essentially help the apple breathe.

So they let in and out oxygen and carbon dioxide.

- We're back at Musang on Beacon Hill in Seattle.

With such fresh and flavorful items on the menu, it's easy to fall in love with the Filipino culture of food that's so prevalent in the restaurant.

When you're at Musang, you're part of something bigger than just food.

- The place just feels very inviting and community oriented.

- It just feel like you're at a friend's house and they're just pulling the things out of their pantry.

- Powerful flavors that kind of remind me of home.

- We want the guest to experience like what it is to be in a Filipino home.

- Okay.

Owner and chef Melissa Miranda knows that in order to make her food the way she remembers it, only the freshest ingredients make the cut.

- A lot of the things that my parents had access to, we don't have access to here.

Being able to take the flavor and the idea of what the Filipino food dish is, but then maybe adding a different veggie or whatever's in season.

There are Filipino farmers that are working out of eastern Washington and so they really focus on planting and growing vegetables that Filipinos love.

- Everything I've had has been so good.

- If you're not familiar with Filipino food, I think Musang's the perfect place to try it.

- It just feels like home.

- So what are you and I gonna make today?

- Oh yes.

- I'm excited.

- We're actually gonna make a somewhat more traditional version of Pinakbet.

So we've got zucchini, okra, eggplant, a base in Filipino food called guisado.

So garlic, onion, tomatoes.

- I'm gonna get my vegetables today.

- You're gonna get your vegetables today.

- I love it.

Okay, I'm excited.

[laughter] - It wouldn't be a Filipino dish if there wasn't garlic.

- Okay.

- So everything is based off of garlic.

- Has to have garlic.

- And then there's always onions and tomatoes.

So this base is called guisado.

- We started by cooking some garlic, then adding seasoning salts, onions and tomatoes and letting it cook down before adding a little water.

Once that's cooked a bit, we add some pork belly and a special fermented shrimp paste.

- It is called bagoóng alamáng.

Alamáng means shrimp.

- Okay.

Yeah.

- [laughs] Growing up- - Smells just like you would expect it to.

- Growing up, this was a smell that was very... - I bet - intense as a child.

- Sure.

- Whenever we'd have like a roast pig for like a family celebration, there'd be lots of leftover parts.

And so then we'd throw that in this.

- Oh and it just makes it so much better.

Good.

- I won't be able to mimic my mom or my grandma, but what I can do is at least try and trigger a memory of nostalgia for them.

So whenever my parents or my grandparents come, it's always like, "I hope they like it."

- Do they ever like, "Okay, listen, this is not the way I did it."

- Yeah.

So actually this dish is on our menu currently.

- Yeah.

- But it's completely different.

My aunts from LA came by like a month ago.

And they were like, "I've never seen Pinakbet like this, but it tastes like Pinakbet."

- Finally we had some okra, eggplant, zucchini, and a squash puree.

Once it's cooked, we top it off with some pickled, bitter melon.

This is a hard soup to eat with a spoon though.

You kind of need a fork, - and a spoon.

[soft music plays] - Right.

- This is so beautiful.

- Thank you.

- I mean, it looks like springtime.

- All the colors.

- It is.

It's gorgeous.

I'm not gonna be very dainty when I eat this, I don't think.

Oh yeah, mm-hmm.

That's all we can say is mm-hmm.

Oh, that's really good.

[laughter] It is really good.

- I think my grandma would be proud.

[laughs] - Aw.

Loaded with vegetables.

But you have that nice pork belly that gives it - A little richness.

- Yeah and then the fermented shrimp for a little bit of umami.

I like all of it together, just makes sense.

- Each bite can be a little bit different.

Right?

- And the veggies are still crunchy.

- Mm-hmm.

To get the recipe for Musang's Pinakbet visit wagrown.com Coming up, Tomás is trying some special Lao food at Taurus Ox in Seattle.

- The flavors go all the way.

So it's either gonna be really salty, really spicy, really sour, really bitter.

You get the picture?

- There's Lao food.

- That's Lao food.

Yeah.

[laughter] [gentle music playing] - Bold, umami, spicy, herbaceous and aromatic flavors.

That's an eye catching description for a restaurant if you ask me.

So when I saw that on a website for Taurus Ox on Capitol Hill in Seattle, I wanted to put that claim to the test.

Owner Kampane has created a menu based around his home country of Laos where the flavors, well, they're just like the website says.

- This is like one of the only Laos-based restaurants around.

Right?

- There's a few.

The reason why there's not more, a lot of the Lao people they disguise as a Thai restaurant.

- Okay.

- The people ask, "So you mean like Thai food?"

[Tomás laughs] And that's the main reason why there's a lot of Thai restaurants owned by Lao people because it's reeducation.

- Because at some point they're like, "Yeah, fine.

Like Thai food."

- Yeah.

Just like, "Yeah, we're, I'm a Thai restaurant."

[laughter] It's all about like the herbs, the spices.

We're unapologetically spicy.

- Okay.

- The flavors go all the way from like, we don't even mess around.

It's like a 10 for everything.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

So it's either gonna be really salty, really spicy, really sour, really bitter.

You get the picture?

- And there's Lao food.

- That's Lao food, yeah.

- Today we're trying the Laos chicken lob made with fresh Washington grown herbs.

- The herbs really highlight this and in particular, the mint and the rau rum.

And then sprinkled on top is our toasted rice powder.

- Nice.

And a lot of these herbs, they're right here from Washington, right?

- Yes.

They even grow like wild.

Especially the mint and the rau rum.

- I have plenty of mint in my backyard, so I know exactly what you're talking about.

- They grow in the winter too.

- I think I'm tired of looking at it.

I think we need to eat this.

- Just kind of one of these right here.

- Yeah, exactly.

Cheers.

I'm excited to try this.

Oh, it's gonna get you, it creeps in the back of your throat.

It's bright and it's airy and it's...and you're right.

There's that saltiness and that spiciness.

But it makes you want to go back for more.

- What I hear often is, "Wow, you guys definitely didn't hold back."

- Right.

- And that's kind of my goal.

I didn't want to hide or change what Lao food is to please the masses.

I hope you like it.

- Yeah, just unapologetically.

"This is who we are."

This is awesome.

This tastes so good and I could just keep eating this all day.

I think I just might, when the cameras are off, I'm gonna continue.

- It's just the tip of the iceberg for Lao food.

- Right, it's delicious and if you're cooking everything in this restaurant with this much flavor and passion and love, Lao's the way to go.

This season.

We had a wonderful opportunity to visit The Global Produce & Floral Trade Show in Orlando, Florida.

As far as the eye can see, all kinds of fresh produce and products were being displayed.

And right at the center of it all was a special "Washington Grown" booth.

It was there that Washington potato director of marketing, Brandy Tucker was putting in some serious time to promote our amazing Washington grown potatoes.

- We love to come out to all of these shows, this one we are here in Florida, and we just like to tell people about Washington potatoes.

We have to educate people about all the potatoes that are grown in Washington state.

We've grown a lot of Russets, we grow a lot of potatoes for french fry manufacturing.

- Yeah.

- And we have some of the best specially potatoes like reds, yellows, purple potatoes.

And at this show here, this is a huge international show.

So we like to come here and talk about potatoes that we could export to other countries.

- Also at the booth was Rianne Perry, who manages the Washington State Department of Agriculture's International Marketing Program.

At a show surrounded by products from all over the US, it's important to think a little bigger than just Washington state.

- We figure about 30% of our agricultural products are exported.

Buying local is very important and we definitely support that at the Department of Agriculture.

But we also realize and recognize that exports are also critical to Washington's economy.

- What are you hearing from our customers across the ocean about our potatoes?

- They love our product.

Not just potatoes, but just Washington agriculture as a whole.

Like I said, we grow 'em best here in Washington.

And so just to keep those relationships open and keep our potatoes going to feed the world.

- Although the trade show is incredible, it takes more than just one weekend to promote Washington products.

Across the Pacific in Vietnam, we ran into Washington Director of Agriculture, Derek Sandison, who was hard at work fighting for Washington trade.

- We're basically in a role of advocating for changes in trade policy that would help move products both ways.

Trade's a two-way street.

So we wanna make it easier for our products to move into Vietnam as well as Vietnamese products to move to the United States.

I would say tariffs are the biggest issue right now.

- As tariffs raise the price for foreign exports, people like Director Sandison and Rianne work hard to make trade more agreeable for our Washington farmers.

- Tariffs are something that make our products more expensive than our competitors in other countries.

When our products are more expensive, it puts us at a big disadvantage.

- We have so many good products to offer and the right set of circumstances should be improving our exports.

- We are feeding the world in the United States and from Washington state.

Not every country has the food security that we have.

And so we are providing a lot of the food that's going to these international customers.

It's very important.

- And it's something that we're all proud of.

- Yes.

[soft music plays] - We're in The Kitchen at Second Harvest Food Bank in Spokane.

We're ready to taste some great food.

Got my co-tasters here with me today.

Chef Laurent Zirotti, thank you so much for joining us again.

My pleasure, Kristi.

- Yeah, we appreciate it.

And co-host Tomás.

- Here we're again.

Yes.

- Yes.

- Are we ready to taste some good food?

- I think so.

- And I think it's lovely this year, this season you developed some of our recipes that we're gonna be tasting.

- Yes.

How exciting is that?

- Just for our viewer.

And we can get those recipes only on our website, on wagrown.com.

And I hope you will enjoy them all.

- Yeah.

We love it.

And we're still reminiscing about our trip, to Vietnam and to Mexico and the markets and the food that we saw.

And- - That was amazing - The wet market, it was so interesting in Vietnam and it's called wet because it's fresh and- - Super fresh.

- Yeah.

Super fresh.

- Almost to the point that I think a lot of us here in the States would just be freaked out by the concept of it.

And I think that was what was so wonderful about it, is going to see what other countries do.

It doesn't make it wrong or right.

It's just a different way of doing things.

And it was great to be able to have that opportunity to be exposed to that.

And go, "Wow, this is cool."

- Yeah, it was very cool.

And to see all of the Washington grown products, like the produce.

- Yeah, right.

- The sellers there, that's like the old school way of grocery shopping.

You ride your bike or your moped to the wet market and that's where you get your daily bag.

and whatever goes.

- Take your bag... - Whereas, some of the newer more modern, the younger generation in Vietnam tend to go to the grocery stores and that sort of thing.

But it was great to see how the traditional...still exists.

- Next time, take me.

[laughter] - Hey, I know, right?

- You'd love it.

You'd love it.

I think you'd love it.

- What's your recipe that you're sharing today?

- Well, we're sharing something a little different that I like because there's multipurpose in that recipe, but it's a spicy zucchini chutney.

- Oh, okay.

- You can use it as a condiment or use it as a side vegetable- - But we're always looking for ways to- - Well, we'll see our team- - Get rid of that zucchini.

[laughter] - Our team in the kitchen are doing great and bringing beautiful dishes to us.

- We love it.

- And we cannot wait to taste that chutney.

- Yeah, let's find out how you make it.

[soft music plays] So how would you suggest eating this?

- I would like wrap- - I'm just gonna wrap my meat and cheese in this.

- Okay.

- There we go.

- Okay, I'm gonna use some cheese.

- Stuff that chutney in there.

- [laughs] Mm.

- Sweet.

- It is.

- That's the first thing I noticed was the sweetness.

- Got some spiciness to it.

- That's a good way to give it some texture and body to fill out that chutney.

- What's a normal, what's a typical chutney made out of?

- Plenty.

Pineapple, mango, mango chutney.

A lot of mango chutney.

- Yeah.

I don't think I've ever- - Cranberry chutney.

- Yeah.

- Also, you can make for holidays, for the Thanksgiving, you make the chutney out of cranberries.

- What a unique way.

I love it.

And it's got great flavor.

Awesome.

- Very nice Laurent.

- Yes.

- Thank you very much.

- So if you'd like to give it a try, go to "Washington Grown," or wagrown.com, our website at "Washington Grown" and we have all the recipes there.

And follow us on social media too.

Maybe give us a post if you happen to try it, we'd love to hear about it, right?

- Don't be too harsh on me, please.

[laughter] Cheers.

- They're gonna love it.

[laughter] To get the recipe for Chef Laurent Zirotti's zucchini chutney, visit us at wagrown.com.

It's been absolutely amazing seeing how people buy our fresh produce around the world.

And you know what?

A Washington apple tastes just as good here as it does back home.

That's it for this episode of "Washington Grown."

We'll see you next time.