https://www.minnpost.com/new-americans/2017/06/immigrant-entrepreneurs-biggest-challenge-minnesota-attracting-native-born-cus
My own take - I buy lunch at the Hmong Town Market a few times a year.
I personally love to hunt and peck through the various vendors for
what looks good. I am a big fan of the fresh papaya salad. Then I go
to their indoor farmers market of sorts in the other building and pick
out an item or two. It is a bit intimidating to be looking through
about eight vendors with pretty much the same products and the same
price thinking, who do I buy from? I tend to buy from two vendors.
I go to grocery stores like Shang Hur a bit more often piecing
together ingredients for green chicken curry. I should note that price
wise, Asian groceries have some of the best deals on raw chicken
wings.
On the Minneapolis side, it has been a few years since I was at one of
the Somali malls. I walked through during the early days of our
neighborhood forum work in Cedar Riverside. Other times, I was with a
Somali friend showing an out of town guest these hidden gems of
commerce in our community while we explained our community outreach
work. I don't recall these places having the sort of food court at
Hmong Village or Hmongtown market (where you see a variety of SE Asian
foods). If there was a food court with a variety of pan-African foods,
that might bring in more folks than just Somali food (which is great
BTW).
This makes me think, that adding some community tour nights, etc.
might be a way to help the "masses" discover what's available at these
shops/malls.
Steve
Steven Clift - Executive Director, E-Democracy.org
<email obscured> - +1 612 234 7072
@democracy - http://linkedin.com/in/netclift
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