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Hmong Culture

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Hmong Culture
Hmong Culture - Food, Eating and Cooking
Diverse Cultures in America - Soc 240
Upper Iowa University

The Hmong people are originally from rural mountainous areas in Laos and they still inhabit that country to this day. Laos is a country that is located in Southeast Asia. Hmong people are divided into clans or tribes that share the same paternal ancestry. The Hmong people inhabited all parts of Laos but all carried pretty much the same cultures and livelihood with them as many immigrated to the United States in the past few decades (Ohio State University, 2005).

One of the important parts of Hmong culture is their food. The Hmong staple food is white rice. Their diets consist of a variety of vegetables, fish, meat and traditional spices. They eat three meals a day and snacking, as the American people do, is not part of their native culture. Hmong foods are very simple and easy to make, this is due to the fact that the Hmong were limited to the foods they had in their native country of Laos.

Most of a Hmongs daily calories are from carbohydrates and grains. Native vegetables are also consumed in large amounts, like corn and maize, assortments of squash and beans (Cao L. & Noves H. 1996). These foods are a regular part of Hmong meals that are still currently used in the traditional Laos diet. These foods are used because of the limited access to other foods when living in Laos. Over 75% of Hmong families still use the simple diet of their native culture. Hmongs that live in the United States usually consist their meals of the following; breakfast, a light diet of eating a light soup, with rice, pumpkins, vegetables, chicken or pork. For lunch and dinner the following foods are mixed and matched, rice, fried or steamed meat like pork, chicken or beef along with various vegetables (Ohio State University, 2005).

Another very important part of Hmong culture is gardening. In their native Laos, corn, rice, squash, garlic, and various other vegetables and

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