Orlando’s Mills Market: In The Vietnamese Tradition
Mills Market is a nod to its chefs’ Asian roots.
TIEN HUNG MARKET has been a staple in the Orlando Vietnamese community since it was founded in the early ‘70s. It was one of the first Asian markets to open in the area along with Little Saigon Market, at a time when Vietnamese immigrants were flocking to the country to seek refuge from the war. While cities like Houston and Denver attracted the most immigrants, second-tier cities like Orlando became footholds in the country because of their strong church communities. The markets became the epicenter of what would eventually be known as Little Vietnam, with Asian restaurants and businesses catering to the community popping up all around the intersection of Mills Avenue and Colonial Drive. Through the decades, not much changed at the intersection of Mills and Colonial. Eventually, with the introduction of the Mills 50 Main Street, the area around Little Vietnam started to flip and gentrify, surrounding the primarily Asian-owned properties at the center with hip new bars and eateries. For a hot minute, Little Vietnam seemed poised to be overwhelmed by a swelling tide of white developers but thankfully, that never happened. Third-generation Asian Orlandoans started to reinvest in the area and in recent years we’ve seen a resurgence of trendy Asian-owned concepts opening in some of the vacant storefronts, including King Bao, Sampaguita, Moderne and more tea shops than you can throw a boba at.
Under the direction of Jimmy and Johnny Tung of the Bento Group, the market has seen a glow-up of its own as well, one that is based on its Asian roots and amplifies Asian voices under a new banner: Mills Market. Johnny Tung’s wife, Cecilia “Cece” Nguyen, grew up in the market and has run Tien Hung Jewelry, tucked away behind glass in the middle of the 10,000-square-foot storefront for years, creating custom jewelry for a Rolodex of who’s who in Orlando. Tien Hung Market’s gradual transformation into Mills Market officially started with the revamp of a popular banh mi station called Banh Mi Boy. In Vietnam, a banh mi is a sandwich made with a short baguette with a snappy crust and a soft, airy crumb inside, a leftover from French colonialism. It gets split up the middle like a filleted fish and filled with meat and savory toppings (like pates or special meats) and pickled vegetables (like carrots and cucumbers) and is served up submarine sandwich-style. The best ones have pickled jalapenos in them for a little kick. The counter, equipped with a hip new logo and seating area, succeeded in bringing a new energy to the market that it hadn’t seen in decades, attracting fresh visitors with a menu of Viet-Cajun oyster po boys and Saigon beer-battered crispy fish.
That rebrand was followed by the opening of the Michelin-recognized gyoza and udon shop, Zaru, in August 2023, led by chef William Shen. The new award-winning udon noodle house was followed by a new barbecue concept called Kai Kai, led by a husband-and-wife team, chefs Jerry and Jackie Lau, who have 35 years of experience in Cantonese cuisine from New York City’s Chinatown. Both chefs are originally from China, but Jerry spent a chunk of his childhood in New York, which is widely touted as the epicenter of Chinese cooking in America.
They’ve both been marinading in that culinary world for decades and now Orlando is lucky enough to have Hong Kong by way of New York in Little Vietnam, with some world-class duck and pork ribs, alongside traditional dim sum, assorted BBQ plates and classic rice and noodle dishes. Don’t sleep on the roast duck, it’s some of the best I’ve ever had and all those New York transplants that bought up homes here during the pandemic are saying it tastes just like home.
A new onigiri vendor specializing in nori-wrapped rice and savory proteins like tuna or fried chicken has also been attracting crowds. Onigiri is essentially a rice ball made with white rice that is formed into a triangle shape and wrapped in seaweed. The rice balls are filled with all manner of fillings, such as pickled plums, beef, pork, tuna, salmon or even turkey. The eponymous UniGiri is made with Hokkaido sea urchin and marinated salmon roe. Fancy. It’s named UniGirl, after chef Shen’s dog, a shiba inu. The counter is styled after a Japanese “konbini” convenience store and staffed by some of the most adorably kawaii staff you’ll ever meet. I haven’t tried their desserts yet, but I hear from Faiyaz Kara at Orlando Weekly that the yuzu tart is pretty fantastic.
The latest addition to the market is Saigon Snow, a shaved ice dessert bar serving a variety of delicious creations with Southeast Asian flavors like ube, coconut and Vietnamese coffee with toppings that include pandan, coco nata and fresh seasonal fruits. The results are little towers of yum that could easily be served on Star Trek or Avatar, or some other outlandish nerd film franchise. Snow bowls are similar to Japanese kakigori and Korean bingsu, with a bed of floofy shaved ice covered in fruit, jellies and syrups. Eventually, they’ll be adding crepes and fruit dips too. Saigon Snow is being overseen by the talented winner of Top Chef Season 3, Hung Huynh, who has had previous stints at Morimoto Asia and Ava MediterrAegean in Winter Park. Huynh joined the Tung team two years ago as the company’s new director of culinary innovation. Huynh was born in Saigon and has been around kitchens since he was 10 years old, helping his mother in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He broke his teeth at a teppanyaki restaurant in Puerto Rico before working his way into the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in San Juan, which paid for his degree at the Culinary Institute of America. He opened the three-star Guy Savoy in Las Vegas before winning his season of Top Chef.
Next up for Mills Market is Cowboy Curry, led by the brain of the aforementioned chef William Shen, of Sorekara in Baldwin Park. Shen’s latest concept will feature house-made Japanese curries served with high-quality beef and rice, including A4 and A5 Japanese wagyu and menchi-katsu trimmings. “Japanese curry is one of my all-time favorite foods growing up. I wanted to share the magical taste I loved so much as a kid in Japan with the Orlando community,” says Shen. Japanese curry is a bit more stew-like than its Indian cousin, but still served over a scoop of fragrant short-grain rice or udon noodles, and sometimes even buttered toast. The curry is sweeter and less spicy than Indian curry and is made with a roux, a mixture of flour, fat and spices that give it a very rich aroma and savory taste. It was introduced by the Brits in the late 1800s and is now widely available across the country.
According to the Tung team, the next phase of development at the market is expected to introduce a “hidden” Japanese whisky bar while the fourth and final phase will unveil more than 10 new micro eateries and shops throughout the building working in an incubator-style setup like East End Market, cementing it as the heart soul, and epicenter of the neighborhood.
