“Mam” – the restaurant brings the tradition of sitting on sidewalk chairs, attaching shrimp to New Yorkers.

Perhaps few people would have thought that a Vietnamese noodle dish with shrimp paste and shrimp paste would travel all the way to New York. It even makes New Yorkers curious and passionate when they enjoy it. And that’s the true story of this restaurant called “Mam” by Ms. Nhung Dao and her husband Jerald Head with a focus on vermicelli and shrimp paste. It is a dish that is not easy to eat, but it has really won the dinners in the West.

In the middle of the most beautiful New York, there is a dish that takes diners from one emotion to another. The strange freshness of the vermicelli, the sparkle of the beans. Adding to the tasting picture are side dishes such as fried rice, pork belly and a special dipping sauce that you won’t find anywhere else in the world outside of Vietnam. All of them create a unique culinary symphony that is rare and hard to find right here in the United States.

Vietnamese Wife – Western Husband together bring homemade food to spread all over New York

It is modestly located in a small corner in the Lower East Side – New York (USA) but the store has no customers. Although it is operated in the “pop-up” style (fast-growing restaurants), this place is different from the usual “pop-up” types. “Mam” is a noodle shop with a fixed name and address and does not need to share a location with other places.

One thing that is easy to see in “Mam” is that they seem to sell not only food, but also culture and culinary experiences. The intimate, friendly Vietnamese quality of the restaurant makes anyone passing by wonder. From the 60kg machine made tofu to the green “long” table and chairs, everything was shipped from Vietnam.

The dish is also displayed on bamboo mats covered with banana leaves. Each squeeze of pressed vermicelli is also displayed on the typical bamboo mat of banana leaves and especially the signature bubble-pasted shrimp. Everything is unbelievably innocent in Vietnam.

Just looking at the restaurant, everyone will think that the head chef of this place will surely be Nhung, the son who brings the pride of his country’s food to the foreign world. But in fact, Jerald Head – Nhung’s husband is the one who combines the taste of Vietnam with fried beans, hot pork sausages, fragrant slices of fried rice noodles or a cup of Vietnamese-flavored shrimp paste. All the recipes are taught by his father-in-law, and his long experience as a chef Jerald Head and his wife have brought the soul of Vietnam to spread throughout New York.

The Vietnamese restaurant is ranked 26th among the best restaurants in New York

Maybe for some people the smell of shrimp unama is actually “horrible”, but there are people who think that it tastes good. So, every weekend, New York diners look forward to the rows of green plastic chairs that seem to enjoy this Vietnamese dish. Here, each special vermicelli with shrimp paste costs 32 USD (equivalent to 800,000 VND).

Of course, many people will feel the “pain of the wallet”, sometimes they think that it is not stupid to spend up to 800,000 VND for a drink or a drink in the afternoon like that. But with Americans it is different, they are willing to pay to challenge their taste with new things. And not to disappoint those who love good food, “Mam” was ranked 26th among the best restaurants in the city by the New York Times.

In addition, the restaurant has also modified Mam’s menu to introduce other international cuisine specialties such as stuffed snails, whole grilled fish, pork rolls, etc. But for now, the main attraction. So the tradition of sitting on the side of the road, promoting fish with the smell of garbage was introduced in New York in a very “quality” way.

Photo source: @mam.nyc