The couple who put shrimp paste on the New York culinary map

Nhung and Jerald opened a restaurant selling vermicelli with fermented shrimp paste in New York, making American food critics feel like they were "having lunch in Hanoi".

Young American chef Jerald Head met Nhung Dao, an office worker, in Ho Chi Minh City in the fall of 2016, when he came to Vietnam to learn culinary skills. A year later, when Jerald was already the head chef of a Vietnamese restaurant in New York, he returned to Vietnam and married Nhung.

When Nhung immigrated to the US with her husband in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, forcing restaurants in New York to close and Jerald to become unemployed. The couple got their chance in September 2020, when the New York government allowed restaurants to offer takeout and allow diners to dine on the sidewalk.

Nhung and Jerald decided to open "MẾM", a seasonal pop-up stall on a quiet street across from a park in the heart of Chinatown, Manhattan, to sell bun dau mam tom, a dish associated with their dates in Vietnam, and also one of the hardest Vietnamese dishes to find in America.

Bun Dau Mam Tom dish at MẾM NYC restaurant in New York, USA. Photo: Instagram/mam.nyc

Because this is an unusual dish in New York, the couple's small stall began to attract customers after the first quiet week.

"Diners spread the word and shared their experiences on review sites, helping our vermicelli dish spread quickly among the Vietnamese community in New York," Nhung told VnExpress . "At that time, we targeted Vietnamese customers, so we didn't change the taste to suit Western tastes, but tried to create the most original flavor."

The couple cooks their own tofu because "American tofu is dry and hard, has an industrial taste, and is not as soft and fatty as Vietnamese tofu." They then brought a steam tofu maker from Vietnam. Combined with family secrets passed down from their relatives in Gia Lai , they try to make fresh, delicious "Vietnamese-style" tofu every day.

Nhung also made her own cốm sausage from the few ingredients she brought over, while Jerald rolled up his sleeves and made pork sausage using a recipe he learned from his father-in-law. The couple bought herbs on Grand Street, imported from a state with a similar climate to Vietnam.

But the shrimp paste, the soul of this dish, still has to be purchased from a supermarket in New York. "The shrimp paste in American supermarkets is of good quality, can be sold, but is not good enough to compare with the quality we are aiming for," Nhung said.

They decided to choose shrimp paste from Vietnam. "Choosing good shrimp paste in Vietnam is not easy. After being introduced to a source in Thanh Hoa and trying it and finding it satisfactory, the couple was overjoyed as if they had struck gold," she said.

When the pandemic subsided in May 2022, they opened MẾM NYC at the same location in Chinatown. "This is when we get the best quality shrimp paste," Jerald said.

Nhung and Jerald stand in front of MẾM NYC restaurant in Chinatown, New York, USA. Photo: Grubstreet

MẮM NYC quickly became famous in the New York culinary world. The NY Times recently ranked MẮM at number 26 in the top 100 best restaurants in the city.

The restaurant’s vermicelli and tofu are served on a bamboo tray lined with banana leaves. Each special portion costs $32 and includes vermicelli, fried tofu, green rice sausage, grilled offal, boiled sausage, pork, and shrimp paste with a variety of herbs. The shrimp paste is mixed with sugar, lime juice, and Thai chili.

NY Times critic Pete Wells calls MẾM NYC "the most exciting Vietnamese restaurant in New York." He praises the shrimp paste, a flavorful dipping sauce with slices of chili and fresh lime, describes the fried tofu as crispy on the outside and cheesy on the inside, and especially loves the pork sausage.

The restaurant also asked permission from the park management across the street to set up a row of tables on the sidewalk in a green area. "Diners sit on the sidewalk, surrounded by people walking and cars passing by. It feels like having lunch in Hanoi," Mr. Wells wrote, adding that "shrimp paste promises to be a 'new adventure' because not everyone can eat it."

The article prompted many Americans to visit the restaurant to "try it out". For first-time customers, Nhung introduced shrimp paste, "which has a strong smell and is difficult to eat, but is the soul of the vermicelli and fried tofu dish".

"Even some Vietnamese people can't eat shrimp paste, but I always encourage customers to try it. If they find it too much, the restaurant always has fish sauce as an alternative," Nhung said. "There are Western customers who try it and 'fall in love' with shrimp paste, and can order two bowls in one meal."

Vietnamese-American couple puts shrimp paste on New York's culinary map

Diners enjoy vermicelli with fermented shrimp paste at MẾM NYC. Video: Instagram/mam.nyc

During Tet 2023, the couple returned to Vietnam and then brought 100 liters of shrimp paste to the US, but now it is almost gone, even though the shop is only open for three days from Friday to Sunday. The couple spends time taking care of their child on Monday, and orders and prepares ingredients from Tuesday to Thursday.

"The process of preparing ingredients for vermicelli with fried tofu is very complicated and time-consuming. The sausage and green rice sausage dishes alone require hours of preparation," Jerald explained. Every day the restaurant opens, it sells an average of about 100 servings of mixed vermicelli, using up 30 kg of fresh tofu.

"Because the restaurant is not large and the kitchen is small, many times customers have to leave because they run out of food," said Ms. Nhung. "We are always overloaded, customers often have to make reservations in advance and wait in line outside for at least 30 minutes."

Nhung and Jerald believe that Vietnamese cuisine has always held an important position in the world, but its coverage is not high, it is difficult to preserve the flavor when going abroad, while Japanese, Thai, and Korean food is developing very strongly. The couple intends to expand the restaurant and build a more stable team to maintain the quality of service and contribute to spreading Vietnamese cuisine more strongly in the US.

"Many Americans think that Vietnamese food is only cheap, but they don't know that Vietnamese food requires a lot of effort and dedication to create the right flavor," Nhung said. "We always hope that American diners will get acquainted with Vietnamese food and have a worthy view of the Vietnamese culinary experience."

Duc Trung

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