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Lau Mam 140

There's no getting around it, bun mam stinks.  But like most any Asian dish based primarily on fermented or dried fish, its odor only hints at the complexity of flavors that await the diner willing to (figuratively) hold her nose and take the plunge. 

When it came time to sample this seductively repellent dish of rice noodle soup we were steered by a bun mam loving local to Lau Mam 140.  Located off of Nam Khy Khoi Nghia Street, about mid-point between the airport and District 1, Lau Mam 140 is no street-side hole-in-the-wall -- it's a proper roofed restaurant with fans, music, menus, and white tablecloths.  Never mind that there aren't enough fans to cool all of the tables, the music is loud and grating, and the tablecloths bear the stains of previous diners ...  service is friendly enough.

A plate of lotus root salad with shrimp and pork (goi ngo sen tron tom thit) kept us busy while we waited for our bowls of bun.  It's a Vietnamese restaurant standard, and this version served well as a diversion, but we were there for the bun.  It arrived, in over-sized soup bowls -- an odoriferous combination of thin rice noodles and a broth of dried snake head fish thick enough with fish shreds to qualify as gravy.  Floating among the noodles were cooked snails, squid pieces, and prawns, as well as the occasional chunk of eggplant.  Lau Mam 140 lightly blanches the herbs and vegetables accompanying their bun mam -- a nice touch.  On our plate we found bitter rau om, or paddy herb, bean sprouts, purple lotus stem, and chunks of a light green, spongy stalk (resembling celery but larger and rib-less) that I've yet to identify.  Lime slices and fresh chilies add a bit of zing.

Lau Mam 140's broth is simply wonderful -- much milder on the tongue than to the nose, to the extent that it calls for a smidgen of mam tom (Vietnam's super-pungent shrimp paste); strangely (and deliciously) sweet -- thus the lime on the side; and deeply fishy.  A generous amount of squid and shrimp add a fresh seafood note (next time I'll give the rubbery snails a miss), eggplant and green stalk act as sponges, absorbing the broth, bean sprouts add textural contrast, and the paddy herb's bitterness slices right through it all.   

If you've got a group and an appetite for more than a bowl of noodles, Lau Mam 140 specializes in -- as its name indicates -- lau mam, hot pot with mam broth, based on your choice of snake head fish, goby, or eel.  Otherwise, it makes a fine pit stop for a quick but memorable lunch or dinner noodle.

140/13 Tran Huy Lieu, F15, Phu Nhuan District. Lunch and dinner.

Comments

[catherine]

Robyn, how do you manage to identify all these (to me) strange and unheard of ingredients?

[Robyn]

Hey Catherine -- back from sunny Santa Barbara? Let me give credit where credit's due -- I get most of my info just by asking locals, some from cookbooks and reference books (I'm still waiting/looking for THE definitive and complete reference book on Asian vegetables). Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't ... after googling tapioca and potato leaves and viewing pics I find that the greens in the soup accompanying "special" pan mee are neither. So it's back to square one.
I like the chase though!
Cheers,
Robyn

[pieman]

Ooh, I will have to try this one. I like my Bun mam, thx for the tip. However, I must say I do prefer my bun mam with unblanched veggies, I like the crunch it adds to everything else. Have never had a Lau mam before. I imagine the broth comes from the same pot?

BTW - welcome to blogdom.

[Robyn]

Pieman, the veggies are blanched, but not *too* blanched, if you know what I mean. They've still got crunch, but not the sort of snap that a careless bite sprays your shirt with bun mam juice.

Depending on the fish you choose for your lau mam yes, it comes from the same pot. (I think the noodles are made with snake head fish broth.) I would give eel a try myself.
In fact every table but ours was doing lau mam (all groups) -- looked fantastic.

I'll soon be posting on a Malaysian noodle dish that in its own stinky way is quite reminiscent of stinky bun mams. Yum.

Hey, thanks for the welcome and the mention on yr site!

Happy chowing...............

[RST]

The definitive book on Asian vegetables? I'm waiting for you to write it. What's taking you so long ;0) Oh and on fruits too!!! And the Northern Thai/Yunnanese mushrooms we talked about for years. But yes, internet information on Asian vegetables is very unreliable.

[Robyn]

Yeah yeah Richard, I was just thinking the other day that perhaps the definitive book needs to be written and I'm just the person to do it. ;-)
I've been using Wendy Hutton's "A Cook's Guide to Asian Vegetables" which is pretty good, at least, I'm impressed that more uncommon items like rice paddy herb and laksa leaf and wild pepper leaves are included. But there's so much that's not included, which becomes evident to me when I visit a market here. I also use a very old (1981) book called "Tropical Cookery" by Yoshiko Yoshida, that was given to Dave's mom by the author when they were both at IRRI. It's good, but illustrations are black and white drawings, and it's a bit Philippines-specific.
When we were in KL in June I read in the paper about a book written by a Singaporean lady who had the goal to reintroduce young Singaporeans and Malaysians to the various greens available in the markets here -- but didn't write the name of the book down, unfortunately. But this sounds like just the sort of reference book I'm looking for.

[Murasaki Shikibu]

I just came across your blog just now and my jaw dropped. I can't believe someone actually has a copy of my mom's book...I mean...STILL.

I guess Dave's mom and my mom have met??

[Nguyen]

Hi,
I believe the green thing you mentioned is called "bac ha" in Vietnamese and is also found in "canh chua". I believe the scientific name is "alocasia odora".

[Nguyen]

After searching and enlisting a friend's help, I found this site that you might find useful too.
http://music.vietfun.com/natudien.php?g=B

It is an attempt at translating names for cooking ingredients/dishes.