How to BYOB at Mắm, New York's Most Interesting Vietnamese Restaurant

Or: How to pair wine with pho

The first time I ate at Mắm, a server vigorously stirred a pungent shrimp paste at my table until it turned from clear to opaque, explaining to me that this particular mắm tôm had been smuggled in from Vietnam via suitcase. I dipped fried tofu and blood sausage into the sauce, and tasted its iron-y, salty funk. I didn’t really get it.

But the most recent time I ate there, I was being handed glasses of wine from wine importer Steven Graf, while launching questions at Mắm’s co-owner and chef, Jerald Head. The food tasted good—really good—and it was the same exact dish I’d had last time. Did he change something about the food, or did that first experience change me?

“It’s you. You changed, man,” Jerald answered. Maybe I’d needed to rise to the challenge. The dish served with shrimp paste is called bún đậu đặc biệt, a towering pile of house-made tofu, rice sausage, pork belly, blood sausage, grilled intestines, and herbs. It’s a signature dish at Mắm, and Jerald knew it should be, despite the previous restaurant he worked at asking him not to put the dish on the menu.

“I remember the ownership being like: New York is not ready for this. I was like: I’m a white dude. I fucking love this, you know?”

Behind the paywall: The origins of Mắm, Jerald’s plans for the future, and what wines we brought to pair with the menu.