Yes, Mam

Mam’s the word at Cay Dua Deli, a tiny mirrored cafe in Orange County’s Little Saigon.

Cognoscenti of Vietnamese cuisine are familiar with this word because of nuoc mam, the rust-colored, fish-flavored condiment called fish sauce in English. Mam, as it happens, does not mean “fish”; it refers to a slow fermentation process.

And at Cay Dua Deli mam is a key word--the soul of a dish called mam va rau. Hold on to your hats if you intend to try it. Mam va rau may be the most overpowering one-pot meal on either side of the Pacific Rim.

When a first-time visitor orders mam va rau, the owner, Mr. Le, will appear tentative and probably write the kitchen a note. He’ll instruct the chef to cut down on the mam ca sat, a salty, purplish substance made from five kinds of anchovies.

In short order, a boiling kettle will be brought to the table, as well as side dishes heaped with bean sprouts, fresh herbs and wedges of lime. The kettle will be filled to the brim with small shrimp and chunks of eggplant, pumpkin and bony catfish, everything bobbing chaotically from side to side in a briny soup. Va rau, the second part of the dish’s name, refers to the art of shoveling vegetables into the mouth with chopsticks. Observe a diner at an adjoining table for the technique.

Even for Vietnamese, mam va rau is an acquired taste. The pungent, salty character of ma ca sat easily blots out the sweetness of catfish and the more delicate vegetable flavors, leaving only the shrimp to fight back. Some Vietnamese counter the strong flavors by piling on mint, basil and the mint-like herb tan oh. However you eat it, plan on tasting your mam va rau well down the Garden Grove Freeway. A wine connoisseur would say the dish has a “long finish.”

Cay Dua Deli is hardly a one-dish restaurant. Dozens of intensely ethnic specialties are prepared in this tiny kitchen, some familiar, some not. Nearly half the customers come for steaming bowls of hu tieu, a rustic alternative to the better known--and considerably less substantial--pho noodles. Hu tieu are clear, slippery rice noodles, round and thick, about the dimensions of bucatini pasta. Try a bowl my tho style, in a grandmotherly chicken stock laced with pork, dried shrimp and spongy beef meatballs. (You won’t find the dish on the menu. It’s listed on the wall, to the left of the Sharp’s beer sign.)

Dishes Nos. 1 to 3 on the menu are found everywhere in Little Saigon, but rarely are they prepared this well. No. 1, chao tom, is chopped shrimp shaped around sticks of sugar cane, delicious with a sticky sweet dipping sauce. Nem nuong are grilled pork meatballs that you swear would bounce, served on wooden skewers. The custom is to eat them wrapped in rice flour crepes along with sliced cucumber and crushed peanuts. No. 3 is banh xeo, a pancake filled with pork, shrimp and bean sprouts. That other worldly mustard-yellow color is mostly turmeric.

The menu is bilingual, although no one has bothered to translate the half dozen mam dishes. Specials are listed on cards, one per table, written in Vietnamese only. One special not to miss is cha gio cua--bite-sized egg rolls, seven to an order, filled with pure crab meat. Another great special is com ga roti, a beautifully roasted half game hen topped with crushed raw garlic, served sizzling with rice, vegetables and more herbs.

Cay dua means “coconut tree” in Vietnamese, and fresh coconut juice on the rocks is available as a beverage, sweet and cool in tall glasses. If you feel like coffee, you can have a Vietnamese version (typically sweetened with condensed milk) of the French cafe filtre, brewed on top of your cup in gleaming metal filter contraptions. Hot or iced, Vietnamese coffee is an ideal excuse to extend a lazy afternoon in mam land.

* Jonathan Gold will return to this space next week.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Where to Go

Cay Dua Deli, Liberty Square Mall, 9856-9862 Bolsa Ave., Westminster. (714) 839-4218. Open for lunch and dinner Thursday through Tuesday; closed Wednesday. Beer and wine only. MasterCard and Visa. Parking lot. Takeout. Dinner for two, $11-$16.

What to Get

Mam va rau, hu tieu my tho, com ga roti, cha gio cua.