The Missing Fish Mint

Her behavior reminded me of my mother and sociological theories about the assimilationist second generation in immigrant families. My grandmother, who was an immigrant from Eastern Europe, packed my mother's lunch with sandwiches on homemade bread. My mother begged her to stop baking and instead to buy Wonder Bread so she could be like the other kids at school. I suspect our waitress is going through some similar second-generation angst, which is why she finds Anglos who seek authentic Vietnamese food, fumble with chopsticks and try to pronounce Vietnamese words ludicrous.

Nam's menu, which is written entirely in English, exhibits similar white-bread tendencies. It skips such favorite Vietnamese ingredients as jellyfish, cuttlefish and goat. And it includes Americanized Chinese restaurant glop like sweet-and-sour chicken and fried wontons filled with cream cheese.

"Any hot, spicy dish may be modified according to your taste," reads a disclaimer on Nam's menu. On our second visit, we attempted to get some hot and spicy food -- to no avail.

"I want it really, really hot," my tablemate told the waitress while looking over the chicken dishes. Vietnamese chicken was the hottest chicken dish available, we were told. It came coated with garlic, and there were some jalapeño slices on the plate. But the heat was barely discernible unless you sucked on the peppers. The curry shrimp was equally disappointing. The thick, yellow Chinese-restaurant curry had no heat and barely any flavor. We also tried Nam's minimalist bo luc lac, which seemed to be nothing but tenderloin chunks coated with tiny garlic granules served on romaine leaves with a few sautéed onions. Though we missed the tomatoes and other salad items, the beef was perfectly cooked.

The best thing I tried at Nam was the fried squid, which was served over a salad with a dipping sauce you make yourself by squeezing a lemon wedge into a saucer over a pile of salt and pepper. Sadly, the dish reminded me of the fried cuttlefish at A Dong, which had long been my favorite Vietnamese restaurant. A Dong closed recently when the owner decided to retire.

Nam will not be replacing A Dong as my favorite Vietnamese restaurant. But if you are one of those Houstonians who don't enjoy driving to Chinatown to eat in grubby hole-in-the-wall joints where nobody speaks English, then Nam may be the place for you. It's a clean and attractive Vietnamese restaurant not far from the Galleria that serves well-prepared (if underseasoned) Asian food, and where English is spoken fluently. If you go, I suggest you not bother asking for chopsticks.