Food Stop 2 - Madam Mam's, Austin Tx

I'm exhausted by the time I pull into the Day's Inn in Austin. But I had to eat! 

Just yesterday my friend KW suggests that I try out a University of Texas Austin staple. Situated on Guadalupe & Dean Keeton, Madam Mam's is conveniently located on campus and within a nose's reach of hundreds of hungry 19 year old college students. 

As expected of a college town, I walk in upon a bunch of students furiously studying away while at the same time trying to tackle their respective bowls of green curry and rice. Come on guys! It's summer!!!

My dad had previously told me that the way to tell a good Thai restaurant from the Bad is to see how they prepare 2 signature dishes. 1) Fish cakes and 2)Tom Yum (Clear spicy & sour soup). So I ordered a bowl of Tom Yum Kuey Teow (Flat rice noodle) with sliced chicken and some fish cakes as an appetizer, only to be told that they were out of fish cake. But the waiter highly recommended the soft spring rolls, a typical Vietnamese starter (i.e Not Thai!). I was quite interested to see how they would put a thai spin on a Viet classic. 

The Spring rolls arrived first! They look Gorgeous!! At first look, I knew that these were something special. These were pretty hefty (so much so that i decided to only eat one of them and box the other one). The semi transparent skin seems to almost be teasing me, revealing only a little glimpse of what they hold within.

I took a huge bite and it confirmed that this was something special. For one, it didn't feel like i was munching goo (not unlike some of the spring rolls i have had). This one had a huge crunch! Looking at the hole in the roll that i just created reveals the innards....

Stuffed with all sorts of goodies, shredded carrots, lettuce, basil, some mystery slice of some brown crunchy ingredient that I cannot identify and most significant the huge piece of crunchy cucumber which gave the whole thing some awesome crunch. The sauce was pretty awesome too. It's not your asian grandmother's satay sauce that's for sure... God (and probably the chef) only knows what secret ingredient they put in there.

Appetizer over, they bring over the noodles.

The smell of limes & lemon grass have got my salivary glands going to overdrive. Especially the ones at my cheeks which are starting to pucker up in anticipation of the sour soup. I guess they must have "dumbed down" the spiciness of the soup for the local american palate as there was not a single hit of spice at all. The result being an intensely sour soup with no spice to help tame the acidity. Having a pre-conceived notion of how food should taste probably hurt this dish. There is no doubt that the soup was extremely tasty, but it's just ... not Tom Yum.

Halfway through the meal (and 3/4 of the way through my glass of water), I pick up the mostly ice filled glass for a swig. They didn't give me (or anyone else in the establishment) straws for our drinks so we had to drink from the glass, which I initially didn't mind. But 3/4 of the way through my drink of a glass that was 3/4 full of ice, I tip the glass onto my lip to drink and the ice didn't move, having fused together into a huge chunk. As i reached the bottom of my glass, i raise the glass even higher in order to get all the water out of there and yes... you guessed it.... with a glass of ice tipped over my face, the bonds holding the ice together finally decide to give way, sending a torrent of ice cascading all over my face! No amount of laughing it off could have salvaged my pride at that time.  The waitress rushes over and feeling quite apologetic, offers me another glass of water which is once again filled 3/4 of the way with ice and yes..... it still was missing a straw.....

I liked,

- The Spring Roll. That thing is awesome. I wouldn't mind going back there just for the Roll.

- The Prices. Being in a college town, my guess is that it is priced for college students. Good for the rest of us :)

- The flavors. Being Thai, the flavor of everything was phenomenal.

- Service. All the staff there were all smiles. Put me quite at ease even through my "incident'.

I Didn't Quite Like,

- The "Americanized" menu. Being asian, that's sacrilege! 

- That they didn't give me straws.... lo

I do however think that having their name on the bowls is quite a nice touch!

Madam Mam's
Located at the corner of Guadalupe St and Dean Keeton St. (Dean Keeton meets Guadalupe at a "T" intersection.
Address: 2514 Guadalupe street Austin, Texas, 78705 (Other Locations Available Check Website)
Phone: 512-472-8306
Hours: Open EVERYDAY!! 11am to 10pm.
http://www.madammam.com/