la.foodblogging

Before I go on hiatus yet again, I am pleased to share a write-up on finding traditional (for my family anyway) Chinese breakfast in L.A. again. When I was growing up, I think we went once a week around the corner and picked one of the many cheap eats locations that served a hot bowl of soybean milk, deep fried dough sticks, and various types of Chinese “pancakes” for breakfast. This definitely was not a common thing to find once I moved to the U.S. Years ago, my mom and I found a little Chinese cafe that did make such foods. They were so successful that they sold the business and disappeared. The new owners changed the menu, however, and we were without our traditional breakfast again. Last week, we found that the original owners, after a 3-year break, have opened up a new establishment called Noodle House. Guess what they serve in addition to noodles?

Everyone who works there are happy to push their favorites from the menu if you’re at a loss as to what to order. We knew exactly what we wanted to start off with - a nice bowl of piping hot soy milk and some onion/scallion pancakes. While I have to admit as much as I enjoyed the onion pancakes, they are really no different from most Chinese restaurants. They are nice and crispy, filled with green onions, and totally hit the spot. The soymilk, however, is a bit unique. It doesn’t taste like the store-bought Silk at the grocery store or the Chinese brand of soymilk from the Asian markets. Noodle House actually makes their own! It was thicker than regular store-bought soy milk. One of the other things I loved doing when I was growing up was adjusting the sweetness of my soymilk on my own by dumping in as much sugar as I wanted to. As you can tell, it really doesn’t take much to make me happy.

One of our old favorites by the chef here is the “leek box.” Basically, imagine a little calzone filled with a lot of leek and a little bit of chopped glass noodles. It has a crispy and fairly thin shell (compared to calzones anyway), but it really holds all the leek together for big bites. I still recommend having a plate directly under the leek box as you are biting into it because things can still get messy. If you’re a fan of leek though, I promise this dish is worth any mess. The leek box does not look like a lot of food, but it can be fairly filling, so also be careful about ordering too much food. Last bit of warning when ordering a leek box… Seriously, after you eat half of this, don’t plan on kissing anyone without downing a tinful of Altoids.

My favorite part of the meal, however, is when the plate of pan fried buns were served. The dough is soft and gooey, the pork filling juicy and flavorful, and the bottom of the buns are beautifully grilled to a golden brown. You will notice from the photo that the buns are plated upside down. I really appreciate this because if plated right side up, the bottom of the buns will create steam with the plate and become soggy.

Overall, I had a good experience at Noodle House. It has only been around for a few months, but if their lunch and dinner entrees are as good as their breakfast dishes, then I expect to see them around when I go back in December.

Noodle House
46 W. Las Tunas Drive
Arcadia, CA 91007
(626) 821-2088 and (626) 821-0668

Hours:
Closed Mondays
Tues-Thurs: 10am-9pm
Fri-Sun: 7am-9pm

By Pauline (see more of her posts).