Pho Filet, South El Monte
For dineLA.com
Los Angeles is a sprawling metropolis where almost every possible cuisine is represented. One concept that spans the spectrum is noodles, and you’ll find plenty of tantalizing options around LA County that are boiled, sautéed and even deep-fried.
In the past decade, the stretch of Sherman Way between Coldwater Canyon and Woodman has become a viable Thai Town alternative. The Tamphoon family emigrated from Chiang Rai in northern Thailand and now features their regional dishes at the back of Bua Siam’s menu, including Thai spaghetti with bay leaf stew. Curry-soaked rice noodles are blanketed with chopped greens and cinnamon-like cassia buds. The subtly spicy dish rates one chile pepper on Bua Siam’s four-pepper scale.
Henry Ng’s Rosemead restaurant doesn't have a sign and resides around back of an unassuming grey building, but it’s worth seeking the glass doors. The best Chiu Chow-style dishes aren’t listed on the menu, so ask for chow mein with prawns. Ng makes the vermicelli-like noodles in-house and showers them with ground pork, scallions, briny dried shrimp, both red and green chilies and a troop of gigantic shrimp. The mountainous dish leaves your lips with a lingering chile sting that builds in intensity with each bite.
Taiwan natives Jim and May Ku have been preparing homestyle “Chinese fast food” in the San Gabriel Valley for over two decades. The couple’s top selling dish during cooler months is beef stew soup, featuring tender beef chunks and fresh egg noodles bobbing in a murky brew of sesame oil, ginger, hot sauce, soy, sugar and homemade chile sauce. The spicy witch’s brew is finished with spinach leaves and scallions, which provide a subtle contrast.
Angelenos flock to Koreatown to gobble up sizzling platters of pork spare ribs, but Hamjipark’s menu runs deeper than hog. Hwa Shin Kim’s family-run restaurant is named for a traditional carved wooden vessel designed to hold food, and you’ll need a large version to fit an order of pan-broiled squid with vermicelli. The bowl features a chile-soaked stir-fry of supple tentacles, abdomen and tail meat, along with mushroom, zucchini, red pepper and sweet onion. Integrate the four piles of springy vermicelli, diced scallions and sesame seeds to complete the bold dish.
This tiny bamboo-framed café on a Torrance side street produces exemplary house-made soba. The grain-flecked buckwheat noodles are available hot or cold, in soup or dry. Possible toppings include quail egg, spiced cod roe or pickled plum. A particularly noteworthy soup showcases caramelized fillets of unagi – freshwater eel – which is showered with scallions and seaweed. The briny dried bonito that comes with the soup should be applied judiciously. 
Larkin Mackey and Joshua McBride’s Eagle Rock soul food “joint” is situated in a restored circa 1911 Craftsman cottage that previously housed a used car dealership. Mackey has become known for his fried mac & cheese. His lightly breaded and deep-fried orbs have golden, paper-thin crusts. Mackey won’t reveal which three cheeses he uses for his silky mac. The dish was so inspiring that Larkin’s owners have expanded Downtown with a build-your-own mac & cheese bar called Mac & Cheeza.
The wildly popular Italian partnership among Nancy Silverton, Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich features a sprawling menu with 20 different plates of Primi. Executive Chef Matt Molina prepares tagliatelle with oxtail ragu and calf’s brain ravioli with sage and lemon, but it’s the orecchiette that captured our attention. The springy ear-shaped pasta hosts minced Swiss chard and crumbled house-made sausage broth studded with spicy red chile flakes and spooned with breadcrumbs for textural contrast.
A number of South El Monte restaurants specialize in Vietnamese noodle soup, and Pho Filet is the standout. Expect 20 variations on pho, monstrous mix-and-match bowls loaded with rice noodles and cuts of beef like filet, flank, brisket, tendon and tripe. It’s best to go with the signature filet mignon, served raw so it cooks in the hot broth until changing from pink to brown. The intoxicating cinnamon-tinged broth is topped with thin-shaved onion strands, scallions and greens. Crunchy bean sprouts, spicy jalapenos (seeds, stems and all) and a garden’s worth of herbs are all at your disposal.
American supermarkets aren’t exactly known for excellent prepared food, but the Santouka chain is a notable exception. Don’t let the plasticized bowls of ramen in the Mitsuwa food court dissuade you. Ramen is available with shoyu (soy), miso or shio (salt), but the star of the menu is Toroniku (special pork) Salt Ramen. Murky yellow broth is showered with white sesame seeds. A plate holds fat-rimmed pork slices, cuts of crunchy bamboo, a springy white fish cake, wood ear mushrooms, chopped scallions and a tart red pickled plum. Add to your liking. Flavors erupt as the fat-rimmed pork melts into the gritty broth.Bua Siam, 12924 Sherman Way, North Hollywood, 818.765.8395
Chuen Hing, 8450 Garvey Ave., Rosemead, 626.288.2206
Dai Ho Kitchen, 9148 Las Tunas Dr., Temple City, 626.291.2295
Hamjipark, 3407 W. 6th St., Koreatown, 213.365.8773
Ichimiann, 1618 Cravens Ave., Torrance, 310.328.1323
Larkin’s, 1496 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock, 323.254.0934, www.larkinsjoint.com
Osteria Mozza, 6602 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, 323.297.0100, www.mozza-la.com
Pho Filet, 9463 E. Garvey Ave., South El Monte, 626.453.8911
Santouka, 3760 S. Centinela Ave., Los Angeles, 310.398.2113
