Oodles of Noodles

********THIS RESTAURANT IS NOW CLOSED.********

It's always challenging to eat with both my father-in-law and my niece.

The former likes only Asian food and basic steak and seafood. The latter is too rambunctious for fine dining.

Throw in my own Mama Monkey who is often directionally challenged, and we're tasked with finding a place that can suit everybody's tastes, behavior, and navigational skills.


There has been quite the buzz in the L.A. food blogosphere the past few months about Bamboodles, a small noodle house in a San Gabriel strip mall at the corner of Valley and New.

The allure of Bamboodles lies in its fresh noodles kneaded by a huge bamboo stick and hand-pulled with care.

It's really quite the show. I wish I'd taken video.

The combos here are deal-icious.

Mama Monkey got Combo B with celery peanuts, green tea slice[d] pork noodles, and a lemon tea -- all for just $6.95!

The green tea pork noodles were rather reminiscent of Japanese ramen. The pork was so lovely. The noodles were incredibly bouncy, elastic, and great.

My bonkers father-in-law inexplicably ordered enough food for a small city.

We still don't know why he did this, but we don't question the actions of the person paying the bill. There was so much food that I only photographed what was close to me.

Bean sprouts and dried bean curd. I couldn't find the bean curd. Meh.

House special dumplings ($5.95). Slippery, chewy, thick, handmade skin -- nice. Good enough but nothing terribly special.

Pan-fried dumplings ($6.50). Take the above and fry them. Better.

Wonton noodles ($6.95).

Cold spinach noodles with chicken ($9.45).

If you buy one item at the regular price, you can get the noodles of the day for $1. No joke! A bowl of noodles for $1!

Of course, my father-in-law got this, too. He mixed and ate it before I could snap.

Mr. Monkey and I couldn't resist getting some sweet drinks -- lemon honey and coffee milk tea. My lemon honey proved too sweet for me, but, really, what did I expect from a drink with "honey" in its name?

Mr. Monkey enjoyed his spicy beef stew spinach noodles ($7.45).

I found the broth to be on the oily side and the meat not as tender as it should've been, but the noodles were very good.

I got the wonton spinach noodles ($6.45).

You can substitute spinach noodles in any dish for $0.50 extra, and we were glad we did. They had more oomph than the regular noodles. Thumbs up for the spinach noodles, but my wontons and their broth were a bit anemic. I wouldn't go as far as to say they were bland, but they certainly could've been more flavorful.

In any event, chili oil solves everything, so I wasn't too bummed.

Portions are generous.

I still had this much left when I stopped eating.

Would I go back to Bamboodles? Yes. On my own dime, however, I would get only noodle dishes, preferably in combo form, plus the $1 noodles.

Lunch was not over. I was full, but Little Monkey Niece was clamoring for frozen yogurt, so we went next door to Peach House.

The goods.

The niece.

The end.

Ramen Bravery

Have you ever gone to a restaurant where eating a certain food was a feat of strength? Like, if you conquered the meal, you'd get your name on the wall?


Orochon is one of those places. It's strange because Orochon serves ramen. How hard can eating ramen be? These people all look pretty comfortable.

Aside from offering three different types of broth -- miso ($7.25); shoyu, i.e., soy sauce ($6.75); and shio, i.e., salt ($6.75) -- Orochon gives its patrons the choice of an initial seven levels of spice, from "non-spicy" at Level 7 to "extreme" at Level 1.

But, beyond these seven levels, there are the Special 1 and Special 2. If you finish a Special 2 in 30 minutes, you become a part of the Orochon Wall of Bravery.

Not even Mr. Monkey (a.k.a. The Master of Hot) felt up to the challenge, though. Because, really, who wants an erupting poocano afterward? Not us.

First, I present our non-ramen dishes.

Pan-fried dumplings ($3.50). Crisp on the outside. Juicy on the inside. Good.

Half fried rice ($3.50). I didn't have any. This was Little Monkey Niece's treat.

Cha-su plate ($6.50). I didn't have any. This was my father-in-law's treat.

Cucumber with miso ($3.95). Refreshing, but nothing too exciting.

Calpico ($2.25). It's the perfect drink to cool your mouth during your spicy ramen.

La-Yu. More spice for your meal. Good with dumplings.

This is my shio ramen, Level 5, with cha-su ($1.25) and corn ($0.99). I got a fairly mild spice level because flavors are more pronounced in shio broth.


The shio broth was strong and delicious, but the noodles weren't as good and bouncy as those at Shin-Sen Gumi or Daikokuya.

Mr. Monkey opted for miso ramen, Level 3, with cha-su ($1.25), corn ($0.99), egg ($0.99), bean sprouts ($0.50), garlic ($0.50), and extra noodles ($1.50).

It wasn't as spicy as I thought it would be, as miso really tempers the spice. Thus, my advice to anybody who wants to be memorialized on the Wall of Bravery is to get the miso broth to cheat a bit.

Finis.

Orochon isn't my favorite ramen place, but it's good enough. I'd go back.

LMN wanted yogurt, so we took a short walk.

You're never too young to begin obsessing over pinkberry.