Lao Xi Noodle House, hand-made Shanxi noodles in Arcadia

[Sundae in the Park]

Lao Xi Noodle House is a small, strip-mall joint somewhat off the beaten path in Arcadia that serves wonderful hand-made noodles in a no-frills setting.  China's Shanxi province food heavily features noodles, potatoes, and vinegar.  The menu is short and mostly features different noodles (fried, cold, soup, buckwheat, jelly, etc.), a few types of boiled dumplings (for there or to take away frozen), an assortment of "cold-plate" appetizers, and a few meat/vegetable entrees.  We tried the House Special Fried Noodle with Fried Boiled Pork, Daoxiao-Style, which had plump, pleasantly chewy noodles in a tasty, vinegar-laced sauce, stir-fried with chunks of tender pork and lots of leeks and wood-ear mushrooms. We all loved this dish and almost ordered another plate to go (and only restrained ourselves because we were going back to a hotel, not home).  The beef noodle soup had a clear, clean-tasting broth that mostly highlighted the long, thin noodles (kids loved it, adults thought it was bland, but noodles were good).  Cold dishes were fine and fresh but otherwise ordinary.  We would absolutely go back but mostly be interested in revisiting the fried noodles, trying the odder noodle shapes and lamb dumplings, and then taking away frozen dumplings (GREAT price) if they taste as good as they looked.