Pho-Free Zone

The most delicious bowl of pasta I’ve eaten so far this fall, including Monkey Bar’s chile noodles, Ca’ Brea’s bigoletti and Sanamluang’s General Noodle soup, was probably a simple bowl of dumpling wonton noodles, mi xui cao hoanh thanh , a specialty of the noodle shop Luong Hai Ky Mi Gia.

Luong Hai Ky Mi Gia, tucked into a new shopping center on Alhambra’s eastern edge, is the darndest Vietnamese noodle shop: no banh cuon , no bun cha , the entire pho section of the menu violently X’ed out with a ballpoint pen. The variety of noodles is pretty much what you’d expect at a good Cantonese joint. At least one of the waiters understands English better than he does Vietnamese. That’s because Luong Hai Ky Mi Gia is less a Vietnamese noodle shop than a Chinese noodle shop run by and for Vietnamese-born Chinese--typical Cantonese noodle dishes inflected by the strong, spicy flavors of Vietnam. Cantonese noodles taste good washed down with salty plum soda or inky Vietnamese-style iced filter coffee.

The thin egg noodles, al dente as a plate of expense-account pappardelle , come in a powerfully scented broth, garnished with a little heap of garnish--fried garlic, crumbled pork, scallions, a crunchy dice of fried pigskin like Chinese lardons --that gives the broth a deep, smoky richness and add a textural contrast to every bite. The forcemeat of the wontons is rich and tender beneath the floppy pasta skins. Larger, yellowish dumplings float alongside, crisper somehow but also more mellow. Halfway through, a spoonful of Thai vinegar chiles adds a certain piquancy.

You can also get slippery, fettuccine-width rice noodles with the wonton, or with meatballs, fluffy fish balls, gelatinous stewed beef tendon. Noodles with a spectacular whole stewed duck leg (flavored with star anise) that has been miraculously rendered of its fat, come with a small dish of house-made papaya pickles. Wide, lasagnette -width rice noodles, banh cuon , are paired with shrimp and roast fresh ham.

Once you get past the noodles, Luong Hai Ky Mi Gia becomes more Vietnamese. The fried spring rolls, cha gio , stuffed with thin cellophane noodles, pork and a little bit of crab, come crisp, four to an order, hotly spiced with black pepper. With it comes the traditional Vietnamese table salad and a bowl of the tart fish sauce nuoc cham . You fold the cha gio into a lettuce leaf with a few leaves of basil and a dollop of shredded, marinated carrot; you dip the bundle into the fish sauce; you eat. There is an uninteresting version of the rice-paper shrimp roll goi cuon , and a terrific rice-paper roll called bi cuon , which is stuffed with shreds of cooked pigskin and a handful of fresh herbs.

The pigskin also appears on rice, perhaps paired with a sweetly spiced grilled pork chop and a wedge of a delicious Vietnamese frittata, perhaps with a few slivers of grilled beef and a couple of spring rolls as a sort of blue-plate lunch. The grilled beef shows up again on skewers as an appetizer. The spring rolls come with grilled beef or pork on a plate of soft “tiny rice-stick” noodles, all of which you roll up with the table salad and a few drops of nuoc cham to make enormously tasty Vietnamese burritos.

Luong Hai Ky Mi Gia

1300 E. Main St., Alhambra, (818) 458-9606. Open daily 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Cash only. Lot parking. Takeout. Dinner for two, food only, $7 to $10.