Wandering to Watdongmoonlek Noodle – Los Angeles

We had just hiked a trail created by my imagination. We basically wandered for hours until we found what resembled a road to civilization so it was only fitting that we would wander through the random streets of LA until we stumbled upon a restaurant resembling edible food. And by the time we stumbled upon a humble house of noodles, we were starving, and we were so exhausted that we were nodding off faster than their bobbleheads.

Our meal didn’t quite start with a Big Bang, but the high ceilings and walls with breathtaking chalk-on-chalkboard drawings made quite the impact. These depictions of famous people looking larger than life were almost enough to distract me from the erupting volcano in the next chair…oh wait, that’s my stomach...it’s so loud the people at the next table are staring…act natural…

Turns out I’m not very good at acting natural when the obvious source of an unnatural noise is me…I guess I should just be happy it wasn’t because I just ingested lactose. Unlike me, however, the Fresh Rolls had no problem acting natural as springy stacks of lightly fried tofu with veggies and herbs. When dunked in a delicious dipping sauce with the right, light combination of subtle and spice, each bite leaves you feeling so fresh…and so clean clean...

The best Pad Thai I ever had was whipped up in the hot wok of a Bangkok street cart. But the best Kee Mow Noodles I ever had were banged out in the back of Watdongmoonlek. The beef is tender, the noodles are as smooth as soy-sauce glass, chewy as caramel, and not nearly as long as the name of the restaurant that serves them.

Every time I select my level of spice at an Asian establishment, I always ask the most important question first, “When you say hot, do you mean Thai hot, or do you mean white-boy hot?” We ordered our perfect, creamy, coconutty Beef Red Curry at a happy Thai medium. After the first bite, I thought it was too warm and simply needed time to cool down. But it wasn’t that kind of heat. So glad we went with medium. The hot probably would have an effect similar to a huge bowl of ice cream.

Like eating a huge bowl of ice cream, Watdongmoonlek was a huge gamble for me. And when it comes to finding food, I’m probably more uptight than all those Big Bang bobbleheads combined. I don’t exactly run towards restaurants at random so it’s a good thing I was hungry enough to be in a hurry that day or I would have never found this noodle nirvana.