So I am back from Kauai and was in serious need of one of my favorite Vietnamese soups, Mi Gan Bo. Mi, or thin wheat noodles are one of my favorite noodles. Tender yet firm, these wheat noodles beat their rice cousins (in my mind) hands down. To find my favorite version of this soup here in San Diego, I found myself off of Convoy street, north of Balboa at Luong Hai Ky, a discreet noodle house tucked into the back corner of a small mall.

Luong Hai Ky is a soup house, so if you like Chinese/Vietnamese soups you should stop here. MI (egg noodles)and Hu (rice noodles) can either be ordered in a soup or fried such as the dish Mi Xao Thap Cam, or combination fried egg noodles. It is a combination of veggies and meat, served in a think sauce over the fried noodles. When I worked in Vietnam I ate this dish a lot for lunch, and it was quite tasty. Back to my soup…

Mi Gan Bo is a egg noodle soup with a slightly spicy (this may be a stretch) broth, beef tendon, carrots and fresh basil. I will usually add some of the ground clilies in oil for some extra kick but for the most park if you do not like heat the soup is great as is. When done properly, beef tendon is like beef terderloin…tender almost to the consistency of butter or a good custard. This tenderness is as close to melt in your mouth as you will get. Beef tendon is almost all gelatin, which is great for your skin and it is a great flavor carrier, so the great soup flavor is transferred into the protein. Another great attribute to this dish is that you do not get “full” when eating this. Beef is very hard to digest, and the tendon, lacking all of that muscle fiber to break down, is easier on your system so no food coma here.

This is one of the better soup houses I have found in San Diego, so if you like these types of soups then you should make a trip here. Nothing fancy and the decor is (very) basic, but the food rocks!

Loung Hai Ky

4633 Convoy st # 107

San Diego, Ca 92111

The photo was taken with my iPhone, so sorry for the lack of quality.