Pho Pioneer

Opening a Vietnamese restaurant on a street filled with Indian grocers and sari shops may seem an odd idea, but Linda Tran knew it would work. She saw an increasingly varied patronage at her family's Little Saigon place, Thien Thanh, and "too much competition in that area." She chose to open her Pho Pioneer on the Little India strip of Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia. The small city is as multinational as Coca-Cola and among the most linguistically varied in the nation.

On Pho Pioneer's colored photo menu -- the lingua franca of restaurateurs aiming to introduce their food culture -- the No. 18 Pioneer rice special is an amazing ambassador for the savory-sweet flavors of Vietnamese cooking. The combination of crispy minced shrimp cake, slabs of grilled marinated pork, delicate steamed egg loaf and a salad garnish has customers returning again and again. The restaurant's long pho list includes a seafood version, a shrimp version, a vegetarian version and one with chicken breast strips -- one for every taste. And to keep pace with current fashion in drinks, Tran offers traditional Vietnamese smoothies with boba tapioca pearls added.