Entity-Framework eagerly-load first item of a nav-property

Question

Is there a way to make this code excute in one query with Entity-Framework?

Private Sub LoadFirstPhone(vendor As Vendor)
    If Not vendor.ContactReference.IsLoaded Then _
        vendor.ContactReference.Load(MergeOption.AppendOnly)
    vendor.Contact.Phones.Load(MergeOption.AppendOnly)
End Sub

I want two things:

1. I want to be able to Load only the first phone, not all of the phones
2. I want to make it one query, so it doesn't have to make 2 round-trips

Answer 1

Try this:

From v in context.Vendors
Select New With {
  .Vendor = v,
  .Contact = v.Contact,
  .FirstPhoneNumber = v.Contact.Phones.FirstOrDefault()
}