Fort Street Cafe

1152 Fort Street Mall, Honolulu, Hawaii

 

Foodelicious

A short one today...

 

Fort Street Cafe is one of my absolute favorite places to get my version of comfort food in Hawaii. This place has been around for a long time. It brings back a lot of memories because I frequented it a lot during my college days. 

It's located in Downtown Honolulu on Fort Street Mall, almost in the middle of a row of restaurants/eating places. Besides the little hole-in-the-wall Korean sushi place next door, it's been here longest. During lunch time, there's a line out the door since it's a favorite of not just HPU (Hawaii Pacific University) students but the office workers downtown.  

Today, I ordered the Pad Thai, which is a favorite of many, with Panang Curry. Most will tell you to order it with the Garlic Chicken, which I highly recommend, but today, I felt like a curry. I also ordered a Thai Iced Tea. 

There is not much seating inside so my co-worker and I grabbed a table outside. It's much more spacious anyway especially if you don't like the line of customers standing next to your table while you enjoy your meal. 

 

They do give you quite a large portion here so there's usually enough for a leftover. The pad thai and the curry are both delicious. I don't normally like mixing my pad thai with curry but here I do. 

 

Besides the pad thai, garlic chicken and curry, I recommend trying the lemongrass chicken (I ate lots of this during my college days), fried rice for breakfast, pho on a cold day, tofu with eggplant if you are looking for a vegetarian option, and the spam if you just need a quick snack. I don't have pictures for them but will make sure to share another blog post when I visit again.  

Food                                4.5
Customer Service         5.0
Ambiance                       2.5
Decor/Details                1.0
Parking                           0.5

Lao You (老友)  Coffee Shop 

151 Jalan Masjid 1, Sungai Petani, Kedah

 

 

Foodelicious

 

Lao You Coffee Shop is famous for its excellent and fresh soy, as advertised by the blue and orange sign above. And it is not a lie. This coffee shop has one of the best if not best homemade soy milk and 'tau fu fa' (tofu pudding) in town. Must try if you stop by.

Lao You means 'Old Friend' in Chinese, which is another appropriate name for a coffee shop (see my last post on Usual Place's). It's located by Cayman Square. There are quite a variety of food here: Hock Kian Mee, Chicken Rice, Curry Mee, Wonton Mee, Pan Mee, Chee Cheong Fun, Char Koay Teow, etc. So if you are looking for variety, this is a good option.

  

Mum said Hokkien Mee here is one of the best so I decided to try it. Delicious!! See those fried shallots and extra chili paste? The more the merrier. That bowl was wiped clean when I was done with it.

 

Char Kway Teow is one of my favorite hawker food. So we ordered one. Not bad. It came on a banana leaf, which I believe gives it a better aroma. It also has some medium size shrimps and Chinese sausage. 

 

The Char Koay Teow stall also sells Char Koay Kak, another one of my favorites. It's fried the same way with the same ingredients (as you may notice from the pictures). For some reason, I do like this better than the kway teow.

 

The Shredded Chicken Noodles looks beautiful. I was told it was good so tried some of it. This is not a dish I would order but if I wasn't so full, I would have eaten it all.

 

Oh! Here's a shot of the fresh, homemade soy milk. Very good!

Food                            4.0

Customer Service     3.5

Ambiance                   3.0

Décor/Details            2.0
Parking                       2.5

 

  

Usual Place's Western Food (for breakfast)

151-152 Jalan Lagenda 6, Lagenda Heights, Sungai Petani, Kedah

 

 

Foodelicious

 

I believe Usual Place’s Western Food only serves Western food in the evening, which I have never tried.  We stopped by for the first time one morning for breakfast. I supposed it operates as a coffee shop during the day supported by various stalls. 

As with most coffee shops, the first to arrive is your drink. Each of us have our own favorite breakfast drink so we ordered four distinctive drinks (from top clockwise): ‘Teh Si’ (tea with evaporated milk), Iced ‘Milo’, ‘Oh Teh’ (brewed ‘Eight Treasures’ herbal tea), and extra thick Nescafe with less sugar. That last, complicated one is my dad’s – as usual. 

We all agreed the drinks here were exceptionally good. Most coffee shops serve drinks that range from mediocre to good but this place definitely stands out above the rest. The Chinese name for this restaurant - 老地方 - is actually appropriate for a coffee shop. When good friends meet especially in my parents’ generation or the generation prior, they usually ask ‘where?’ and more often than not, the answer would be, “the usual place, lah!” Let’s just say the drinks made such an impression that I feel it could be that ‘usual place’ where good friends think of when they simply want to have an old-fashion coffee shop drink.

I noticed the coffee shop was also selling some ‘nyonya kuih’ – ‘Kuih Talam’ and ‘Seri Muka’. Those are one of my favorites so we got some. They were yummy!

Both types consist of light green and white layers. The light green color on both are from the ‘pandan’ flavor - a fragrant and sweet flavor, which I love. ‘Kuih Talam’ (talam means tray) has the white coconut milk flavor on top of the ‘pandan’ layer. ‘Seri Muka’ (Pretty Face) has the colors reversed, ‘pandan’ layer over glutinous rice.  

 

My mum ordered the Thai Curry Laksa. By appearance, it looks like any curry laksa except for okra and tomatoes added. The curry has more of a Thai curry flavor. Hence, the name. 

 

I don’t normally Wonton Noodles at food courts or eating places since there’s usually other options that catch my fancy. The one drawback with this coffee shop is the limited selection. But it could have been a blessing in disguise. I actually quite enjoy this wonton noodle – ample sauce, noodles has the right ‘bite’, and the char siu is juicy. Need proof of how much I like it?

 

  Here you go! Cleaned the plate…

One complain – wish the wonton filling was more plump. But in their defense, I have not really found one stall that is not skimping on the filling yet. Then again, I probably don’t order this dish enough to make an accurate judgment. 

Food                            4.0 (Drinks 5.0)

Customer Service     4.0

Ambiance                   3.0

Décor/Details            2.5
Parking                       5.0 (in the morning)

Chennai Curry House 

141-143 Jalan Lagenda 5, Lagenda Heights, Sungai Petani, Kedah

 

Foodelicious

If you are in Sungai Petani and craving Indian food, Chennai Curry House will probably come to mind. I usually come here for lunch. It’s less crowded so the staff tend to be more attentive. 

See, even the cooks have time to grab a bite. Haha, actually, we were having a late lunch. He was probably slaving away in the kitchen till now, when the crowd has thinned out. 

When you have lived in a town for awhile, it may seem like you know everyone. Our neighbor's brother apparently owns the restaurant and his wife happens to be my mother's former student. Small world right?  

This restaurant is clean. The layout makes it seem spacious. We sat in the so-called ‘open air’ area. Malaysia is muggy like every day but you don’t feel like you have sweat pouring down your back while sampling the hot curry here. It’s actually comfortable. I think the ceiling fans and wide open entrance store front helps. Very welcoming too.   

The restaurant has a separate air-conditioned space, probably same seating capacity. I have never eaten in there. It is considered the fine dining section so the décor and furnishing are much more refine.

Dad decided on the banana leaf rice. For those not familiar, they give you a big piece of banana leaf, acting as the vessel for the delicious goodness that will be piled on soon enough. 

Then, one of the servers stops by with this very practical trio of steel containers, each containing a different vegetarian dish. I think I’ve only seen these at banana leaf restaurants, sometimes they have four containers but more shallow.

 

You get one big scoop of each. Here we have spinach with potatoes, scrambled eggs with melons, and a vegetarian sambal dish. The only one I tried was the egg dish and I really liked it. 

Next comes the papadum – a big one. Then, the curry on top of the rice. They start with one big scoop of curry. If you want more, they will oblige. If this was mine, it would be drenched in curry. 

Don’t this look so delicious? I almost wished I was eating this instead of waiting for the dishes we ordered.

So what did we order? First, the Spicy Bindi. Okra or bendi is one of my favorite vegetables so if it’s on the menu, it will usually land on my table. And spicy okra is just heavenly. This one is super spicy and I loved it. I think I ate two-third of the dish or was it three-quarter? 

Sotong or squid/calamari is a seafood I can’t seem to get enough of when I’m home in Malaysia. I hardly cook it in Hawaii. The prep time of having to clean it – removing the outer skin, eliminating the ink sac, gutting the insides – takes too long, not to mention cumbersome. So of course I ordered the Sotong Sambal. It had good flavor but I wished they didn’t cut the sotong into such small pieces.

Last dish – the chicken. Sorry, forgot which one we ordered. I think it was the Chicken Korma. I let my mum pick so was not paying attention. It was also my least favorite dish. I thought the curry was a little watered down – flavor not as bold as the bendi or sotong. 

We had a satisfying meal. I know my dad sure did – look at his ‘plate’. 

I would come back here over and over again. If I had a big enough stomach, I would order the banana leaf rice and a medley of dishes. A word of caution, the prices can add up pretty quickly here depending on what you order so if you are on a budget, the banana leaf rice may be the safest, tastiest bet.

Oops, almost forgot the Teh Tarik. It hit a spot. That’s all I got to say.

Food                            4.5

Customer Service     4.0

Ambiance                   3.5

Décor/Details            2.5
Parking                       3.0