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

 

  

Mabrown (Bee/Mei Ah Tong) Restaurant 

21 Jalan Petri, Sungai Petani, Kedah

 

Foodelicious

Yes, so this restaurant has two different names. And one has nothing to do with the other. The Chinese name '味也同' roughly translates to ‘Taste Together’. According to my mum, the name ‘Mabrown’ was given by the Caucasian customers who found ‘Mei Ah Tong’ a real mouthful. 

It’s been around since the 1960s. My parents had their wedding reception at this restaurant in 1971. Mum said it was the best restaurant in town then. Point is most folks in Sungai Petani know this place. 

I’ve been eating here since I was a child and the restaurant has been a family business since it first opened. The daughter-in-law and grandson runs the front of the house now.    

The atmosphere in the restaurant is like an old Chinese coffee shop – just look at the tables and chairs. And the tiled flooring. I love it.

The restaurant also has an air-conditioning section located to the left of the store. It holds about five tables. My dad always picks the air-conditioning room. He cannot stand the heat and mugginess. 

We’ve always had pretty good service here but today, it was like pulling teeth to get one of the bussers to clean a table for us. The boss had to tell them at least twice before it got cleaned. 

Who can have food in Malaysia without cili padi, chili sauce, chili powder or anything ‘chili’. This restaurant gives a generous portion - two plates of each for 3 adults and 1 child. 

The order came pretty quickly. First to arrive was the 'Kau Yuk' (pork with taro), supposedly one of its specialty. Today, they didn’t have Mui Choy. Thus, the Kau Yuk came with taro only. It was still yummy. 

Next came the Dou Miao or Pea Shoots fried with garlic and salted fish. I really like this one. There was just enough salted fish to keep the pea shoots as the star of the dish.

We ordered the steamed tofu for the little one but it turned out to be a superb choice. I think this was my second favorite dish today. The dried krills, fried shallots and green onion garnish added some crunch and flavor. And of course I love my tofu drenched in sauce since it normally is quite bland otherwise. 

The Gulai (curry) Assam Fish was the best thing we ordered today. The ‘pari’ or ray is cooked well and the spicy sauce had the right tanginess. Okra is a usual accompaniment in assam fish curries but I was surprised to see cucumbers too. I thought it might get mushy unlike the okra which is quite hardy but it held up nicely and actually adds to the dish. I don’t think we would normally order ‘pari’ for this dish but it worked fine. For future reference, I would recommend a different fish.

See the fresh ingredients that were ground and used in the curry? Chili, shallots, okra…fresh ingredients – that’s what makes food taste even better. 

I had no idea how big the kitchen was until we went to the back of the restaurant. There is a huge extension and numerous cooks were prepping and cooking there. No wonder the food came quickly. 

Food                           4.5
Customer Service    3.5
Ambiance                  3
Decor/Details           1.5
Parking                       5 (if you know where to park or else it's a 3.5)

By the way, apparently, they are open for business from 10am to 3pm only. (Yes, don't let that sign in the first picture fool you. I found it propped against the wall in the air-conditioned room, presumably an outdated sign).