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)

Season's Ice and Eatery

100 N. Beretania St. Suite #117, Honolulu

 

Foodelicious

Welcome to my first post for this blog! I hope you will continue to join me on my journey of taste, touch, smell and sound that hopefully will also be a feast for the eyes.

I love food and love trying new food so when a friend raved about this Taiwanese restaurant in Chinatown, I knew I had to try it. I’m not one to eat alone at restaurants so I dragged along a friend. 

An older lady, presumably the owner, greeted us by her shave ice machine next to the door. The sound of the machine whirring made me crave for a shave ice...mental note - check out the shave ice selection.  

We sat down at the last table by the kitchen since the other three were taken. Everyone in the restaurant except us spoke Chinese to the owners (including a guy delivering groceries). The pictures and corresponding numbers on the menu made it easy to order. We decided to share the Taiwanese beef noodle soup, braised tofu, and Taiwanese crepe with egg and green onions. 

The tofu was steaming hot when it came to the table. My friend almost burned her tongue popping a piece into her mouth. It was a pretty good size serving. The color may not have looked appetizing but the garnishing of green onions helped. The sauce had a tinge of yellow bean paste and some very tiny pieces of minced pork. We wasted no time in devouring the tofu since we were both quite hungry. Well, I was starving actually. 

 

Next came the beef noodle soup or niu rou mien (牛肉麵). The broth had a very deep color and filled the bowl almost to the rim. The noodles were thin, flat egg noodles. The few pieces of beef I had were cooked just slightly done. Besides a generous garnishing of cilantro and green onions, I was pleased to find pickled mustard greens.

It was a tasty bowl of beef noodle soup but I find myself wanting more beef flavor. Maybe because I was comparing it to other noodle soups I’ve had in the past. My friend, on the other hand, could probably have drank the whole bowl of soup on her own if she had not exercise such restrain.

 

The crepe or dan bing (蛋餅)was my favorite. The breading tasted somewhat like roti canai from home but of a darker color, not flaky and dotted with sesame seeds. I was happy with the portion of eggs and the green onions were not overpowering.

 

It was a satisfying meal. Needless to say, we cleaned the plates (and bowls). The best part was the price that totaled less than $16. The fact that the owners, husband and wife, also cooked the food themselves, made it even more heart-warming. 

Oh, wait – the shave ice! I was so full, it will have to wait for the next trip. We vowed to try the fish ball rice noodle soup next too.  

Food                            3 

Customer Service     4.5
Ambiance                   3
Decor/Details            2

Parking                       5