Gastro888

Thanks for the info. I'm unsure if I can make it tonight - I will try my best. If not, y'all have fun and chow down on some Palena grub for me!

Pardon the ignorance but when does HH start and where tonight?

I went to Straits for the first time two weeks ago to enjoy a rooftop meal with a friend. I'd heard great things about it and was looking forward to the food (and eating on a roof - heck, I'll admit that!) My opinion? Overall, the food's good but the food at Malaysia Kopitam is better. The menu's extremely limited for a Malaysian restaurant - where's the satay, nasi lemak and roti? Those are staples in a Malaysian restaurant. Also, the food's very expensive for what it is - I guess they can charge that much given the area they're in. We had the rojak, popiah and a chicken dish that tasted like stir fried tom yum chicken - all were pretty good. Solid cooking but not stellar. I guess for me, since I've to Malaysia and ate Malaysian food for a good part of my life, I don't think Straits is all that and a bag of shrimp chips. Granted I only went there once - and Rocks is right, you need to visit a restaurant multiple times to get a true picture and a real feel for the place - but I wasn't wowed looking at the menu or eating the food. But it's a good neighborhood joint and a better value than Lauriol Plaza.

Palena's fry plate rocks and it could be nostaglia as I ate these in high school but Chicken Basket has some great crinkle cut fries with Old Bay seasoning on them. Could be all the residual chicken fat in the fryer that makes them so tasty...

It's hard to find a place that gives you a thermos of hot water - this pho place is the only one I know of in the area that does that. FYI, sometimes if the price of limes is too high, they substitute lemons instead for the herb plate. I HATE THAT. @#$!

Pho Xe Lua It's good stuff. They serve the cafe su da with a thermos of hot water so you can get some refills. Sweeet. Hmmm...perhaps I shall visit there this weekend.

Ooooh, JPW, sorry to hear that! That blows. Dear JPW, I doubt it's because you're a gai-low (Cantonese) that they gave you the scraps. They probably didn't have the right chef on duty today. I didn't know you got spring rolls with the lunch special at Pho N. As for the free tea, tea should be free at ANY Asian restaurant, IMHO. It so irks me hen there is a tea charge for standard tea. (Now if it's speciality tea, it's understandable)

Pho 75 has the best broth in MD. The pho joint in Eden Center is THE best in the area - AND they serve pho with the sawtooth herb, a nice touch. Pho Nguyen is expensive relative to what a pho joint should be. There is a Pho Real in the Briggs Chaney Shopping Center in Burtonsville, MD. Prices seem very reasonable - I've never been though.

Go to Singapore Bistro on 19th in between M and L. They have a good HH special going on there - selected apps fro 1.95 and nigiri sushi under $1. If you're ever in Rockville go to Maria's Bakery (I talk about them alot, I know. I swear I don't work there or own the joint!) - it's definitely cheap, filling eats. Yesterday I got 3 drinks - HK milk tea, iced lemon tea - tastes like a B'more 1/2 and 1/2, milk bubble tea, wonton lo mein (enough for 2 people) and a pineapple bun for 14 bucks w/ tax. I'd also go to the prepared section of ethnic markets - Han Ah Reum, Lotte, Maxim, Kam San - and get some food there. Funny, it's always the ethnic eats that are reasonable on the wallet! (Well, almost always...)