Hanamaru & Yoshinoya @ Midvalley

Hello again!

Pretty pleased with my data analysis progress so far so I'm taking a break and decided to spend some time writing this very stale post. When food post becomes stale, literally like food you just feel like ditching it. But this post is a must note because I really really liked the udon despite the fact that I'm not really a udon lover. Also! I'm typing on my new keyboard that I bought for data analysis and thesis/ conference paper writing hehe

This Udon shop was pretty new when I visited but since it has been in draft for so long, well it's obvious that it isn't new anymore la but still it's worth the mention! A Japanese fast food chain restaurant has landed in Midvalley! You wouldn't believe that this is fast food when you taste it!

Hanamaru & Yoshinoya

Level 3, Midvalley

Hanamaru Facebook | Yoshinoya Facebook

This is a self service store so you would have to go to the cashier counter, place your order, foot the bill and then wait for your food to be prepared and carry it back to your table yourself. Hanamaru Udon store is situated right next to the Yoshinoya and the seatings are shared so you can order from either sides.

Hanamaru & Yoshinoya at Midvalley

I decided that I would like to try their famously raved Udon so here are a few pictures of the store! Now you know what to expect and can get excited over it hehe

A shot of few ingredients at the Udon preparation counter

Pipping hot soup and stacks of bowls!

That's the guy preparing my chicken soup udon.

After receiving your udon, next to the udon prep counter is an oden pot! I'm not too interested in having Japanese lok- lok so I gave it a pass

At the cashier before paying they will once again entice you for an add on. This time they offer you Onigiri and Sushi. I gave that a pass too because I already bought too much of tempura LOL

Totally forgot to take a picture of the tempura station because I was God damn excited!!! The way the tempura are being assembled and the really good lightings made me go bonkers! I told myself that I must come back to get a picture of the tempura station after I put down my tray of food on the table but... yeah, I got carried away with eating hehehe

Our orders!

This is my chicken soup udon (Regular) RM10.80 with two tempura, the Kakiage Egg RM4.80 and Golden Ball RM2.80

My chicken soup udon was so yummy! The soup was light and healthy yet so flavourful. This is like the best light hearted broth I've ever tasted!! Japanese soft boiled eggs were nicely done with a slightly runny yolk. The yolk could have been runnier though.

Kakiage Egg tempura is made up of vegetables and eggs. Very much like cucur bawang with slightly less batter so you can actually see all the vege protruding out like porcupines. For me the vege was nice and crunchy but the downfall was that it was very oily. 

Beef Udon, RM12.80 with two tempura, Sweet Potato RM2.80 and Ebi Tempura RM4.80

Naomi had the beef udon and it was yums too! This one is slightly oilier than my chicken broth but the intense beef flavour is there. No egg included though. That was one of the reason why I choose the chicken soup one because I wanted the egg HAHAHA

The sweet potato tempura and the ebi tempura tasted like tempura that you can get from any japanese shop so it was nothing much to shout about.

Beef Bowl (Regular) RM11.80

Mum had beef bowl because I think it's hard for her to not have rice for dinner. This was pretty good as well. I thought it tasted similar to Sukiya. Nice lean beef slices with caramelised onions topped on rice. Mum loved it at first but towards the end she finds the beef scent overpowering. But! She keep going on and on about how generous they are in providing good quality beef.

Yakitori Bowl RM9.80

Reb had Yakitori Bowl, this is chicken topped on rice because she's not really a beef fan. Wanted to treat her to some kick- ass steak last time but she turned my offer down! :O She polished off every single grain of rice so I assume that it was tasty? lol

Okay, finally I'm saving the most interesting part for the last section of this blog post! The GOLDEN BALL!! I'm a big fan of Sushi King's Golden Ball. Sushi King's Golden ball is tempura egg cut in half and topped with crabmeat mayo. Hanamaru's Golden Ball is a tempura of soft boiled egg!

See the runny yolk inside?

It was quite yums! A little messy I thought because it was difficult to shove in one whole egg in your mouth with one bite but if you bite it into half then the runny yolk will spill. Not that it was damn runny but you know... it can get messy and eating it was a little awkward. Still prefer the ones that they help cut in half :D

Talking about egg, two nights ago I dreamt that I was four months pregnant but my baby bump wasn't showing yet wtf. To my surprise, I was happy and kind of proud about it but then at the same time, I got worried in my dream because I haven't travelled enough yet! I always find it weird whenever I think in my dream. Anyway, weird dream. 

Ok, ending abruptly here.

Dima Restaurants: Bukit Beruang & Oasis Damansara Ara

It's a busy time for me now because I'm rushing to churn out a paper for a conference. Recently attended this training on NVivo software that is really a God sent! I used to analyse data manually when I had fewer transcripts. But for my PhD the data is a little too massive for me to do it manually. I mean I can but NVivo really helps me organise better. 

Big hugs to the one who got me Nvivo to be installed in my lappy. Anyway, why am I talking about this is because I can't sleep and decided to continue on my data analysis but my NVivo is not working! GRR.

So I decided to use my awake-ness to blog if not I bet I won't have time to blog till somewhere in November. Yikes! 

I went to Melaka for a extended family trip last month. Since we were in Melaka Naomi was bugging me to take her to the Shawarma shop. According to her, they have the BEST shawarma! We manage to make a quick trip to Bukit Beruang to get the Shawarma while they check in the hotel.

Dima Restaurant

Bukit Beruang, Melaka

Facebook

There you have it! An easily spotted side lot shop

Shawarma maker

The workers there look very middle eastern so I trust their cooking skills. I mean who would be a better chef than the food native right? He wasn't very smiley though LOL Oh well, as long as he cooks well.

One whole bag of Shawarma

The story of the Shawarma is this. Oh ya but before that, in case you don't know what is a Shawarma, it's a marinated chicken wrap. I have never tried Shawarma before this because I'm a kebab fan. Naomi was raving about Shawarma since her Langkawi trip so I decided to give it a go.

Intially I ask Naomi to pack us one each thinking that it would be quite pricey. They would cost at least RM8 elsewhere. Wasn't sure if it was really as good as raved so I decided to play safe. But when she came into the car and told me that one Shawarma only cost RM5 I asked her to go down and get more HAHAHAHA

Where else to find RM5 authentically made Shawarma!!!! 

Took this picture to note the address of the other outlets. 

So they do have an outlet in KL! It's located at Oasis Damansara Ara. I was a little skeptical when I was told earlier that we have a Dima in KL but now since it's officially imprinted on their plastic bag I cant argue right? lol 

When  I came back to KL, I visited Dima again in Oasis Damansara Ara! I'll be writting about it later on in this post so hang on.

Here, the exact address of  Dima Melaka

Rebecca enjoying her Shawarma

For a RM5 Shawarma they are really generous! Thick juicy chicken chunks in a warm wrap

Okay, I just noticed that there are really fries in the wrap!

Naomi told me that authentic Shawarma has fries inside. Her Arabian friend told her one. I was thinking why was she telling me that because I didn't realised the fries in my Shawarma but she insisted that hers had. Okay, so now that I'm reviewing the picture I see the fries HAHAHHA

I was probably too excited that it cost RM5 and was distracted at how nicely wrapped and warm it felt in my hands to bother about fries. Talking about fries in Arabian food, I am a bit perplex. Fries is a western thing right? But whenever I have Middle Eastern meals I realised that they have fries as side dish! And now, fries in Shawarma marks a good Shawarma? 

So yeah, the Shawarma from Dima Melaka was good. Not mindblowingly awesome but it was pretty good! Maybe I too used to having Kebab la. But one thing for sure, Shawarma taste 100000x better than Falafel. Falafel is a vegetarian wrap I suppose- the fillings tasted like they were made up by some beans.

Dima Restaurant

Oasis Damansara Ara, PJ

This is the PJ outlet

Picture for address

So we decided to pay the PJ branch a visit hoping that it would be as good and cheap as the Melaka one so we need not travel all the way to Melaka for Shawarma. Nope, I'm not kidding Naomi actually did that. Well, I would too for my favourite food. Maybe not Shawarma but Asam Pedas LOL

A proper order this time

This time we went there for dinner so we ordered a full course meal. The other time in Melaka, the Shawarma was just for teatime snacks. So this time in PJ we had Chicken Mandy (thats the chicken on top of the rice) and Malawah bread with Hummus. By the way, Malawah is my favourite bread because it's like crispy pancake! Mad loves!! When it's served hot it goes so well with Hummus, which is chick peas.

The Malawah bread here was not bad, I tasted better but it was really not bad. The hummus wasn't as tasty as the places that I've been to. I've been to one Arabian shop somewhere near UIAM when I met my supervisor from US. OMG, that is like one of the best Middle Eastern shop everrr!! I didn't note the name of the place though, dang it.

One more shot

The Chicken Mandy was not bad too. I tasted better but still okay la. One of my favourite Chicken Mandy is opposite Sunway Pyramid. That's like the cheapest and one of the yummiest Chicken Mandy. 

When I first had this dish, I was a little disgusted by the look of the chicken because it looks so weirdly coloured and had a stale chicken texture. When served with tomato cordiment I was a little mood out because it looked like wet cubbed tomatoes (not my favourite vege) but behold! When I had the first bite I fell heads over heads with this dish!!

Btw, Middle Eastern food keeps me full for a longer period of time. Was wondering if anyone else experienced the same thing? Maybe it's the Yemen spices? lol

Shawarma

So the star of the day arrived! First difference I spotted was that the Shawarma was cut into two. My sis was a little dissapointed that it was served that way LOL I didn't mind the presentation if it tasted as good but... to our horror it tasted nothing like the Shawarma we got from Dima Melaka!

This had so much onions and the Shawarma scent wasn't there. It's more expensive than the Melaka one also! I think it was like RM8 or RM9!!! Definately can't compete with the Melaka one. So this means that we still need to travel to Melaka for good Shawarma after all LOL 

Actually yesterday, I had dinner at Saba Restaurant, Cyberjaya and they have really good Chicken Mandy. Didn't try their Shawarma but they have them too! But why all these yummy Middle Eastern shops for far awayyyy:(

But!! One plus point for Dima, Oasis Ara Damansara is that they have ice- cream! WOOT!!

Vanilla and chocolate swirl with coloured sprinkles. Very cute, I like!

The side that has more hundreds and thousands, teehee

Not a fan of sprinkles? Choose chocolate syrup instead!

Ice- creams are always fun to have so even if Dima's ice- cream is nothing to shout about I would still recommend! 

Okay, till the next post! I have so much to blog about!! I've pending Kuching food blog to write but I really have insufficient time. Even if I had the extra time, I'd rather lay down and rest hahaha I just thought of how I could still analyse data manually while I wait for someone to help fix this NVivo problem. 

Catch you later!