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.

Bangi Kopitiam @ Seksyen 9, Bandar Baru Bangi

Bello! Minions for Hello.

I'm so free today I feel so happy! Hahahaha Usually I'll wake up feeling stressed because I set deadlines for myself and so I'll get this anxiety attack in the morning thinking about what I have to strike off the list for the day. Today, I just have to transcribe a 30 minutes interview, wait for Reb's goods to arrive and cook dinner then that's a wrap!

Looking forward towards the weekend because I'll be back to my hometown conducting several interviews. After the weekend is over, I would have 90% of the data needed for my study! WOOT!! The last two interviews will be conducted in Kuching somewhere in June, double WOOT!

Talking about interviews, I would usually meet my interviewees in Starbucks because (1) Caffeine keeps them alert (2) Pleasant environment- actually not the best environment for interview because I realised that they always play this music that can be a little annoying when I transcribe my interviews (3) Nobody would turn down a Starbucks treat right? 

But last Monday I had to travel to Bangi to meet this guy from Penang. Haven't been to Bangi before so I typed Bangi and "Bangi Kopitiam" came up in the Google recommended feed.

Apparently it's quite famous and it has branched out its business internationally! How come I didn't know of such kopitiam?

Bangi Kopitiam

Jalan Medan PB 1A, Pusat Bandar Bangi

Website

Menu

Interior of shop, quite cool layout

Ahh, sorry. I forgot to take a picture of the exterior of the shop because I was just concern about parking my car and getting out of the afternoon heat. I arrived at Bangi Kopitiam an hour before the agreed meeting time so I manage to sample their food!

Branch at Bangi Kopitiam

I was going to cook butter chicken for dinner that day so I decided not to have nasi lemak. Damn! Really wanted to try their nasi lemak though, looks so appealing! Anyway, I settled for Tom Yam Meehoon. Still was a little skeptical about how delicious the food would be when I placed my order.

Fried Tom Yam Meehoon RM6.90 | Ice Tea with Herbal Jelly RM4.80

You know how usually chain- restaurant's food are? Very commercialised tasting right? So can't blame me if I was expecting my food to taste commercialised la. Having that preconception, I had my first bite of meehoon and I went...

 

How come so yummy one!

The tom yam flavour was soooo appetising! I think it makes a great starter (starter because I still wanted my nasi lemak LOL). The dish tasted like something you buy off from those side of the road stalls!!! I mean in a good way that is! I always though that great tasting food is found on the street! I'm a street food person so no matter how yummy the food served in restaurant, I'd usually opt for authentic street food.

For the drink, I ordered milk tea with cincau but I think they forgot my cincau (grass jelly). I didn't realised it until when I was sipping my drink while listening to the interviewee. Then I thought, eh where is my cincau???

But since the milk tea was good, as good as real kopitiam one and I already drank almost all of it I decided to not make a hoo haa. So I paid extra RM1 I think for nothing:(

Oh oh, I forgot to mention! Check this out:

Upon arrival, I simply picked a spot that I thought was conducive enough for my interview. Decided to go for the sofa cushion type. 

When I was trying to get comfy in my seat, I was wondering why is this table's leg feel so weird? I looked down and I saw a sewing machine's paddle!!!!! Then I realised that they had transformed an old sewing machine to a dining table! How cool is THAT!

They only have two of these sewing machine table and I luckily got one!

The rest of the tables are the normal type BUT BUT BUT.... I spot one more unusual table! Don't know if you noticed but you see the small boy in rainbow stripes tshirt? He's siting on an old school looking bench like what they provide aeons ago in kopitiam (coffee shops)!!

Bench & Tables

So I was obviously very excited to jot this down in my food blog! They have a few outlets outside of Bangi too but I'm not sure if all of their deco is the same? Bangi surpirsingly has many cafe! I would want to try them someday when I'm motivated enough to drive 45 minutes for a new food experience. Funny that I'm easily 'ON!' when it comes to driving to Melaka for food :P

Cempedak Cake @ Swich Cafe, Uptown Damansara

Hello!

Just noticed that I have not blogged for about a month. Initially it was because I was busy then my Samsung Note 4 got stolen so I was demotivated to take pictures with my Redmi 2 which has good enough camera but obviously that can't beat my Note:(

A kiamsiap (miser) IMU prof pisses me off :

Anyway, I'm selling my Redmi 2 now for RM445 because after all it's only my temporary phone till I had time to decide on which phone I really want to use for longer period of time. I think RM445 is fair considering I bought it lesser than 3 weeks ago so its pretty much new. It comes with a phone casing which I bought for like RM25 and free gifts too!

Now the story that made me damn geram. Yesterday, this buyer, a prof from IMU called me asking if I could sell my Redmi 2 for RM360. I was reluctant because price offered was a rip off! But later agreed thinking that I bought my phone for RM460 (I miscalculated, forgot the GST). 

When I came home, he text me asking for the original receipt and a phone casing as well. That's when I realised my mistake. So I replied informing him about the miscalculation and made a new offer RM400 for phone, phone casing, free gifts AND Poslaju. He said NO.

So okay la, I find other buyer no problem because my phone is considered new and looking at all the free gifts and postage I'm throwing in this is a steal deal! 

See see earlier this morning he text me telling me that I'm unethical because an agreement was reached and if I agreed to RM360 he would proceed with the payment. Woke up to a busy day and first thing I saw was someone calling me unethical really pisses me off. So I'm here ranting!

Prof, number 1. There are 4 elements to a contract (If I have not forgotten from my law major). My Mudah ad was an invitation to treat. You offered RM360, I verbally accepted but there was no consideration involved i.e. you did not pay me any deposit etc. Then I raised a counter offer. A counter offer means no deal is done yet till you agree. Since you decline my offer, no agreement is reached since I don't have the intention of selling it to you. So how is this unethical?

Number 2. Being unethical would be me taking agreeing to your RM360 and then telling you that I want RM40 more when you have transferred the money to me. I have experienced this when I was purchasing a blanket from UK.

Number 3. My ad says Whatsapp or SMS only. Considering you're a prof, I assumed you understand terms and condition stated but you called anyway. But the thing that pisses me off is that someone who is earning big bucks is being so kiamsiap ( he wanted free postage too! wtf) and when refuse to buy from me, can call me unethical somemore?!!!

Okay, end of juicy gossip. Now check out my cakes I had for my birthday! 

Swich

SS21/ 58, Uptown Damansara

Facebook

Swich Cafe located opossite the new Texas Chicken at Uptown Damansara

So Nit and I went there for our birthday cakes. I wanted to buy a birthday cake from here for my sis's birthday but I was in a hurry and it was just scorching hot that day so I just got her a cake from the mall that we were going to.

Back in March when we had our cakes at Swich, it was still a newly opened cake shop! If I've not mistaken the set up of this shop was pretty quick. The owner got it all ready to rambo within a week I think! So I was very excited to try it out. Here are some pictures of how Swich looks like on the inside:

It's half a shop so the shop is quite narrow but we easily found a seat

Menu of the day at the ordering counter

Not sure if it's a self service shop or not because I dont see them coming to customers to take orders. I had to go over to the counter to tell them which cake I want. Get seated and wait for the cake. I didn't know whether I should pay for my cakes before or after having them but I did it later. Didn't get scolded so okay la I was right. HAHA.

Check out their cakes:

You have the ones refrigerated 

And the ones outside at room temperature

Cempedak cake with toasted coconut, RM12.00

I chose their famous cempedak cake with toasted coconut! Been wanting to try this ever since I knew this shop existed!! While the cempedak cream is really good, the cake was too dry. Anyway, they are really generous with the cempedak fruit so the cream was really lovely!! Strong cempedak flavour is yums!

Toasted coconut tasted a bit burnt. Not sure if its suppose to be that way or what? I really love the cempedak cream but I don't think I'll return for this cake because it's just too dry for my liking. With cream also can taste the dryness:S

Belgian chocolate cempedak cream cake, RM12.90

Nit ordered this chocolate cempedak cake and her cake was more moist! But the sad thing was that the chocolate was just too overpowering so I was tasting more chocolate than cempedak. Compared to my cake where the cempedak cream really stood out!

Okay last picture taken by my Samsung Note that got stolen :|

The end. 

I'll be back for more updates since I bought a new phone with better camera HAHA

Al- Baik Fried Chicken @ Kota Damansara

Being fat sucks and I'd never get used to it. Ever since I was young I was a chubby baby and I never did lose the fats so I have never knew what a flat tummy looks like. So don't blame me if I caress your flat tummy because I jakun hahahha 

The lightest I've ever been was between 62- 63kg. That was when I was swimming and eating 2 spoonful of rice per day with vege till I had fainting spells, FML. Thought that the suffering was not worth it so now I'm back to 66kg with normal eating. I could probably lose it if I was exercising enough but... hehehehe.

To make things worst, I love fried chicken so since I can't be skinny, come be fat with me! JOKING!

Al- Baik Fried Chicken

Jalan PJU 5/12, Kota Damansara

Facebook

This is how their shop looks like in Kota Damansara (Picture from their Facebook page)

They have been around Malaysia for quite some time already. I have a friend who is their number one fan and mentioned that Al- Baik fried chicken beats KFC/ Texas Chicken hands down! Apparently it is very famous in Arab so due to all the rave I decided to give it a shot for lunch that weekend since they newly opened a new branch closer to me. The Bukit Bintang branch is problematic when it comes to parking.

Interior of restaurant

Interior 2

The place looks very simple and... cheap LOL I mean I was expecting more because they are a franchise like KFC, McD etc so their simplicity took me by surprise. 

My friend told me that the older Bukit Bintang branch wasn't as nice as this (Gasp! Double shocked, so I don't know what to expect of the old place) but had more comfy couch. Oh ya, but they renovated the Bukit Bintang branch anyway so I assume that it's good as this one now.

Like any other fried chicken restaurants, you would need to go over to the counter and place your order; self service system. Well, half self service because the chicken will be sent to you later.

For the entire month of March 2015, they are having a 15% discount for the Kota Damansara branch!!

The price of the chicken here is slightly more expensive than KFC or Texas Chicken and I was told that I needed to order 3 pieces of chicken to be full. And so I did. You can refer the picture above for the price of my 3- pieces of chicken set meal. 

Unlike KFC or Texas Chicken, please be warned that this is NOT a fast food restaurant solely because the food ain't fast. I waited for at least 30 minutes for my food to arrive, about the same time needed to cook beef steak LOL

Set meal comes with chicken, huge bun, fries and a drink.

Don't expect your food to come organised like other fast food restaurants, I was culturally food shocked HAHAHHA Everything was just chucked into one paper on a platter. 

Something that other chicken shops don't have: Garlic sauce and Cocktail sauce.

Now I'll tell you why these were my life saver...

You see, Al- Baik fried chicken is not your typical fried chicken. Despite KFC claiming that they use 10 over spices, you wouldn't actually taste the heat from the spices. KFC's spices are mild and are there just to add flavour to the chicken.

Al- Baik chicken is fiery!! I bought the spicy version instead of the original because apparently the original wouldn't taste as flavourful as the spicy. My gosh, one bite of the chicken and my mouth was heating up! You could taste and feel the spices come to life! After finishing my first piece of chicken, my stomach was on fire LOL

And this is why you would need their garlic sauce to tone down the heatiness coming from the chicken. The garlic sauce was served cold so it was so soothing to have with the hot chicken. The only downside was that my brain couldn't brain what was going on because it tasted like kebab if you have it with garlic sauce.

"Brain thinks, this is kebab. Eyes confirm, no no this is fried chicken. Brain can't brain it."

See the spice, probably curry powder that seeped right through the bone of the chicken!! That is one skillful marinade!

Overall, it was a good but different fried chicken experience. If you like fried chicken like I do, and if you are adventurous enough you should give it a shot! 

Oh yes, and three chicken was just nice to make me full. I love it that my chicken arrived really hot and crispy (duh, I waited 30 minutes for them to fry it) and that there weren't icky fats below the skin. So when I finished my meal I was full but not that kinda oily throat wanna vomit kinda full. Surprisingly, it lasted me the whole day! Didn't feel hungry even at night, what Arabian sorcery is this?!

Happy chickening!

Just Want Coffee @ Sutera Utama, Johor Bahru

Hello again!

If I counted correctly it's Chap Goh Mei tomorrow! That marks the end of the Chinese New Year and so we can all throw our leftover oranges into the lake to find for suitors, joking LOL! Um.. Actually, it's still a practise to throw oranges these days:S

As I was complaining to my close ones of how productive I can be half a month and how unproductive I can be in the other half of the month. Well, now I'm in the unproductive half so I'm here wasting time churning out blog post instead of doing proper work :X

All I want to do is stash a dozen of donuts and a one whole cake to munch on in bed, in my comfy aircon room. But I'm too lazy to go get my donuts and cakes. I'm also saving up cash so I'm only left with leftover Chinese New Year snacks, bed and aircon. Doesn't sound too bad either.

In better times...

Just Want Coffee

23 Jalan Sutera Tanjung 8/3, JB

Facebook

The only time when I splurge on treats like these is when I'm out with my friends. More so when I'm back in my hometown where I have some friends and we want to catch up on our hectic life. The good thing of me being in KL is that I have nobody except my sister, my bestie and Mr Sunshine so I get to save money by not going out for teatime, HAHAHA.

Coffee making machine

Just Want Cafe has been around for a while now, it's not a new place but it sure is a hot place for people to hang out! Continues stream of people checking in to that cafe always made me wonder whats so special about it? 

Since I'm not a big fan of coffee, somehow I never got the chance to visit that cafe which is obviously famous for their coffee. Till that day when the coffee addict, Simren suggested Just Want. 

PS: I love this Coffee addict and I miss her missing our CNY outing!

Waffle Machine

Good that they serve waffles because waffles are my favourite! Simren recommended the waffles (or did she?) so we decided to try some! Here, a picture of the waffles menu so you can have a look and decide on which... or whether the waffles interest you enough for you to pay Just Want a visit:

Waffles Menu

No doubt the waffles are a little pricey but it was okay because we shared it among three of us so each only forked out about RM5. We chose the Butter Caramel waffle because it was the lightest waffle flavour of them all. Uh huh, we came for teatime right after heavy lunch at Tampoi Laksa Shangrila.

Butter Caramel Waffle, RM12.90

Waffles were really good!! Freshly made so it was hot and fluffy! Only if they gave us more butter but the good thing is that they have us good Emborg butter. Caramel sauce was superb! I'm very much a caramel toffee kinda person so this was an instant hit for me! Look, they even drizzled more caramel sauce on our vanilla ice- cream, YUMS!

No idea what's the tiny blot of whip cream suppose to be doing there?

Simren doing the honours because she said I was too slow in spreading the butter and caramel for everyone's piece LOL

And that's how we ate it, Noms!

Iced chocolate if I've not mistaken. It was very very chocolately, I thought my throat would get sore after finishing it. In the end, couldn't finish it because it was too sweet and chocolately for my liking.

Simren's hazelnut latte (if I remembered correctly) and Wawa's pretty Rose Latte! 

Surprisingly the rose latte actually tasted good and it smelt like rose! I mean, I thought we wouldn't be able to taste/smell the rose because I thought the coffee scent would be overpowering but to my amazement, it blended well so you could taste both coffee and rose :O

Coffee there are priced around RM15.

One last picture of bliss <3

Okay, going back to my leftover CNY snacks. I'll probably blog about Uncle Tetsu's cheesecake that we had for my sister's birthday next if my body allows i.e. currently it feels like it's breaking down :S

Revisit: N Square Restaurant @ Bandar Dato Onn, JB

Hello! Just finish intensive theory writing so I decided to take a break before I proceed to other sections of writing. Making full use of my good mood now before it swings back to depression once I start thinking and writing again LOL The plan was to go out to IKEA and Tesco for window shopping and to see if there's any nice yet cheap CNY stuff for me to buy. 

When I was about to change and get ready to go out, I felt hungry so decided to warm up my nasi lemak for lunch to scrooge on food a bit. But after lunch, I got a bit sleepy so I think my plan to go out today is postponed till further notice:S

Hence, I'm here churning out another blog post that I was suppose to write a few weeks back but was too busy getting depressed LOL

This is a revisit post on... 

N Square Restaurant

62 Jalan Perjiranan 2

Bandar Dato Onn, Johor Bahru

Facebook

If you read my previous post on N Square, you would know that I thought their milkshake needed some fixing because it tasted more like ice blended than milkshake. 

So this time, my sis gave it another shot because she was craving for milkshake anyway. The owner dropped me a comment on my blog ensuring that she would improve the recipe of it and she did! Was surprised that she asked of my opinion of the improved version of milkshake. Never thought that she would remember, since the diner was packed.

Strawberry Banana Milkshake, RM8

Now it really taste like milky milkshake!! Super love it especially when it's only for RM8! Now it's nice and creamy, not icey anymore. If you order this strawberry banana milkshake, you're in for a thick milkshake treat! 

Aglio Olio Spaghetti, RM14 (if I've not mistaken)

The spaghetti is good! Not too oily, nicely flavoured with mild herbs. This is my mum's favourite dish! My sis ordered one serving for herself too. It was a little hard to peel the prawns but they were generous with their seafood so you got yourself a steal!

Baked Homemade Meatballs, RM10

This is a MUST HAVE please! Was super excited when I saw this on their menu. Oh ya, I think they recently revamped their menu and I noticed a few new items on it! This meatball dish is tucked under "Main Dish" section but I think it serves us well as a shared appetizer. 

Fishing out the crazy amount of cheese

Meatballs soaked in tomato gravy and topped with lots and lots and lots of crazy gooey cheese!!! So much cheese till I thought RM10 wouldn't be enough to cover the cost for the cheese! This dish is served with garlic bread and it was such a spectacular dish, I'd prolly name it as N Square's signature dish! 

I'm sorry but I have to spam you with more pictures of this Baked Homemade Meatballs because it's so good that a picture or two just won't do! If you want more meatballs, you can request for them I think RM1 for additional piece? Something like that. 

Beeeeeef!

Scooping out the chunks of juicy meatballs

Ugh! So much cheese... need both hands to scoop!

Oh baby! LOL

Grilled Chicken Chop, RM12 (I think)

The last dish was the grilled chicken chop! As usual very generous amount of chicken given all very nicely cooked. Love it that they don't overcook the chicken, I've tasted many cheap chicken chops that always overcook their chicken till its all dry and sad. 

Valentine's Day is coming so this could be one of your options to consider if you want good food, generous serving but such low price!