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.

Japan Boat Takoyaki @ IOI City Mall Putrajaya

So today is 1 Jan 2015 and to celebrate the new year, my sis and I decided that we would splurge a little on lunch then go back eating home cooked budget food. The plan was for us to have sushi at Sushi Zanmai at One Utama, but decided that we stand a higher chance to find parking in Sunway Pyramid. 

However when we reached Sunway, it was all jam up till the highway so I suggested we go check out the new IOI City Mall in Putrajaya thinking that they wouldn't be much people there since it's so far away. Boy, was I so wrong!

It was jam up as well in Putrajaya wanting to turn into the parking area. The parking area of the new mall is humongous yet it was so packed!! Luckily we found a parking that didn't look like a parking unless you look hard enough.

Went up to the mall and... holy cow! The number of people there in that huge as mall made me a bit dizzy. It was worse than Midvalley during peak hours. As expected, we had to queue for almost an hour for Sushi Zanmai (yes, we stubbornly still wanted sushi) and customer service there was so bad prolly because of the heavy traffic. 

Before heading home immediately after lunch (because the place was so packed that if it was a zombie appocalyse I'm so dead), we decided to drop by a new store to pack back some snack!

Japan Boat Takoyaki

Lower Ground, IOI City Mall Putrajaya

Website

Japan Boat Takoyaki at LG

According to the ad, this store originated from Osaka, Japan back in 1955 if I've not mistaken and it finally came to Malaysia! Googled a bit about it and found out that it has a 60 years old history producing "octopus balls" or "burnt octopus" and was popularised in Taiwan and later expanded to Hong Kong and China.

Making octopus balls

I noticed the process of making takoyaki is similar to what other stores have been doing here in Malaysia.However, they do have this additional equipment to clean the takoyaki pans! I'm not sure if it's a vacuum that sucks up bits and pieces of remnants or a blower to blow the remnants out of the way. Prolly the former LOL 

Octopus ball being glazed, topped with mayo and Katsuobushi (Takoyaki flakes)!!

The lady asked what flavour I wanted so I told her I wanted the original without the wasabi. Not too sure what flavours they have because it was a long queue and I just wanted to get in and get out as soon as possible. Waited in the line till I got sleepy:S

Packing octopus ball in a paper boat

There you have it! Japan Boat Takoyaki! Love the design of the paper boat, check out the lock that they created. Such a smart move without incurring addition cost!

One boat (three octopus balls) cost RM3.90. 

Currenly, they have two promotional sets: 

• Set A: One Tako boat + One drink RM5
• Set B: Three Tako boat RM10

I thought that this Takoyaki store sells really cheap Tako because usually elsewhere it's sold for about RM6 for 4 octopus balls. It's even cheaper if you buy Set B! Do the math:)

Sneak peak of the insides

I like that they are very generous with the glaze, mayo and tako flakes! The octopus balls do not have too much flour so it was very pleasing to have as snacks, appetizers or in this case dessert LOL I would like it better if they are more generous with their octopus though. I could only chew on two tiny pieces of octopus in each ball. 

But all in all, it's one of my favourite snack and I'd come back for it again if I'm ever in Putrajaya! Okay, till the next post. Goodnight:)

Sushi Flash SS2

Looks like after a lousy October, November seems to be treating me real nice! I settle lots of paperworks today at uni to ensure smooth enrollment! All is going good.

Also, I paid my own amenities fee! RM200 may not be a lot for other people but somehow when I came out with that RM200, I felt the pride because I'm all grown up and at last I don't have to burden my parents anymore:D Thank God!

Anyway, even with the scholarship I would have to save up because I'm still not sure what I'll need for my PhD. If I get the government grant then that's a plus point but if I don't that's still fine. So back to the topic, if you are scrooging like me but craving for sushi then you can try this place out!

Sushi Flash

64 Jalan SS2/67

Website

Sushi Flash SS2 taken from Google

This is a rather new store in SS2 I think it sprouted somewhere last month or 2 months back. I read that they already have an earlier established outlet in SS15- same row as McD it seems. 

Sushi on rotating belt

I like the fact that they have a variety of sushi on the rotating belt unlike some Sushi King outlets that has the sameeeee thing rotating. There is a menu there on your table so you can also order for other food if you don't feel lie having sushi.

Side Order

There are rice bowls (Donburi) available too! I think I saw udon but there isn't ramen on the menu. 

Cups, chopsticks, Soysauce, Tissue, Menu all ready at your seat

The cups are already there for you so it's very much of self service if you want green tea. Green tea is charged at RM2 (refillable). Theres both hot and cold green tea rotating on the belt so you can just grab it, fill up and the place them back on the rotating belt.

See the green tea rotating?

This is a budget sushi store so sushi on the Beige plate cost RM2 and the ones on the Red or Black plates cost RM3. The quality of the sushi is better than the ones you find in Aeon Supermarkets but less tasty then the ones in Sushi King. 

BUT! When we are talking about variety of sushi and ingredients used vs price, Sushi Flash wins both Aeon and Sushi King hands down!

Here are some pictures of sushi that we had:

Not too sure what this is, RM3

So we started off with this unknown sushi LOL My sister picked this plate because she said it looks nice grilled. It isn't grilled per say. They just use those kitchen torch (The ones the used in Manhattan Fish Market) to flame up the fish a little. I think the fish is salmon.

Lobster Salad Gunkan (I think), RM3

Ebi Fried Maki (I think), RM3

I thought this maki was a little pricey since they only gave me two sad pieces. On the online menu I think I saw three, but it taste okay. Just that they gave a lot of rice if compared to the proportion of fillings/ toppings. 

Kani Kama Mayo Gunkan, RM2

Chuka Lidako (Baby Octopus) Gunkan, RM2

Baby Octopus Gunkan didn't taste similar to the ones I usually have at Sushi King. This is less chewy and more mushy, I've no idea why.

Aburi Salmon Mentaiko Nigiri, RM3

The best sushi I had that night has got to be the Salmon Mentaiko sushi!!!! Finally, a sushi that has the right proportion of rice to toppings. The fish soft and nice, the mentaiko was sufficient too! No doubt I won't complain if they were to slap on more mentaiko:P

Chuka Kurage (Jellyfish) Gunkan, RM2

Golden Egg, RM3

They have a copycat of Sushi King's Golden Ball and they call it Golden Egg, LOL. This taste very much like the ones at Sushi King but the egg that they use is different. 

At Sushi Flash, the egg is smaller and it has less texture than then ones at Sushi King. Good alternative, but I'd still opt for the original Golden Ball at Sushi King. I don't mind paying RM1 extra for a better egg.

Sweet Sauce

I usually would have to have Nitsume sauce when I'm having my sushi but not all sushi stores have them e.g. Sakae Sushi doesn't have them so I'd never return LOL Considering that Sushi Flash is a budget sushi joint, I assumed that they won't have it either. 

Only after finishing all our sushi my sister realised that they have Nitsume sauce that we wanted! I had to try it so I purposely took another plate of sushi just to dunk it in my holy grail sauce. To my dismay it was soooooooo sweet! 

Mad sweet! As in not seafood sweet but sugar sweet:(

But all in all, this place would still do if you're on a budget and you crave sushi (till your hands shiver, that kind).