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

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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!

Ah Weng Koh Breakfast @ Imbi Market, KL

Went jogging the other day with sis. After that's done we had breakfast guilt free HAHAHA Well, breakfast is the most important meal of the day! So I asked her what she wanted to have and she said breakfast at Imbi. Initially I was lazy to drive all the way into town so I convinced her to have breakfast at the nearby coffee shops. 

But the sun really shined upon her the other day because when we were at the coffee shop I myself didnt know what to eat. Everything seem... heavy. So I conceded and drover us both to Imbi Market for the famous toast!

Ah Weng Koh Hainanese Tea

Imbi Market a.k.a. Pasar Bukit Bintang

It was a Sunday morning around 9am but the food area at the market was soooo packed! There weren't any seats left but since I drove so far I was not gonna leave before having breakfast as planned. So I had to stand right next to a table that look like they were finishing their food. I didn't give them pressure to hurry up and leave the table but you know I just stood there with hawk eyes on their stools:S

Hungry people in the morning

Finally they left soon after, quickly sat down. Had to share the table with three groups of unknowns but that was inevitable especially in that circumstance. Oh yes, while I was waiting for my table itself I see this old man holding up to 10 cups of coffee/tea and yelling on top of his lungs HELLO! HELLO! HELLO! to signal that he's coming through.

That was super intimidating! He wasn't rude or anything but he seem to be in such a hurry and he was yelling like non stop and he was taking orders in Cantonese I thought I'm dead meat. Anyway, managed to flag him to our table and I quickly told him 2 set buns 2 coffee.

Toasted buns with thick slab of butter and kaya

According to my sister who has been here before, there are two types of toast. They have normal toast bread and toast bun. I had the bun, shown in the picture above. 

LOOK AT THE BUTTERRRR

This shop is really generous with their butter! It's a huge slice of butter sandwich in between your hot toast so it tasted so so good! Usually kopitiam will scrooge on their butter so much so you only wished you had made your own breakfast at home. But the funny thing is homemade toast and eggs doesnt taste as good as outside's, I have no idea why LOL

Talking about eggs, I forgot to order eggs! Actually when I told the uncle that I wanted two sets of bread, somehow in my mind that meant I wanted the toast to come with eggs. When our bread and coffee came, he was in such a hurry that he threw my change on the table even before I handed him money HAHAHHA He meant no disrespect but I suppose it's just now market folks are.

So ya, I didn't dare ask him for eggs.

About the coffee, I'm not a big coffee fan but my sis told me that it's their signature drink so I decided to give it a go. But! Apparently I ordered the wrong beverage. It was supposed to be Hainanese Tea which is kind of a mixture of coffee and tea. I ordered Coffee. I thought they only sold one type of famous beverage! wtf was I thinking LOL So Coffee turned out to be bitter and super thick milk coffee! Mum would love it but I only manage a few sips.

Two sets of toast (buns) and coffee cost RM8.40.

Nearby laksa stall

To compensate myself, I ordered Laksa from the stall nearby where I was sitting. The gravy was very good! Thick and fragrant! Love the coconut milk taste in the curry!! Quite a lot of ingrediants also for RM6! There goes my jogging effort LOL So much for insisting on a light breakfast.

Meehoon Laksa RM6

The uncle cooking the laksa was very nice and friendly even if he was super busy. I'm very intimidated of those busy uncles and aunties because they tend to be rude and they would scream at you if you are not fast enough in ordering or if you order using a language that they don't understand:S Back to the uncle, he was very nice and I was glad his laksa turned out nice too! The lady helping him isn't as friendly as he is though so I just ignored her HAHAHHA

Sis ordered Nasi Lemak, RM1.50 from this random lady walking around with her tray of nasi lemak. It's a nay on the nasi lemak though. Not fragrant enough, so sad looking too. Still feel I make one of the best Nasi Lemak! 

RM1.50 Nasi Lemak- Rice topped with sambal and a tiny winy slice of egg

I'm planning to go back for more toast though and half boiled EGGS!, during the weekdays that is, because my chicken heart can't take the seat wrestling, screaming uncle ordering and the people starring at me as I eat kind of situation. Told sis we will go back on weekdays, 8am! Take that! HAHA

The Replacement @ Jalan Dhoby, JB

Finally, it's the weekends!

Been down with a cranky stomach lately thanks to my ABC porridge. I realised that these days my stomach can't take too much of fiber or else it will start churning real badly and I'll be visiting the loo like it's my best friend. Good thing my stomach isn't acting up as bad as it did when I had green bean soup.

Since my stomach is feeling unwell, I got the chance to stay at home and rest. And get bored. Hence, blog. I met up with Wawa and Simren a week ago I think when I was back in JB and we decided to catch up at any random cafe. The Replacement was new so we decided to give it a shot

The Replacement

33- 34 Jalan Dhobby, JB

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This is how The Replacement looks from the outside. 

It's a plain white building. It's a lodge too, that explains why their kitchen i.e. cafe isn't very spacious. Actually I thought the space was very limited- almost like a large bedroom size. While there are other cafes that have limited space, I have to say that The Replacement really do not know how to maximize the tiny space that they have. 

Now, I'm telling you the layout of the cafe so you would be prepared. Either you get lucky and get that two seaters by the side of the wall (I think there were 4- 5 two seaters) or you get unlucky and have no choice but to share one huge ass table.

The huge ass Knights of Camelot kinda table

This is the huge ass table I was talking about. I think that this would fit 10 people at least, great for big families you know like those that dine with their grandparents all the way to their grandkids? Yup. 

But a far as what I have seen during my trip to The Replacement, those big ass family doesn't seem to be the primary market. Everyone that came in were young people in pairs or at most in groups of fives. When we arrive, we were seated rather quickly. That's a good thing. The bad thing was that we were seated right in the middle of the huge ass table, sandwiched between groups of unknowns seating at both ends:O

Oh, hi unknowns :S

This made us feel really awkward. We couldn't even talk at our normal volume because it really felt like our private space was violated. Thank God the girls on our right soon finished so we quickly scooch to that end of the table. 

So there we were in the huge ass table, only both poles of the table occupied because NO ONE was willing to take the middle seating like duh! So you see, lots of space wasted. They have this bar seating facing the window but the space is really squeezy so maybe if you want a quick drink that would be okay, if not I'd probably exit. 

They do have pretty lamps hanging over our heads at the Knights table though

The Replacement practised half self service. So you have to get the menu, order and pay at the cashier then be seated and wait for your order to arrive. 

The menu. 

Ordering was also a bit awkward for me because we don't get to seated to decide what to have. Instead everything was done in a hurry in front of the cashier area. They have a few chairs for you there but it was still so weird because I felt like I had to quickly get it over and done with and not hog the tiny area =.=

I wasn't that hungry and most of the menu was bread. You know brunch kind of menu? I had enough bread in KL so I decided to have cake instead. 

Five selection of cakes on display

The best looking on that look worthy to be ordered turns out to be yam cake. Since I was sharing the cake and neither of us fancy yam cake, I decided to order Strawberry Shortcake. It looks like a bad idea but the others weren't far off better so I just settled for the Strawberry cake hoping my prejudice towards their cake was wrong.

Caramel Latte, RM11

Simren's Caramel Latte came pretty quickly. I'm not a big fan of coffee but I did have a sip. Well, al I can say that it tasted almost like the Nescafe that my mum makes at home. Paying RM11, there was a higher expectation. I might as well spend it on the commercialised Starbucks instead. 

FREE water!

Water was free but you would have to go get it yourself. They have these bottles on a cart at one corner of the shop with glasses as well. So please help yourself! Not sure how many can you take but we took 2 bottles of water.

Strawberry Shortcake RM12.90

Then my cake came. As expected, it wasn't that good. Not worth my RM13. The cake tasted a little too dense for liking and it was sweet. To add on to the sweetness of the cake they had this strawberry jam,which tasted like those jar types from the hypermarket, in between the layers and also some buttercream. OH MY GOSH, that was the last straw! Even though we shared the cake, we find it really hard to finish that one tiny slice:(

Corque Madame, RM18.90

Wawa haven't had lunch so she ordered the Corque Madame which was super overpriced! This made me really angry because this dish is just a slice of bread with melted cheese, tomato sauce (I think) and egg on top. It took them 45 minutes to an hour to serve. The portion was really tiny for a RM18.90. I might as well add on RM5 and have a big breakfast in Bangsar!

People say that KL food is expensive. Well, yes no doubt a meal in cafe or restaurants in KL would cost you RM15 at least but the difference is the food is worth the price! Cafe in JB seriously pisses me off. Just because they want to imitate God knows what, they are charging such a high price on disgusting tiny portion food. 

PLUS! The ambience of The Replacement was rather bad- awkward seating, white walls etc so why the heck are you charging so much? It's understandable that all business aims for profit but this is really too much

Approximately RM43 for the tiny things we ordered :S

The Replacement should really be replaced.

But then again, I don't know why are they so many people on Facebook who actually compliment this place like it's one of the best places in JB. It's either they are easily contented people or they are really nuts. Also noticed lots of people who dress up nicely in chiffon dresses and what not, coming to The Replacement with DSLR camera with their nose stuck high up in the air.

Why ah? So glamourous meh drinking overpriced meh coffee here?

We were like, uhhh. Should have gone across the street and spend our money on three portion of chicken chops instead. Nevermind, take picture to compensate our loss LMAO

At least Simren really liked the dried flower

The Ice- cream Project @ Jalan Dhoby, JB

I'm suppose to go out for dinner with Rebecca but as we were just about to leave the house it poured heavily! So now we are waiting for the rain to subside before leaving. Gosh, my appetite is cranky again. I know it's meal time but Im not feeling that hungry but I don't feel like eating:(

Anyway, yesterday was super fun because I brought Reb out for some ice- cream! She has been wanting to try this for a long time but didn't had a chance too. So off we go for our sister's day out!

TIP, The Ice- cream Project

31 Jalan Dhoby

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A swing outside TIP

Selfie in front of the shop because it's sisters day out <3

The thing about TIP is that it's apparently a very famous place to get ice- cream in JB. Maybe it's because we don't have many ice- cream parlours around. Anyway, my point is you can't expect the best customer service there la. In fact once I entered, I somehow have the feeling that the people there are very stuck up. Initially, I thought that it's just me so I just brushed it aside but when I met up with Wawa today she said that memang the boss there isn't too friendly.

This shop gave me the same feeling when I visit China House in Penang for cakes. It's not to say that the waiters there, wait I dont think I should call them waiters because no one will wait after you. It's all self service. Well, the workers there aren't rude but it's just that they give you this snobbish feeling which is my pet peeve.

A few pictures of ice- cream in the making:

It's quite cool to see the nitrogen that is being used to freeze your ice- cream! Oh yes, your ice- cream will be made only when ordered and that's why it tasted very fresh! Love how the milk tasted, it was literally eating frozen creamy FRESH milk!

Interior of the shop

Pretty cool nook 

Though they have limited space in the shop there was more than ample seats for everyone when I was there but I could imagine that during a full house probably customers will get sightly uncomfortable especially those sitting right in front of the ice- cream maker. That's because everyone would be flocking that are while waiting for their ice- cream to be made. 

One huge ass mirror really good for selfies

Brownies & Cream, RM14

There are only four flavours of ice- cream on the menu. Totally forgot what the other three were but yeah that's all you got! They do have an extensive menu of teas though. Initially I thought the tea menu were ice- cream flavours because it is an ice- cream shop right? But no, you only have four ice- cream choices.

A little disappointed because I was going to order the Earl Grey flavour HAHAHAHA Turns out it was tea so nah. Still puzzled by the lack of options of ice- cream in an ice- cream shop. They might as well be a tea parlour:S

Reb finally getting to try TIP!

FREE water!

Yes, they do provide you with free water if you would like to quench your thirst after having ice- cream. Though TIP's ice- cream wasn't too sweet, in fact I loved how it tasted and need not drink water after that I still went for the free water just because HEHE.

Of course, everything there is self service. You will see the self service sign everywhere. When I mean everywhere, I do mean everywhere. The first sign that you see greeting you at the entrance of the door is a self- service sign. Then when you enter I probably spot three to four similar signs inside that small area. 

TIP screams SELF- SERVICEEEE!

Then they also have a self- service sign above the free water station indicating that you should order, pay, get the ice- cream by yourself. Don't expect anyone to clean up after you're done yes? See that containers next to the free water station? That's where you ditch your paper cups and what not.

All in all, I love their ice- cream because it really tasted fresh and authentic. Brownies and cream did tasted like the real brownie crumbles and milk cream! But then again, for RM14 I won't be able to have it on a regular basis. Probably once in a blue moon, so definitely an indulgence!