Min Min Udon Kobo, Damansara Uptown

We were on our way to the Curve/IKEA Damansara when we chanced upon this cafe. We went in to try their food since it was quite late and we were both very hungry already.

Apparently, the Udon here were made fresh without MSG.

We ordered some qyozas to share. They were not bad and I guess when you keep having dumplings, they started to taste pretty much alike. Minced meat with prawns (or not) and chives wrapped in thin flour-based skin. The ones here had quite thin skin actually so to be honest, they were better than average actually especially since the meat inside were still juicy (proven when he squirted the juice all over the table after taking a big bite outta them). LOL.

The Chasu Ramen was excellent. The udon was springy and actually absorbed the flavours of the broth so its not tasteless like what most udon in shops tasted like. The Chasu was not bad but the star of the dish was the udon itself! Delicious~ I like their clear broth as well and couldn't get enough of it.

He had the pork chop curry rice which was nice but we were wondering what happened to the usual carrots and potato cubes so usual in Japanese curries. The pork chop was really crispy and tasty too.

They do not have the usual sets for the meals here but if you ordered the Udon, you can turn it into a set (more or less) by paying a price where you can opt for salad, tea and maybe chawa mushi for about RM8. Or, order another set of Mini don with just RM12 (inclusive of tea and salad). I felt those are pretty value for money :)

Udon Kobo Min Min
No 72 GF, Jalan SS 21/35
Damansara Utama
Tel: 012-319 0028
Business hours: 11.30am – 2.30 pm, 6pm – 10pm

Bentoya Japanese Street Food, Sunway Pyramid

It's been a long day and even though we just had Japanese food earlier for lunch, hubby just couldn't resist the smell of teppanyaki as we were walking past this little shop on the Asian Street in Sunway Pyramid. We ended up having our lunch here and surprisingly the food is quite good although the hygience of the shop left quite a bit to be desired.

Yes, I had 100-plus instead of the usual green tea like hubby because I was really parched and the lack of water has left me feeling quite sickish. So I thought I could take myself on the road of recovery with some room temperature 100-plus. Me, a doctor in training! :P

His salmon teppanyaki arrived with a lot of smoke and sizzling. LOL. The sauce was bubbling everywhere onto everything. Well, at least no one can say the food is cold here. :P I had some of it and thought it was pretty good. The portions were a little on the small side though but otherwise, no complaints. They had cabbage and lots of onions over a rather small piece of salmon with plenty of sweet Japanese soy sauce thrown in. NYUM!

I had the Saba don and the fish was so tiny compared to the photo in the menu. I was a little disappointed actually, especially when the Saba don in Singapore meant having nearly the whole fish or at the very least half a fish. Anyway, it was alright for me and the sides of sliced omelette just about let me have enough to go with the big plate of rice.

Overall, food was good (but small in portion) and service was pretty good too. Hygiene could be improved but when eating out, sometimes these can't be helped I guess.
Look out for them at:

Bentoya Japanese Street Food

F1-AV-196A, Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall,
No. 3, Jalan PJS 11/15, Petaling Jaya, Bandar Sunway, 46150

Tokyo Itinery - Day 2

We woke up early, like 6.30am despite a very late night before this. First up, TSUKIJI FISH MARKET! It is one of the world's busiest fish market and had the freshest sushi. We were supposed to go in and look around but unfortunately they only allow shoes and not sandals. Anyway, scratched off the sushi place I was looking forward to try and settled for another at one of the small streets around that area. Fortunately, the sushis were delicious! Definitely better than what we would get in Malaysia. Their fish were still swimming around and the sushi chef just pulled them out and slaughter them. :S and it's so fast and clean its incredible. The only thing I would not recommend is the fish innards sushi. It is nastyyyyy :S

Tsukiji Fish Market

The lil car they use to transfer all d big fish

Some of the stalls along the market area

Pretty egg rolls with flowers and designs

The sushi chef in action!

If I am not mistaken, the fish innard one is the one which looks like white cuttlefish strands..

We did go to the temple nearby. Mainly I insisted on going since we were just passing by and there was some people online who mentioned it. Me being kiasu decided to take some pictures before we leave. Apparently it's famous for the golden lion or something I think if I'm not mistaken...couldn't really remember exactly what I read before this trip but as I saw most people taking pictures of the lion and the entrance, I did the same thing. LOL

Next we went to the imperial palace grounds and garden. Honestly, I didn't think much of it mainly because we were able to just look from the outside.. A group of tourists, with their tourist guide haughtily telling us to bugger off in case we decided to sneak in with their group, managed to secure clearance to go in. Oh well! The garden is pretty pleasing I guess (not much of a fan cos they are pretty much the same) and there's a gigantic moat surrounding the palace. I do find the goose and ducks appealing though :P

Then it's time for a trip down to Ginza. Although Ginza is well known for its heart-stopping prices, eating there can be affordable if you know where to look. Do not dismiss some small shops hidden in nooks and crannies of the big buildings around. There are reasons why these small rundown shops survive. In fact, it could be an experience you wouldn't get anywhere else! For lunch, we had our meal in this rather small working-class eatery. It's a standing eatery so you do not get a real table, much less a chair and instead, you eat your food standing up, duh! and on a bar-like ledge to support your bowls. The food here is delicious! We had the cold soba and rice with deep fried battered pork and tempura prawn rice.

Maybe it's just me but to me, Ginza is pretty so-so. LOL. After all the talks and praises, somehow I expected much much more. But aside from that, the food are definitely very pretty :D There are some very fancy chocolatiers there but I could not bear to fork out more than MYR100 for 6 pieces of chocolates no matter how good they look. :P

We then went to Korakuen Garden  after traipsing from one shop to another in Ginza. This is said to be the garden in the city for Tokyo. It's 300 yen per entry and we took only about an hour to finish the walk. By then, my legs are killing me. LOL. And I had on those comfy sandals that I can spend hours walking in malls in. Oh they have gigantic japanese carps which are so tame that they basically follow you around as you walk along the edge of the pond in Korakuen. I had a green tea ice cream here too cos I just want to have an excuse to rest my feet. :P And due to my exhaustion I even forgot the picture (I rarely forgot as you can see, I took pictures every time before I take a bite out of them, or sometimes after I have just taken one bite outta them if I forgot).

For the evening, we went to Akihabara, the home to any electrical appliances and gadgets known to man. They have everything a geek will ever want. From household appliances to cameras, ipads, pcs, video games, animes and mangas, and even some...ehem adult version of anything/toys. Arcades are all multi-storey and are divided to multiple games by floors. OMG! @@

Dinner is a pretty normal affair with us ducking into one of the cafe in Akihabara. There's no shortage of selection there just the price differs and sometimes become the criteria of just which one to go to. Anyway, I wanted to go to a cosplay cafe but apparently 'somebody' thinks the girls all not kawaii enough and it is a waste of money to go if they are not. Blerk! So this is what we ended up eating: Green Tea (like what's new)..

Super spicy meat sauce over pork chops and rice

Tempura prawns and pork or potato and miso (nicer than the spicy meat sauce one)

I ended my night with one of the many apple tea from the kiosk. :P

Nikko Japanese Restaurant Miri

Nikko is probably one of the more famous Japanese restaurant in Miri, even though most would probably go to Escapade in Kuala Belait, mainly because of the price and selection I think. For those who are unwilling to endure the extra drive there, Nikko is probably the next best choice for decent Japanese food. Price-wise, it is probably triple or quatriple the price of Sakae, SushiKing, Zanmai and other Japanese restaurants easily available in West Malaysia (which is why my sis and I owes gorge ourselves with Japanese food before we come back here). Oh well, since it will probably be a while before I'll go back to KL/JB, so this will do to satisfy my cravings. The food here is quite nice I think, compared to the SushiKing in Parkson, Miri and the service is also better (since the one in SushiKing Miri is soooo dismally bad in terms of getting my order taken etc-unless you count waiting around for 15 minutes before getting your order when you're so totally famished =good?). Anyway, the atmosphere of the place here is quite old-school Japanese cafe with woody panelling and lots of lil knick-knacks from Japanese from the Japanese dolls to the framed geisha-like potraits. There's even a small water fountain thingie going on in a corner with light trickling sound of the running water as company when you're eating...pretty good ambience I guess...We ordered some of the sashimi and all and it was quite good :) Here goes:

The handrolls are quite good as they have stuff right into the last bite compared to most shops which only put the stuff on the top part only :)

The Sashimi platter

Snapper sushi or sumthink..not so good..very chewy imo :)

The chicken teppanyaki and garlic fried rice..very big servings :S

Mango Salmon...quite nice albeit the rather small portion

Hana Sashimi :D

More Salmon Sashimi

Sakae Sushi

Sakae is one of my sis' favourite place for sushi and everytime we're in KL, there's bound to be a few visits there and as most of the stuff we ordered each time are about the same, I shall just post out all of them in a short post...We like the variety and the cheaper price compared to some sushi place in Miri (except for Sushi King which is considered cheap) so here goes: