華御結 Hana-Musubi new product launch event

華御結 hana-musubi has been around for quite a while, they started off with a few shops and now they have more than 20 branches with shops conveniently located at various MTR stations.

As a fan of HM, I was really lucky to get to visit their factory and see how the musubis are made.

Everything is taken seriously so quality is ensured with high hygiene standards.
Before you enter the factory, you have to get vacuumed for any dust or stray hair, scrubbed 2 times, enter a drying room and then wear protective gear from head to toe.

At the product launch event, we got a preview of the Jumbo omusubis and the healthy mixed rice series that will be launched on 8th July 2019.

Jumbo Omusubi series:

Okinawa style ham and egg Jumbo Omusubi

Black pepper and chicken and burdock roots jumbo Omusubi
Grilled salmon with cod roe mayonnaise Jumbo Omusubi

Healthy mixed grain series:

Pork and vegetables in Okinawa style:

Konbu and Dadachamame:

Soy sauce and Sakura shrimp

We even tried our hand at making some omusubis.

When we left, we were given this lovely box which lights up when opened.

Inside was the new musubis we tried, Koshihikari rice and Amazake drink.

#hanamusubi
#ssghanamusubi

Musubi's for lunch

Hana-Musubi (Admiralty)


Had a coupon to redeem a musubi set which includes two musubis and a side dish.


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Beef musubi:
The beef musubi was very satisfying because the beef was nice and meaty giving the rice plenty of flavour.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Sakura shrimp musubi:
The taste of this was lighter than the beef but it was nice because there were lots of delicate dried shrimps in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Beef:
This had to be heated up and the potatoes beneath it absorbed the beef sauce so it had a rich beef taste.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Back for more musubis

Hana-musubi (Wan Chai)

Originally I planned to go to Texas chicken and ribs nearby but it was too hot that day to eat roast chicken, so I went to Hana-musubi instead.

Ended up getting a salad with two musubis and a soup.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Special miso chicken:

The pieces of chicken in the musubi were quite chunky and tender, but the miso was not strong enough.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Japanese style pork tomato curry:

There were lots of thinly sliced pieces of pork but the tomato and curry flavouring was light despite there was so much curry sauce in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
White collagen chicken meatball soup:

This tasted as good as my first visit because on my last visit the soup was too salty.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Kewpie caesar salad sauce from China:
For my salad I chose caesar salad sauce which was by Kewpie, but surprisingly it was manufactured in China.
The taste was not that creamy with a hint of sweetness and the sauce was really runny.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Hana-musubi at the revenue tower

Hana-musubi (Wan Chai)

At the Revenue Tower, there is a newly opened branch of Hana-musubi.

I have never been to the Revenue Tower before but went there to get some musubis.


It is just building and buildings on that side of town so getting food is difficult which explains why there were so many people at Hana-musubi.

As it just opened, there was a Japanese man promoting it which annoyed me a bit because his voice was a bit loud and what he said was repetitive (luckily I did not understand Japanese).
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Konbu:


The Konbu was really nice, it was musubi with sea kelp, the taste was light and slightly sweet, a good choice for vegetarians.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Tazukuri:


These were dried baby sardines which was why they were slightly hard and it was slightly sweet too.
Another healthy option if people do not want to choose meat.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Octopus salad:

The sauce that came with this was really nice, it was ginger oil that had grounded ginger in it.
When it was mixed with the salad, it gave the seaweed and octopus a heaty taste because of the ginger puree.
The seaweed was really nice because it has a natrual unami taste.
Although it was a tiny box, it was very filling.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Soups @ Hana-musubi

Soups at Hana-musubi Mar 19, 2013
Hana-musubi (Wan Chai)

On my last visit, the musubis and soup were great and I have been back for it.

However on this visit, it was late in the day, so the soup had been in the pot for the whole day and it got a bit concentrated and lumpy so the taste was too salty.







My previous visit at Hana-musubi:
http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2221219

(On my previous visit, the chicken soup looks much nicer on the photo)

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Homemade lobster soup:





The lobster soup was to strong and salty.
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Chicken and collagen soup:




The chicken soup was also too concentrated and lumpy and it tasted slightly sour.
The vegetables in it were too mushy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Although the soups were not good this time, the customer service was still good and friendly.

The best and only musubi I have tried so far

I have never been keen on Musubis because I used to think they taste bland as it is mostly made of rice.

In Hawaii they have spam musubi.

I decided to try this place when I found out they had Pizza flavoured musubi and the soybean chicken meatball soup.
I really wanted to try the pizza musubi because I thought it would be fun having Risotto in musubi form.

After taking the effort walking to Brim, there was no Pizza flavour that day, so I got the Mentaiko musubi, Scallop musubi, XO sauce musubi, Yukuri (akajiso – purple perilla) musubi, wasabi octopus musubi and the soup.

I ate the XO Sauce musubi and the Wasabi musubi last because it had the strongest flavour.
I started on the Yukuri first because it was just plain rice with akajiso herbs.
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Yukuri (akajiso – purple perilla) musubi:
I was surprised the rice was flavoured and there was akajiso pieces evenly distributed within the rice.
This was the first time I could taste the purple perilla because the taste of the rice did not overpower the perilla.

Purple perilla musubi

 

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Mentaiko musubi:
Again it was plain rice with a piece of mentaiko in the middle.
The rice tasted nice with or without the mentaiko, and it was soft and moist.
When I got to the mentaiko, it was hard and dense, but it had a nice salty tone to enhance the rice.

 

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XO Sauce musubi:
The rice was evenly mixed with XO sauce, there were pieces of dried scallops and prawns.
The texture of the rice was also soft and moist.

XO sauce musubi

 

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Wasabi octopus musubi:
This was nice too, but it tasted the same as a giant gunkan/Temaki made with Wasabi and octopus.

Wasabi octopus musubi

 

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Scallop in vinegar musubi:
The label saids "trabeculae" which is an interesting translation, but I think they mean scallop.

 

There was generous pieces of small scallops in it, and the taste was similar to the XO Sauce musubi.

 

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Soybean, chicken meatball Soup:
I loved the soup and could not get enough of it.
On the menu it is called Collagen soup.
Although it claims to have collagen, I did not expect the soup to have collagen in it.
It was did not taste of soymilk even though it contained soymilk.
The taste of the soup was similar to chicken in cream sauce but in liquid form.
There was generous pieces of spinach and chicken meatballs.

 

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Brown sugar warabi:
I really liked this because it is different from mochi, because it is made from starch and less chewy.
However the brown sugar powder was slightly too sweet.

Brown sugar warabi

 

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Restaurant: 華御結 Hana musubi