Musubi paradise

Before this tasting, I have already been to Hana-musubi numerous times.
It has become my one of my regular meals each week when I crave for flavoured rice.

Hana-Musubi introduces the latest "Nutritionally Balanced" sets. Customers can follow their preferences and appetites to make their own combination. "Nutritionally Balanced" sets consist of two omusubis, a selection of soup, and options of other dishes or salads.





All of their omusubis and side dishes are labelled with a clear indication of calories for the health conscious.

Mr. Muneo Nishida, the Director of Hyakunousha International Limited, arrived in Hong Kong three years ago to devote himself to establishing Hana-Musubi as a specialty retail business that promotes Japanese food culture by serving genuine omusubi made with Japanese rice.

Within two years of opening its first store in 2011, the brand has launched a chain of shops in the heart of the city’s commercial districts to provide busy workers with more healthy food choices.

Situated in another prime location in C C Wu Building, Wan Chai, the ninth Hana-Musubi outlet is surrounded by a densely built-up area of office buildings, schools and residential blocks. It offers people from all walks of life the chance to enjoy its healthy, delicious and authentic omusubi.





The Omusubi expert – Hana-Musubi carefully selects only the finest ingredients for its more than 50 varieties of omusubi. The company therefore uses only freshly milled Niigata Koshihikari rice, the most famous in Japan, which contains a high water content. This type of rice cannot easily be bought in Hong Kong supermarkets.

Hana-Musubi travels around Japan to select assorted delicious ingredients from Hokkaido to Okinawa to make the best omusubi with health benefits.
These include Hokkaido kombu (seaweed), Hakata mentaiko (spicy cod roes, an indispensable item in Japanese family dining), and Kishu umeboshi (pickled plums) to help overcome tiredness and combat ageing.

There are two types of omusubi, one with seaweed wrap and one without.
The one without is mixed with ingredients to make it tastier to suit Hong Kong people and it is convenient for children who can just dig in by tearing open the bag and using a spoon.

The other omusubi can also be opened easily without getting your fingers dirty if you know how.
I finally learn the art of opening the omusubi at the tasting.







Here was what we tried:

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Satsuma-age fish cake:

The fish cake was nicely complemented by the light sauce drizzled on top.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Simmered chicken & veg "Chikuzen-Ni":



This was surprisingly nice because it was packed with lots of vegetables, the balls are mini taros which had a nice slimy texture.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Teriyaki chicken:


The chicken was nice and tender with delicious julienne cabbage beneath it and the Teriyaki sauce was not too sweet.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Japanese style tomato pork curry:



The pork was nice and tender with delicious tomato and curry sauce.
If you like this, there is also a main dish which is Japanese style tomato curry that has roast potatoes with it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
For Yukuri (akajiso – purple perilla) musubi, Mentaiko musubi, Wasabi octopus musubi, Scallop in vinegar musubi, Soybean, chicken meatball collagen Soup, Brown sugar warabi.
Please see:
http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2221219
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
For Konbu musubi, Tazukuri musubi and Octopus salad please see:
http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2308119
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
For miso chicken musubi, and salad with choice of sauce see:
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2314339
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
For Pizza musubi, please see <>'s review
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2217080
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

I would love to see them opening more branches at the MTR stations so I could just grab one for breakfast and another good suggestion by Food and Crits is that they should label the vegetarian ones to make it clearer for them.

It would be great if there was more variety because there are 50 different types of musubi but I keep seeing the same ones.

The ones I would like to see again are: Pizza musubi, Curry musubi, minced chicken, Yukuri (akajiso – purple perilla) musubi.

Bing style apple pie

Mr. Bing (Central)

Shortly after making their Bings cheaper, they now offer breakfast bings and bings for the afternoon.

I was attracted to the apple and cinnamon so got it right away.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
New bings:For breakfast, they have cheese, egg and ham or cheese, egg and sausage.

For the afternoon they have the new nutella or apple and cinnamon.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Apple and cinnamon bing being made:
Basically they make it the same way as the savoury bings.
Kaya is added on to the bing.

Then the slices of apple, crisp and then cinnamon powder are added.



The cinnamon powder that they use is contained in a nice golden container and surprisingly it is a local brand because it looks quite American.



After all the elements are added, it is folded into a crepe shape.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Apple and cinnamon bing:

Had to wait for the Bing too cool down because it was too hot initially to hold or eat it.
Once it cooled down I took a bite.
All the elements in the Bing tasted delicious.
It tasted like McDonald's apple pie because of the crispy bits acted like the outside of the pie and the Kaya, fresh apple slices and strong cinnamon were just like the filling in the pie.
I would prefer less of the Kaya because the Kaya can be quite sweet.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

I can't wait to try their breakfasts, but the good news is that the ham and cheese might be available all day and not just for breakfast!

Siu G 店 opens again 10 months later??

I am a bit confused here, I saw an ad on the newspaper saying that Siu G restaurant just had a grand opening on the 2nd October 2013.

I dined at this restaurant in February this year!

The first review on this restaurant was on January 29th 2013.
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=124425&region=0&s=3

The best Hot Wraps from Pret A Manger

Pret A Manger
I wish I knew about these Hot Wraps before because they were friggin delicious.

There is a narrow heated cabinet with these hot wraps which is why I didn't really notice them before.

There are four flavours in Hong Kong:
Barbecue Pulled Pork Hot Wrap
Salmon Fish Cake Hot Wrap
Sweet Potato Falafel Hot Wrap
Pret's Meatball Hot Wrap

In UK they have:
BBQ Pulled Pork Hot Wrap
Swedish Meatball Hot Wrap

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Sweet Potato Falafel Hot Wrap:
(Falafel, emmenthal, pepper, onion, chili tomato sauce)

These wraps are seriously hot when you take them from the tray.
After unwrapping it, the smell was gorgeous, it smelt of Tex Mex chili con carne.

The wrap was slightly crispy and chewy and the filling was deliciously hot with starchy beans and falafel.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Salmon Fish Cake Hot Wrap:
(salmon, potato mash, soya bean, emmenthal, red onions, honey mustard mayo)

This wrap was also impressive because there was delicious creamy mashed potatoes in the middle with stringy emmenthal cheese.

Along with that, there were chunks of flakey salmon.

Each bite was delicious because the tangy honey mustard sauce complemented the salmon and balanced the creamy mash perfectly.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Both of the wraps above are irrititingly delicious and addictive!

McDonald's: Rice Fun Wrap [PORK]

McDonald's

After a tasting, I was determined to try this because this is one of the designated places that serve the rice wrap with pork cutlet in it.
They have the Tonkotsu rice wrap or the pork cutlet with curry sauce and rice.



★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Tonkotsu rice wrap:



The taste of this was ok, but not as delicious as the chicken or beef version because the pork was a bit dry.
The pork tasted nice with the cucumbers, lettuce and mayonnaise.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
For the designated branches, please phone McDonalds who forgot to call me back after I left my number so you may have to call twice.

Come for Curry if you're in a hurry

Curries Inc (Causeway Bay)

Thanks to Little Burro for being closed or I would not have come to this shop for delicious curry.

It is a neat little curry joint serving ready to go International curries and fishballs.
There is a bar table at the side for people to dine which it is slightly uncomfortable because the table is too high.

They also sell spices and a few selection of drinks.

They have a Pakistani brand of drinks called Shezan with Lychee or Lemon Barley.


They have EIGHT different curries on the menu.

1) Beef brisket curry (yellow curry with beef brisket, potato & onion, a HK favorite $48)
2) beef massaman curry (massaman curry with beef, cinnamon stick, coconut milk, onion, peanut, potato & tamarind $53)
3) beef red curry (red curry with beef, eggplant, pea, cauliflower, pineapple, baby corn, mushroom & coconut milk $54)
4) Chicken korma (northern Indian curry with chicken, ground almond, saffron & yoghurt
$45)
5) chick pea vegetable curry (vegetarian yellow curry with chick pea, tomato, bell pepper & onion $40)
6) chicken malaysian curry (onion, kaffir line leaves, cinnamon stick, star anise & coconut milk $43)
7) chicken thai green curry (green curry with chicken, eggplant, pea, cauliflower, broccoli, coconut milk, coriander & mushroom $44)
8 curry in a hurry (cayenne pepper with chicken, onion, clove, golden raisin, tomato, chopped fresh cilantro & yoghurt $44)

If they had chicken korma, that would have been my first choice but that day they had beef brisket, red curry, thai chicken curry and beef massaman so I ordered the beef massaman.

I felt that they should offer small samples of the curry sauce so that people can try and see which curry is the best and avoid the ones that are too spicy for them because if it is not your cup of tea, then your stuffed and I doubt that it would be a good review too.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Beef massaman:


To be honest, this was my breakfast so as a breakfast it tasted really nice, but for lunch or dinner, I would have probably liked the taste to be stronger.
The curry was lovely and sweet, and it was not even spicy which was nice and gentle for an empty stomach.
The beef was amazingly soft and tender and there were so many pieces in this bowl.
The peanuts in the curry were soft and nutty and the curry sauce went well with their fluffy rice which was quite a big bowl too.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Lemon barley:

For $9 it was really cheap, but unfortunately it was too sweet.
It would probably taste nice if it was diluted.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Chestnut teaser by Maxim's cake

Thank you Maxim's cakes for sending me these invincible conkers!!
Watch out for the new Chestnut cakes:

-purple and sweet potato cake

-chestnut and marshmallow tart

-Crunchy chestnut cake