wAntAn productions

Ramly Burger Review - Ana Burger @ Kemensah Heights

2009-07-04T16:30:00.000+08:00

My favourite food blogger of all time wrote about this place a few weeks back and me being a big big fan of the humble Ramly Burger had to try this out.

This burger stall is located in the middle of nowhere. They set it up along a lonely road in a quiet housing estate behind the National Zoo. There are no other shops in the area and most shocking of all, there's no 7-11 in sight! How can this possibly be? A Ramly burger stall without an accompanying 7-11 stall?!!! Unthinkable. Where else would I get my bottle of Coke from?

Anyway I digress. The thing about Ramly burgers are that they all use the same basic ingredients (the meat in particular comes from the same supplier; Ramly of course). They all have more or less the same basic way of cooking the burgers but I've tasted Ramly burgers ranging from the absolutely terrible to the very good. It's all in the execution and the special ingredients.

Note: avoid all Ramly burgers sold at petrol stations and hypermarkets unless you enjoy eating cardboard.

Note: avoid all Ramly burgers made by foreigners. I tried this once and was traumatised for weeks.

The humble Burger Ayam Special (chicken patty wrapped with a piece of fried egg, RM3.00)

A slice of green apple

So this little stall's gimmick is the green apple and some special burgers like the Burger Kawen (sic) and the Burger Dingdong (which is a benjo with meat, instead of the wrapped egg thing).

Taste wise the burger is in the good range of Burger Ramlys. You know what to expect. The usual sauce smothered patty with a bunch of shredded vegetables. Nothing too special actually. Not as good as my favourite Ramly burger stall which I'll probably review one of these days.

This place is well worth a try if you live nearby. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend it.

foodie reviews

masak-masak: Green Patty Love - Ana Burger @ Kemensah Heights, Kuala Lumpur

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Affordable Western @ Original Charcoal BBQ Uncle R, Sri Petaling

2009-06-20T10:43:00.002+08:00

One night I found myself in Seri Petaling looking for something to eat. We had wanted to look for this "yau char kwai" place (specifically we wanted to try the one where they serve with ice cream) but it seems like the place has closed down and was taken over by one of those shady looking cyber cafes. Note to self: novelty restaurants are bad business. Anyway I ended up driving around aimlessly and happened to come across this place.

We spotted this restaurant with a grill right outside of it. They pasted a bunch of placards on their entrance advertising their dishes. The prices were quite decent so I decided to give it a try. After all everyone needs a decent western meal once in a while :)

Note: don't trust me on the price for this review. I forgot to take the receipt with me when I left.

Mushroom soup

I can't resist having soup in a western restaurant. Uncle R's menu is a little limited. If I remember correctly the one and only soup they serve is mushroom soup. No complaints from me though... I love mushroom soup. However, the soup isn't all that great. I'm thinking it's probably Campbell's?

Large orange juice (Kit Yi's bottle is placed on the left for comparison purposes)

They had a special for orange juice that day (RM5.50 if I remember correctly). Serving is standard 'tai tai bui' size. Not too shabby.

Ice Cream with Wafer (3 scoops!)

Kit Yi polishing off the Ice Cream

Didn't try this but it looked like Kit Yi loved it :)

Mixed Grill

And here's my dinner for the night. Uncle R's mixed grill (RM19.90) consisting of a piece of succulent lamb, a piece of tender Australian beef and a piece of flattened chicken chop. I must say that whatever Uncle R is using to marinate his meat, it's really really good. You can taste the sweetness in the juicy meat when you bite into it. The chicken I think was especially good. Also, since it's all charcoal grilled the food is especially tasty. I'm not a fan of the sauce he used though... too salty for my tastes.

As we were having our meal the very friendly Uncle R sat down on our table and we chatted a little bit. Uncle R is actually Ronnie Wong. Previously an agency manager in MAA insurance (wow!). The restaurant has been in operation for over 2 years. Uncle Ronnie used to cook for his church and it's there where he perfected his recipes. After encouragement from his church mates, he decided to go into the food business.

He did share a little bit about his secret sauce recipe which I don't think is right for me to reveal here. Try this place out. If you like it then have a chat with Uncle Ronnie about it. He's very very friendly and approachable.

He also stressed that his prices were very low and that his food is value for money. I can't disagree for the most part. Being a former insurance man he couldn't resist the urge to hard sell his "sang har" prawns which I'm definitely going to try the next time I'm here (which may be quite soon). It seems also that his seafood mixed grill is superb value for money.

Highly recommended for a very affordable western meal in a comfortable air conditioned environment. Uncle R's prices aren't much (if any) higher than those western food stalls in the Chinese kopitiam/food courts. Just don't expect the food to be on par with the high class restaurants.

Foodies:

jennifer's wonderworld: Uncle R -- a home feel steak house

Yumi's Place : Uncle R @ Sri Petaling

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All You Can Eat Pasta @ Secret of Louisiana, Plaza Kelana Jaya

2009-06-13T19:07:00.004+08:00

"All you can eat pasta for RM12.90"... I've been hearing these words for many weeks. Why? Because it's become a routine for ST and her colleagues to eat here every other week. So where's this wonderful magical place that offers such a great deal and what's the catch?

The answers in short are; "Secret of Louisiana" and not much.

ST and Kit Yi

I've been wanting to come here for some time simply because I find it difficult to believe that there's such an offer. Furthermore ST told me that the pasta is quite decent and when she says it is then chances are it is.

The Menu

See caption at the bottom "Order the SECOND and THIRD, WE DARE YOU...". Hehehe... seriously how to they make a profit with this?

Now how does this offer work? Simple, there are 6 different choices of pasta that you can pick (though I hear #6 is merely the vegetarian version of #5). You can order from those 6 choices as many times as you can eat them in succession. That is to say, finish one pasta, order another. Simple! Now they also serve you a cup of tea and a scoop of ice cream when you are done with your meal (none of which are refillable of course). Sounds like a good deal? It is.

Tea

Chicken Smoked Sausage Pasta

Cabonara Chicken Pasta

Beef Bolognese Pasta

Chicken Stir Fried Spaghetti

Single Scoop Ice Cream

We didn't try every variety. Since ST had been there several times she recommended some of the better ones. Personally I stopped after pasta #3.

So was the pasta any good? Well I'd say they were decent. Don't expect too much for RM12.90. They are all very basic dishes but for the price you pay there's no reason to complain. My personal favourite (as it usually is) is the pasta carbonara. Well worth trying out.

I think I might come back some time later to try their actual menu (Cajun food!). Oh and I noticed their set lunches are very decently priced as well so that's probably worth checking out.

Getting here is a little tricky. Basically you need to be on the LDP in the Kelana Jaya area heading towards Damansara. You will see the Customs building on your right. Immediately after that you need to make a left turn before the now defunct Kelana Seafood Center. It's a very small turning, blink and you'll definitely miss it.

More foodies:

Eat Drink KL: Secret of Louisiana
D Daily Dose: Secret of Louisiana

Official website (seems kinda outdated?):
Secret of Louisiana

It be a boy

2009-05-29T15:48:00.001+08:00

There be balls!

Mother's Day Celebration at Waterlily Cafe, Puchong

2009-05-19T22:28:00.000+08:00

This post is a little old :)

It was Mother's Day 2 weeks back. Joe picked a juicer for mom and dad picked Waterlily Cafe for dinner. It was not my first visit to Waterlily. I was there some years back with ST and we didn't really like the food at that time. But we decided to give it a try anyway since the other family members have never been there.

Cendol Ice Blended

Mojitas!

Some cucumbery drink.

This time around the food was pretty decent. The first time we were here we weren't impressed at all. I'd say they redeemed themselves somewhat. The drinks in particular are quite outstanding. All that lemon grass, minty and limey stuff make for some really refreshing drinks.

Red Bean (it was free for mothers)

Grilled Beef and Lamb

Grilled Seafood

Grilled 1/4 Chicken

Food wise they were all quite nicely done, except for the chicken which was quite bland. The beef steaks are quite nice so that's a recommendation from me.

The family

Facebook Easter Egg - Lens Flare

2009-05-12T17:42:00.001+08:00

Easter eggs in websites? Of all the things... well here's how you do it:

Press the following keys one by one:

Up + Up + Down + Down + Left + Right + Left + Right + B + A + Enter + . (The period/full stop key)

Now try clicking anywhere or typing on the page. =)

Refresh the page to turn it off

Kinda like the Konami code

Sushi Zanmai, One Utama New Wing

2009-04-25T13:21:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was ST's birthday. Happy birthday my darling wife. I spent many days thinking of where to bring her for dinner but neither one of us could come to a conclusion so we decided to just wing it. We went to One Utama for some shopping (a little more about that later) and to have dinner there after that.

We went over to the information counter, picked up a brochure and browsed over to the restaurants section. Nothing really piqued our interests so we decided to leave the decision till it was time to eat.

When dinner time came, we somehow ended up at Sushi Zanmai. I hesitated a little. Sushi Zanmai looked like a glorified Sushi King. Not the kind of place I wanted to bring my wife for her birthday dinner. Alas, we didn't have anyplace better to go so in we went.

Kit Yi and ST, gone are the days where we can go out as just a couple :)

Wet Tissue RM0.20

Yes, wet tissues are 20 cents each. It's even listed on the receipt. Not sure if this is considered cheap or not.

Chawanmushi (steamed eggs) RM4.80

Not bad. Comes with the usual stuff; some enoki mushrooms, a single prawn and one of those red and white naruto thingamagigs.

Unadon (eel rice bowl) RM15.80

Pretty decent bowl of teriyaki laced eel with rice. ST had a craving for this and I think she was satisfied.

Fruit Rainbow Roll RM12.80

Special for the day. I wouldn't order this again. It's basically sushi with fruit instead of raw fish. Comes with thin slices of strawberry, peach and one other green coloured fruit (don't remember what it was). They had some crunchy stuff in the middle. Felt a little like eating popiah. The fruits weren't particularly sweet so the whole sushi felt really flat.

Sukiyaki RM15.80

The sukiyaki was damned good. I liked the fact that it came with slices of raw beef so that you can play shabu-shabu with it (three dips is all it takes). The soup was full stuff I liked; mostly enoki mushrooms and an assortment of vegetables. It came with a raw egg which you could cook however you liked. Also the soy sauce soup base was pretty sweet. Best of all were the beef slices which had a real beefy kick to it.

a closer look at the Sukiyaki

So if anyone wondered what I bought my wife for her birthday, it was some cosmetic products. At the cosmetics counter I heard my wife said it was "bak gei man" (hundred plus in Cantonese) and I thought that was a decent price for a gift so I immediately offered to pay for it. She added some other cosmetics stuff which was "sam bak gei man" (three hundred plus), which I thought was still within reason.

At the cashier, I made a startling discovery. I misheard ST, she didn't say "bak gei man" instead it was "bat bak gei man"!!! Ouch! Don't know Cantonese? It means eight hundred plus! Shock!!! Horror!!!. Oh well, as long as she's happy. The second pregnancy has been hard on her complexion. I hope those Estee Lauder stuff really work.

PPS has gone down the drain

2009-03-24T09:31:00.002+08:00

Wow... PPS has really gone down the drain hasn't it? The ads were expected but really, personal attacks (see screen shot portion in red box)? I cannot for a moment understand why Aiz sold PPS off to that guy. If I had known it was for sale I would have bought it (or at least tried to). In fact I'm pretty sure if the PPS sale was announced to the public that lots of better people would offer to run it.

That said, I'm probably going to tolerate PPS for the moment as there's simply no better alternative. Really, dude... PPS should remain neutral. You can do all the shit slinging in your own blog and ping it to PPS.

Cafe Cafe

2009-02-27T00:36:00.003+08:00

Tonight's occasion was our 9th anniversary. It doesn't feel like it but we've been together for 9 years now. Wow! Time sure flies. February 26th is the date we first got together back in the year 2000 and is a date I'd much rather celebrate than that dumb event that occurs on the 14th of February every year.

I've always wanted to try French cuisine in particular that magical thing called foire gras and one of the only French places I knew was Cafe Cafe. Of course we don't eat this kind of thing on a regular basis. Such extravagance is best saved for special occasions and today definitely qualifies.

As the rainy season is upon us again I made sure I left the office on time in order to avoid getting trapped in that daily ritual called the traffic jam. I sped all the way back to KL from Cyberjaya to pick ST up. I usually drive pretty fast but I think I might have set a new record for myself today :) In fact it's one of those rare occasions that I actually reached home earlier than her.

And that's how I reached Cafe Cafe at 7pm although I actually reserved a table for us at 8pm. The reservation wasn't that important though as throughout the dinner we were the only customers there. Several minutes before we left only 2 other tables were occupied. Lesson to learn here is that a reservation is probably not required on weekdays. I wouldn't risk not having a reservation on weekends though.

As per our S.O.P. we ordered from the set menu. There were 3 sets. The cheapest one costing RM89 and the most expensive one RM149. I can't remember what the set in the middle cost. I have this habit of over-ordering so I asked the waiter whether the serving for one set was enough for two. He said no. We decided to trust him so I ordered two sets; the cheap one and the expensive one.

Bread and Vinegar (something so common it probably needs no introduction). The bread was suitably warm and the vinegar tasted great.

Brie. This was quite decent. Though I think the cheese could have been warmer.

Our first foie gras. The foie gras was superb. Whenever something melts in my mouth, well I tend to love it. I made the mistake of telling ST what foie gras was before she ate it so although she concedes it was delicious, she was uncomfortable eating it.

Escargots. Ok I seriously did not expect my escargots to be drenched in olive oil. I don't know about you but I really do not enjoy oily food. Would have been perfect if this was baked with cheese :)

Soup of the day. Pumpkin soup I think. No complaints. Found it a little strange to see almond flakes in it though.

Wagyu Beef Cheeks! I read beef cheeks on the menu but I didn't think beef cheeks were from the cow's face. Turns out it really is :) This thing is braised. Not too sure I liked this one. Eating this evoked visions of eating beef noodles.

Seafood pasta. Ermm... this one was just decent. Nothing to shout about. Oh and here are those almond flakes again!

After some disappointing main courses it was great to have some superb desserts. The tiramisu was to die for. I also liked that they put rum in the cake. Not something that you will get in our usual halal cake shops.

Mango cheese cake. No slouch either. The mango toppings were a little sourish but eat it together with the cheese and the pastry and it's just perfect.

Happy 9th anniversary my love.

I can't say I was particularly impressed by this place. Maybe my expectations were too high. And seriously, I absolutely do not understand why people rave about it's decor. What's so great about it huh?

Pic of the day: Meet Stiff

2009-02-05T11:50:00.001+08:00

I think I'd rather call James or Eddie. Taken when I was stuck in a jam near Pudu on Tuesday evening.

New Year's Resolutions 2009

2009-01-01T15:40:00.002+08:00

This post is of no interest to any of my readers :) It's just a list of things that I intend to succeed at this year (in no particular order).

Improve my skill in photography. Anyone wants to model for me?
Make photography a revenue stream instead of one that dries up my wallet.
Do better at work... get promoted (if possible)?
Expand my revenue stream.
Go to Europe!! (This depends on 4).

Orchard Road, Singapore

2008-12-16T05:04:00.002+08:00

2 posts ago I wrote that I stayed in the Marriot Hotel while I was in Singapore and that it was located on Orchard Road. Orchard Road is THE shopping district in Singapore. In many ways its like our Bukit Bintang, only a lot cleaner and well organised. I was there in late November so the Christmas decorations were already in full swing but I really didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked there. Here are a few pictures from that trip.

Christmas tree. I didn't really take notice of where this was located.

This one was located in Takashimaya. All exclusive and expensive stores are here. Didn't bother looking at anything here.

One of the Christmas decorations located in front of Takashimaya.

In front of Tangs.

I was at PC Fair 2008 in KLCC

2008-12-14T02:08:00.002+08:00

I bought myself a Maxtor 2.5" 500GB external hdd for RM399 which I think is quite a steal considering the other brands that I saw (i.e. Seagate & Buffalo) were going for RM30 to RM40 more. As usual with PC Fair it's a good place to buy individual hardware. For stuff like notebooks it's probably not going to be any cheaper than it usually is but they usually throw in some freebies.

I also did something I didn't think I would ever do today, I brought my DSLR along and took a few pictures of the brand ambassadors. I didn't bring my flash along (it's still with the Nikon SC, but I didn't need it anyway) so every picture you see is naturally lit. Of course the decent high ISO performance of the D90 helps... plus a little photoshop magic :) But still I made a few mistakes taking the photos that I shouldn't have. Enjoy some of the better pictures I took. You can view some other pics in my pictureblog here.

This photo was taken from within the convention center. For those who don't know the convention center is detached from the KLCC twin towers. The two locations are connected by a tunnel. I've always felt that walking through the tunnel was quite a task. Now I know why, it's not that near after all.

Acer girls were the best, IMHO.

Don't remember where she was from.

IIRC she's from the Olympus booth.

Obviously she's working for Nvidia.

The last day of PC fair is today so if you have anything to grab don't miss it :) I wonder if they still have those last day / last minute bargains.

I stayed in the Marriot Hotel in Singapore

2008-12-07T07:26:00.002+08:00

Continuing my post about my recent business trip to Singapore. The company had arranged for us to stay in the Marriot Hotel in Singapore.

It's a 5 star hotel located right smack in the middle of the shopping belt in Singapore, Orchard Road. Orchard Road is kinda like our Bukit Bintang only much nicer looking. There were no sales on at the time I was there so I didn't spend much time shopping.

Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster that the company is paying for my accommodation because I could never afford to stay here. It's SGD400+ per night. The corporate rate is cheaper though but still converts to over RM600 per night.

Entrance to the Marriot Hotel. On certain nights you actually get to see a lot of people dressed to kill hanging around the entrance area. I must say Singaporeans dress really well.

The reception. It's manned mostly by Filipinos. In fact from what I gather most of the hotel staff are not Singaporeans. I know for example the staff at the Chinese restaurant are mostly Malaysians and the guy who cleans the room is from China.

I stayed in room 2809. That's on the 28th floor of this 30 floor hotel. The road you see in the picture is Orchard Road.

View from room 2809 again.

Took this picture just for the hell of it. Taken at the 200mm end of my Nikkor 18-200mm lens. See if you can spot this scene in the previous picture. If you view the full size you can actually make out the license plate.

Here's a view of the hotel lobby. See the well dressed man standing next to the Christmas tree? He's security and he (or some other similarly dressed guy) is always there by the Christmas tree. He never moves from that spot but he scans every single person that comes in. He's eyeballed me a few times. Maybe it's because I dress so sloppily :)

Free apples. You can find these in front of the elevators on every floor. I didn't take any.

Next post in line: Orchard Road.

I was in Singapore

2008-11-30T18:43:00.002+08:00

So I spent the better half of the week in Singapore. Just sharing some pics. Let's begin with pictures of KLIA.

The observation deck. Not many planes docked so not an interesting sight.

The skytrain tracks.

Departure/Arrival hall.

An exhibition regarding KLIA's history.

One of the many airport pillars.

The KLIA control tower.

On the skytrain before boarding the plane.

That's me and that's my flight to Singapore.

The CNN Hologram

2008-11-05T14:28:00.001+08:00

f*ckin cool! "Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope".

Happy First Birthday Kit Yi

2008-10-28T01:16:00.002+08:00

I'm too tired to write anything but daddy loves you very much. Happy Birthday b. Time really flies.

Some Trial pictures with the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS)

2008-10-19T23:50:00.002+08:00

What's CLS? Basically it's Nikon's built in to camera wireless flash triggering technology. This allows me to fire a flash that's not attached to my camera body. As I've only got one flash I can't think of many ways to play with it. If anyone has suggestions please leave a comment :)

Somebody's Birthday is coming!

2008-10-19T07:43:00.001+08:00

Nikon D90: The effect of VR in Movie Mode

2008-10-13T07:06:00.003+08:00

I bet this is something that has been on many people's mind. Does VR (Vibration Reduction, Nikon's term for the stabilised lens) work when taking videos with the Nikon D90. It does! But only if you have a VR lens of course :)

This video was shot using the AF-S Zoom-Nikkor ED 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF DX VR at 200mm (to make hand shake more obvious). The first half of the video is with VR off. You'll hear a click sound halfway through the video. That's the sound of me turning on the VR switch on the lens. The second half of the video is with VR on.

I think you can clearly see the effect that VR has on the videos. This is the same effect you see thru your camera's viewfinder when taking pictures if you are focused and have VR on.

My 2 seconds of fame (syok sendiri)

2008-10-09T21:42:00.002+08:00

Most of those who know me will know I'm working for HP now. Yesterday HP announced the building of its new mega campus in Cyberjaya and the DPM was there. Where the DPM goes that's where TV3 is and because of that I've got my first TV appearance and my 2 seconds of fame.

I'm at 6:38 :)

And here's a screen shot to prove it.

Nikon D90 Movie Test Shot

2008-10-09T07:09:00.002+08:00

Here's a sample video I shot with the Nikon D90 in my living room.

One of the D90's biggest claim to fame is the video functionality. It's the first DSLR that can record video.

Took me a little figure out how to record videos because I haven't had time to read the manual. Basically all you do is press the LV (live view) button to activate live view then click on OK to begin recording. You end recording by clicking on the OK button again.

When the D90 first launched along with the Chase Jarvis campaign (Google for it if you want to know more) the highlight of the campaign was the video feature. In short the videos they shot were awesome.

In truth the D90's video capabilities aren't that great.

In the embedded video I was trying to show off the depth of field effect. That's where I separate the subject from the background by having a sharp in focus subject and a nicely blurred background.

It's a cool effect but you have to focus the lens manually. There's absolutely no autofocus support when you're doing video on the D90. Also if you tend to have shaky hands you must remember there's no built in stabilisation in the camera too (note to self: test video with VR on).

One other flaw you can see with the video is the flickering. I believe this is caused by the fluorescent lights in the living room which most people probably have.

There's another problem called the rolling shutter problem. I shot another video to illustrate the problem but couldn't get it uploaded. I'll try again tonite then blog about it.

Nikon D90 High ISO Test Shots

2008-10-07T23:27:00.002+08:00

I've finally gotten my D90. I've wanted one months before it was even announced. So when it announced in August I couldn't wait to get my hands on it and now I have :) I'm not too sure about the other features of the camera but I got it primarily for the High ISO performance.

First impressions:

It's not that big. I knew all along that it was going to be D80 sized but still...
The LCD screen rocks!
So many buttons! I actually feel a little overwhelmed. Shows how much of a noob I am.
Same thing for the menu. Going to take me some time to get familiar with it.
Took some pictures and wondered why they look so washed out. Quickly changed the camera to use the vivid profile :D

For those who don't know, the ISO number basically represents the sensitivity of the camera sensor. Typically you will see ISO numbers like ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800 and so on. The higher the ISO number, the higher you sensor's sensitivity is.

Without going into the details, a higher sensor sensitivity enables you to shoot pictures better in situations where there is insufficient ambient light (like in a badly lit room). However there is one major problem with higher sensitivities and that is the problem of "noise".

In short, noise are the grainy artifacts you see when you shoot pictures using a digital camera. The higher the ISO number, the worse the noise.

Take a look at a series of test shots I did using several different ISO values. I turned off the noise reduction when shooting these pics. Also I'm depending 100% on ambient light (i.e. no flash!). The pictures are JPGs taken directly from the camera.

ISO 800

ISO 1600

ISO 3200

ISO 6400

These aren't the full size images (they have been resized to fit the blog) so the noise isn't too clear but it's obviously there in the ISO 6400 and ISO 3200 pictures (hint: when looking for noise always look at the dark areas). I think we're also seeing some color shifting in the ISO 6400 picture.

Now let's look at the 100% crops of the above pictures to get a better idea of the noise problem.

ISO 800

ISO 1600

ISO 3200

ISO 6400

Now do you understand the problem with noise? I'm very happy with what I'm seeing in the ISO 800 picture. ISO 1600 ain't perfect but I think it's still good. Unfortunately things seem to go to hell from ISO 3200 onwards.

I'm probably never going to use ISO 6400 again but the noise problem in the ISO 3200 picture can be fixed somewhat in post processing. Here's an example:

ISO 3200

VS

ISO 3200, noise reduced in post production

ISO 3200

VS

ISO 3200 100% crop, noise reduced in post production

Not too bad, eh? So far I love what I see. Of course you can't compare the D90 to the full frame monsters like the D700 and D3. Those are superior but cost much much more.

The Vintry, Damansara Heights

2008-09-30T04:56:00.002+08:00

The 29th of September 2006 was the day we registered our marriage. Two years on we have a beautiful baby girl (who's going to be one year old next month!) and things are still going great.

I spent very little time looking for a place to eat but I had heard (from Raymond) that The Rib Shop was a good place for dinner. I looked up the number from Google and gave them a call after lunch to make a reservation.

Which is when I found out that The Rib Shop has ceased to be and is now Vintry. I know I've heard some good things about Vintry so I went ahead and made the reservation anyway.

So what is Vintry anyway? It's basically a wine cellar which serves some great pork dishes. Upon entering you will see quite an amazing selection of wine but I know nuts about wine so I didn't bother ordering any.

"experience wine"... we didn't :)

We ordered 2 starters.

Caramelised roast pork (RM16.00).

This thing is basically the the more upmarket version of the caramelised siew yoke. Quite a few bloggers raved about this dish so I had to try it. It's nice if you take a few bites. Have too much and the saltiness gets to you and you also start to wonder how come it's not sweeter.

Minestrone soup (RM18.00).

I love soups so I couldn't resist the urge to order one. Their minestrone soup is quite delish. Because this place is basically a pork parlor they also throw in some ham bits into the soup.

Now on to the main courses.

BBQ Pork Ribs (RM49.00).

The piece de resistance. Simply the bestest pork ribs I've ever had. I don't know how they did it but the ribs are sweet, sour and spicy in all the right amounts. The ribs are mounted upon a slab of mashed potatoes which were also very good. This is THE THING to order when you're here. The other dishes are just fillers.

Sauteed Marinated Pork Ribs (RM49.00).

This item was written on their chalkboard under the heading of "Specials" so I'm assuming it's not in the menu. The sauce you see on the ribs have a hint of really aromatic curry and it's the best thing about the dish. The marinated pork ribs don't really seem to be marinated because they were quite tasteless once you go past the surface. Thumbs up for the sauce. Thumbs down for the ribs.

We had a hard time finishing the two main courses because their servings were so generous. So if you're not a big eater... just order one and share lah.

Let's wrap this post with pictures of ST and me enjoying the excellent BBQ Pork Ribs.

Stay Calm!

2008-09-13T00:51:00.003+08:00

I'm appealing to every Malaysian. We have to stay calm. The last thing we need is for things to continue to spiral out of control. We are all being provoked and they have a good reason to do so. Despite what we like to think, they're not dumb. Once we lose it the crackdown will come. We'll get them in due time. But when we do we'll do it in peace and without bloodshed.

Please spread the message.