My Big Day Part 1

**Put all the back logs away and decided to post on my birthday instead this time... divided into two parts.

Back to reality! Back to this little town where my factory is located... in other words, back to work!

Good thing is that I feel recharged after spending the last weekend in KL, minus the baby. Jenn & I left Sher Ryn in the care of her mom while we took off to KL on Thursday night, as she had some works to do on Friday.

Not many people know that 24th October is my birthday, which also coincide with Sultan Pahang's birthday. But it makes no difference to KL-ites... as it's a normal day to all of them. Back to those days when I was just a little kid, I felt so proud everytime my birthday arrived as it was always public holiday. When I came to study in KL, I had to live my life like KL-ites.. no holiday unless it fell on weekends. And it continued for another few years when I started working in KL until I came back here in 2005.

On Friday (that's the eve of my birthday!), Jenn proposed to go to Ribs by Vintry. She knows that I'm a huge fan of anything to do with pork... well, with the exception of the spare parts :) and on top of that, both of us had been talking about dine & wine, a luxury that both of us don't get to do often... not when there's a little monster who always crave for attention from her parents. As for me, after reading AWOL's and kampungboycitygal's blogs... I agreed right away!

It was raining when we arrived around 7++pm... and as expected, parking was oh-so-difficult to find. I dropped Jenn in front of the outlet and asked her to look for a table first (knowing that it's not easy to find a table on Friday evening) while I drove a few hundred metres away and parked my car on the side of the road near the housing area. It has rustic interior but in a modern kind of way and the lightings are not too dim. However, it will require a stable pair of hands to take pictures without flash for a more natural effect.

Extensive wine collection is made available on the shelves (arrange library style.. only it's wine and not book) that you will definitely see once you step into the outlet. Whatever you are looking for - cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, pinot noir, bla bla bla.. they have it.

I spotted my favourite drink - Moet & Chandon Imperial Brut costing RM288! But I recalled that it cost only RM250 a bottle in Tasting Room (Bangsar)...

Both of us settled for Fire Road Pinot Noir 2008... from Marlborough region in New Zealand. This area is famous for its grape and wine production in NZ, as I went there once for wine tasting during my days in University of Otago. Good thing is that it is only RM77! The wine was a little bit spicy but after having with the meat, it just got better and better!

For starters, we ordered 100gm of their signature roasted pork at RM7. Crispy skin with higher lean meat ratio to the fat (which I prefer), it is considered cheap by normal standard as a plate of roasted pork rice already cost RM5 in KL. Heavenly! (although the meat was a bit cold when it was served on our table)

We also ordered burschetta RM12... consisted of anchovies (which explain the rather salty taste), fried pork bacon bits, capers and diced tomatoes on top of toasted bread. Finished in no time!

Braised pork ribs - the ribs were braised with red wine sauce and served with rosemary baked potatoes and coleslaw. Contrary to what kampungboycitygal wrote, the ribs that were covered in a rich and thick brown sauce was fork tender and literally fell of the bone. Inconsistent maybe?

BBQ pork ribs @ RM39 (medium portion) - I was feeling greedy at the beginning as I planned to go for the barbarian ribs instead. But when I realised that we had ordered 2 starters, I played safe and ordered a medium one. Definitely one of the best pork ribs in town (if not the best) that was served on a bed of mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes were great too as it was covered with the sauce from the BBQ ribs! Forgetting all the manners, I put my knife and fork away... used my hands to pick up the delectable pork ribs and devour it like a hungry tiger.

Leo's verdict - By the time we finished the dinner, the rain had already stopped. A little bit tipsy, both of us walked to the car.. and I got to placed my hand on her shoulder and held her close to me before planting a kiss on her lips (18 SX!!!). Sorry no pictures on the kissing, just our happy looks while dining there.

No No!!! It's not the end, since the night was still early... we went to Jaya One and ended up at Brussel's Beer Cafe. The place was full of people having beer, celebrating Oktoberfest!

Both of us had the Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier @ RM18 per half pint... and went home after that!

Oh yes, these were what I got as birthday present from Jenn (^_^)