Valentine's Day at Rib Lee's

Aaah...Valentine's Day. A day to celebrate romance. Flowers, chocolates, cosy, candle-lit dinners for two. OK, back to reality. The truth is there's nothing romantic about paying exorbitant prices for flowers during Valentine's Day. Cosy, candle-lit dinners for two? In the last few years, we've tried going out to some fancy restaurants with "compulsory" Valentine's Day set menus. But, how romantic can it be when the next table is just a mere-10 inches away? We've also celebrated Valentine's Day home-style, which is nice, except that someone has to do the cooking (me)and washing up (J)!

So, this year, we organised a Valentine's dinner with a few friends, at one of our favourite restaurants, Rib Lee's located in Hartamas. Since J & I discovered this restaurant last October, we've been back 4 times because we absolutely love the food and the fact that this restaurant serves pork! The six of us were seated at the balcony. Despite my initial fears that it would be hot without air-conditioning, it turned out to be a cool evening and we all had a great time.

Whenever we come to Rib Lee's we always have a tough time deciding what to eat because we really enjoy the dishes we've tried and want to order it again. At the same time, we also want to try the other options in the menu. Tough...Choices and decisions. Rib Lee's had a Valentine's Day Menu but also gave us the option of ordering ala carte from their regular menu. We decided to opt for a mix of the the tried and tested - Roast Lamb with Rosemary, Bourboun Ribs. Olio with Pork Croutons and the new - Caesar Salad, Smoked Duck Salad with Orange Slices, Risotto with Bacon, Smoked Duck Breast. For dessert, we picked their Valentine's special Strawberry Parfait as well as the Mud Pie and the Triffle. It was the perfect ending to our meal.

Our friends, who were first-timers at the Rib Lee's were very satisfied and vowed to return with their families (after all, we were celebrating Valentine's Day...so it was an adults only affair that night). The only downside to the evening is that 1) the Caesar Salad was rather ordinary; and 2) the service was rather haphazard. Somehow our requests rarely got executed the way we asked. We could tell the staff tried their best.. Still, the rest of the food more than made up for it. We'll definitely be back again, and again, and again...

It may not have been a romantic night in a traditional sense, but it was definitely a night of celebration - Good food in the company of good friends. What more could a gal ask for?

Rib Lee's
No. 40-1 Wisma CKL (1st Floor)
Jalan 23/70A, Desa Sri Hartamas
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: 03-6201 0180

Note: My other favourite which is a must-try at Rib Lee's is their Roasted Pork Knuckle. Yumm...

Perseverance Pays Off!

After I had written my last post, I had a personal experience with chillies and perseverance. Every Chinese New Year, we visit my aunt who lives down south. Her garden abounds with great bounties of vegetables - chillies, eggplants (brinjals), choy sum and siew pak choy. My aunt, bless her heart, always tells us to pluck the vegetables and bring them home, which we happily oblige.





We came back with so much chillies this year, we pickled the green chillies and blended the red chillies with garlic. Last year, we made fried green chili sauce. Nothing beats the taste of freshly grown, home-made chilli sauces and pickles.

Anyway, I remember moaning and telling my aunt how I attempted to grow the chili plant from the chilli seeds we got from her trees last year. I sighed. My chilli plant had lots of leaves, some occassional buds, but not a green chili in sight. Still, I continued to fertilise and water the plant with waning hopes that it may produce fruit one day. Imagine my surprise when I spotted a large green chili hanging on the branch when I watered the plant last Sunday. When I looked closer, I saw another one just behind it. I was thrilled... After about one year, my perseverance paid off. Looks like I'll be having some home-grown, freshly cut green chilli to accompany my dinner tonight! Can't wait to taste the fruits of my labour.

Perseverance

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
Marianne Williamson

Since I just wrote a post on Kess' blog on perseverance called "It's dogged as does it", it seems fitting to do a similar post. It is so easy to just give up when things don't go our way - when we don't get the promotion, when we lose our job, when someone stabs us on our back, the list goes on... We live in tough times. No one knows how long this downturn will last. The challenge is to rise up again when we fall and grow to be a stronger person.

Muhibbah (Unity)

It was the third day of Chinese New Year and we were having breakfast at our local hangout. As I looked around, I noticed bright red Chinese New Year decorations adorning the ceiling and walls. Cheery "Gong Xi Gong Xi" songs playing over the speakers added more festivity to the place. No, we were not in a chinese coffee shop... We were in a mamak restaurant. Here, people from all races and walks of life gather for a teh tarik and roti canai. And because it was Chinese New Year, the restaurant owner decided to celebrate along with his fellow Chinese Malaysians.

It was the night of the eighth day of Chinese New Year (for those who are not familiar, Chinese New Year celebration spans over 15 days). Every year, my Hokkien neighbour hosts a fantastic Lion Dance show at his house, complete with acrobatics. Again, people from our neighbourhood from all races and walks of life turn up to witness the spectacular acrobatics of the agile Lion Dancers performing to the beat of the drums. I saw an Indian family. Both mother and daughter were wearing cheongsams.

There are far too many incidents of intolerance and irrational behaviours due to differences in cultures and beliefs. This Chinese New Year, I've had the opportunity to witness the true spirit of Muhibbah in our multi-cultural society. This is how we should celebrate unity in diversity.

"Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without."
William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

Mechanical breakdown

We don't realise how much we rely on our appliances to make our life easier until it breaks down. Have you ever wondered which appliance you couldn't live without - even for 1 day? Well, over the past year or so, we've had a couple of mechanical breakdowns in our household appliances - TV, washing machine, air-conditioning, fridge. So which one can't we live without?

First off - the TV. The idiot box is very much a part of our rest and relaxation. But, we could live without it for a day. We can still entertain ourselves by reading or going to the movies.

Next, the washing machine. Another critical household appliance which prevents my hands from becoming a prune. I still remember my younger days when I used to have to help my parents wash the clothes by hand. It was no fun! But, when our machine was out of order for a few days, we still had other options. we sent my clothes to my mum's place for washing! On a worse case, there is always the good ol' kedai dobi or laundromat.

Air conditioning - In our hot Malaysian weather (especially in the last couple of days), this is another important appliance in most homes. With global warming, temparatures are soaring. How can we sleep without it? Well, when ours didn't work, we had to make do. Off with the quilt and on with the mosquito coil. Fortunately, when ours broke down, we had a spell of relatively cool weather. It also helps that we live near the hills, so temparature was at least 1 degree cooler.

And so, the winner is...the Fridge. Yes, this is the appliance we cannot live without. We had contemplated getting a bigger fridge to replace our 10 year-old fridge, but not so soon as we had just replaced our air-conditioning. Apparently, the fridge had other ideas. One night, the fridge compartment stopped working. When we discovered it in the morning, panic set in. What was I going to do with all my perishables? It didn't help that I had gone to the supermarket to stock up on groceries in view of the Chinese New Year holidays round the corner. Why oh why didn't we just get the fridge when we thought of it? We would have saved the hassle of finding temporary storage for my perishables and rushing madly to the electrical shops to get a fridge that could be delivered on that day itself. Then, there's the mad rush to unload the many bottles and jars of sauces and condiments and dried food from the old fridge when the delivery guy finally arrived with the fridge. But before we could breath a sigh of relief, let's not forget that the new fridge can't be turned on for 3 hours after delivery to allow the gas to settle.

Anyway, the moral of the story is this - If your fridge has passed the 10-year mark, get a new one whilst the old one still works to save yourself the hassle. Of course, if you're one of those people who doesn't cook a lot and doesn't have much food in your fridge apart from a couple of beers and some eggs, then it really doesn't matter. Otherwise, pencil this into your diary, which in our case is 2019!

Communication Breakdown

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
George Bernard Shaw

When was the last time you had an argument with someone? What was the cause of it? Chances are it's due to communication breakdown.

J & I had gone to the trails at the hill for some exercise. At the start of the trails, he started to jog off and said something about meeting at the guardhouse. I wasn't too pleased. I thought that we were going to walk together, spend some quality time together. He didn't mention the run earlier when he asked if I wanted to go to the hills. Perhaps subconsciously, I ignored the signs when he strapped the heart monitor earlier. What is done is done. He was off before I could say "Aye" or "Nay".

Now, there are 2 guardhouses in the hills - One at the crossroad and the other downhill at the start of the trail. When I didn't see him at the cross road, I reasoned that since he ran, he would be ahead of me and he would be at the guardhouse downhill. To cut a long story short, he wasn't. I waited and waited, seething. As it was getting late and we had dinner plans, I headed home by myself. Meanwhile, J was waiting and searching for me at the guardhouse at the cross road. He back-tracked hoping to bump into me (which obviously didn't happen since I was waiting downhill).

This was a classic example of communication breakdown. Could we have avoided all the stress and frustration if we had communicated properly? I think so. If we had taken the time to communicate our expectations from the start or if we had taken the time to clarify our meeting place, we would have both enjoyed our exercise time more. Perhaps, we should heed the advice of the Greek philosopher, Epictetus who said “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

The Friends We Make In Our Journey...

Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose. ~Tennessee Williams

When I was a kid, I remember one of the phrases we used often in school was "I don't want to friend you" whenever some kid offended us or didn't want to share something, or for whatever petty reasons. Of course, all was forgiven the next day, and we're best buddies again. As we grew up, we made friends at different stages of our lives. When we moved on to our next journey, some of these friendships drifted apart due to time and distance. Yet, for those moments when they were in our lives, they made a difference, be it temporary or permanent.

Then years later, we meet again. Last night was one of those special reunions. The four of us met at Cava, a Spanish restaurant located in Bangsar. With some friends, it feels like you've never been apart. Whilst we're not exactly the same people we were back when we first became friends (more gray hairs and a couple of pounds difference give and take - probably more give than take), deep down, we're not that different from who we were in high school, or college or university. And as Ralph Waldo Emerson so aptly puts it, "It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them." .

Over good food (the Tapas, Tenderloin and Osso Bucco are highly recommended) and a glass of Chilean wine, we reminisce and laugh about the good old days (was it really that long ago?)- of weekend volleyball games and bus rides, of spaghetti bolognaise and Hard Rock Cafe. Memories forgotten are brought back to mind. We celebrate a birthday with a Chocolate Dream - if you're a chocoholic like me, this should not be missed! ("Happy Belated Birthday A!"). Perhaps, even more importantly, we celebrate life and friendships!



A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world. ~Lois Wyse