Only for Pure Pork Rib Lovers

Ryoko and Jamie were in town this week and we fixed a dinner date.
Now the cool thing about them is that they’re upfront about a lot of things. They were in Penang for a few days to settle some stuff but they were also here for the pork stuff.
You see, living on Langkawi has its pros and cons. The con is that they don’t get as much pork meat as they like. So visiting Penang always means they will dig out the best spots for makan and in many cases, include as many visits to restaurants which serve hog.
Ryoko said they wanted to take us to this ribs shop for real lipsmacking stuff at reasonable prices. It’s really an irony that our friends from out of town will alert us to the best of Penang!
RIBS Barbeque Restaurant on Burmah Road (next to Giant Supermarket) was cozy and utterly inviting when we ran into the shop because it was raining heavily but poor Jamie had to huddle along with his walking stick (he had slipped and the doc gave him a clean bill of health but in the mean time, he was using a walking stick.)
Now this place is all about pork and more pork. Jamie whispers that they’ve been to RIBS each time they come to Penang and it’s like THE place for their pork fix. Apparently, the chef and owner used to work at Chaser’s down at Gurney Drive.
Once settled in, we started poring over the menu. If you’re vegetarian, you’re going to faint here. Everything is decidedly porky. Jamie chose the Baby Back while Ryoko went for her Gammon. I was in two minds – I wanted ribs and yet something else so I chose Ribs & Lamb (2 types of meat for the cannibal in me) and Nic opted for the Barbecued Ribs. For sides, we each took either coleslaw and mashed potato. We also shared a bottle of TerraMatera red wine which Jamie picked.
The food took some time to come but we were catching up so it didn’t really matter. The restaurant was full of diners but the overall ambience was good, not too deadly quiet nor too raucously chaotic. It was a good place for conversation though Ryoko said that the few times they came for dinner, it was very noisy.
When the food arrived, we were very taken in by the delicious smell of the ribs. The ribs were tender and literally melted in the mouth. The ribs were flavourful and I couldn’t help using my hands to get the meat of the bone (how can anyone use knife and fork when the fingers can do a better job?) and then licking the sauce off the meat! I had 2 ribs and 2 lamb chops with a side of slaw and potato so I was rather stuffed at the end of the meal.
Ryoko let me try some of her Gammon which is a tasty, boneless pork slab of marbled lean meat and fat, flavoured to the right amount of saltiness. Slather on some English mustard and it was heaven!
At the end of the 3-hour dinner, we trooped out of RIBS, four happy, sated people!
(And if you do dine in RIBS, check out their washroom. Very unique!)