The Melting Pot

A couple of months ago, Mr. L and I celebrated our 4th Church Wedding Anniversary at The Melting Pot, Hoboken, NJ.

Yes, Mr. L and I celebrate a number of anniversaries in a year: our civil wedding anniversary, our church wedding anniversary and we also celebrate the year I moved here. As you are already aware of, I’ve recently written a little something about our civil wedding anniversary here since the date has just passed. Here you go to give you a little background,

http://pinaylombardi.blogspot.com/2009/09/happy-5th-civil-wedding-anniversary-mr.html

Again, Mr. L and I have yet to celebrate our civil wedding anniversary this year. As for celebrating the date that I moved here in New Jersey, I will talk about that soon. I guess when the date of the anniversary comes closer. (Note to self: must blog about why we celebrate the date that I moved here in NJ).

Okay, back to our wedding anniversary. 4 years ago, Mr. L and I were finally married in the church (in the Philippines). The exact date of our church wedding was the 29th of April. One of the happiest moments in our lives to be wed in the house of God… Here’s a photo that I wanted to share with you of this joyous moment in our life…This photo was taken during the reception of our wedding...

Four years later, Mr. L and I celebrated our church wedding anniversary by having dinner at the Melting Pot. Mr. L and I love trying new places and restaurants. As much as possible, we avoid going back to the same restaurants we’ve already tried. We also prefer independently owned restaurants rather than chain restaurants. As some of you may not be aware of the prices of the food being served at chain restaurants are actually quite expensive with poor quality and taste, whereas, more often than not you get to taste good quality food from independent restaurants. We want to always make sure that we always broaden our horizons by always trying something new.

I remember when Mr. L and I just started dating he was so afraid to try so many things particularly trying new dishes and food which was quite the opposite of how adventurous I am when it comes to dining. His excuse was that he was allergic to this and that. Yeah right?!! I introduced Mr. L to eating sushi, Japanese rolls, oysters and whole lot of other food particularly seafood and Asian cuisine and we soon discovered that he wasn’t allergic to anything! I guess his fear of trying new things comes from his upbringing.

I grew up in a household that love to eat and quite daring in trying different cuisines. Oh, not to the extent that we eat dogs, cats, snakes or rabbits, etc. Growing up in the Philippines particularly in Manila has also greatly influenced my palette. Although, the Philippines is a third world country, we have different cuisines that are available worldwide within our reach and not too pocket heavy as it is here in NY.

So we ventured to The Melting Pot which is a fondue (and hotpot) restaurant. It was our first time to try this restaurant. The food was very scrumptious! My favorites were the cheese fondue, the salad and the chocolate fondue. I definitely have to buy a fondue pot so I can recreate this experience at home lol. Quite honestly, I was a tad bit disappointed with Mr. L that evening because he mistakenly thought that lobsters were included in our main course. Grrr! But nevertheless, our dining experience was still wonderful despite of that mishap. The service was excellent. They also seated us in a private area that was intimately tucked in ---that was definitely a plus because I can take all the photos that I want. The server also guided us throughout to make sure we enjoyed our dining experience that night. The best part was the maitre d’ of the restaurant greeted us a "happy anniversary" which caught us by surprise I guess we told the server and the server told him. Although, this is a chain restaurant it is quite deliciously exceptional from other chain restaurants. This was definitely a wonderful way to spend your anniversary!

The Melting Pot Menu...

Preparing the cheese fondue...

Trying out the cheese fondue...

Salad

Preparing the main course...

Adding concoctions to the main course...

dessert...

chocolate fondue...

Here's their website: http://www.meltingpot.com

Happy 5th Civil Wedding Anniversary, Mr. L!

Last Monday, September 7th, Mr. L and I celebrated our 5th Civil Wedding Anniversary! Wow, how time flies! It seems only yesterday when it was 2004 and we were both wed by our relative and “ninong”, Lolo Bambit, at the Max Fried Chicken Restaurant located at the Quezon City Circle.

[This was made and given by Aunt Nancy right after we had our Civil Wedding in 2004.  We have this framed in our hallway.] 

Being totally clueless about civil weddings and as such, I guess we both didn’t know what to expect, what was going to happen and what to wear. I seriously don’t think we were both dressed for the occasion and I even remember leaving the house with drenched hair so excuse’ moi. We didn’t really invite a lot of people because our intention was to have the big celebration of our matrimony at the church with our family and friends the following year. We only had the Judge (our Lolo Bambit), my mom, Remy and two of our civil wedding “ninangs” and witnesses (Tita Rose and Tita Mindy). All we both knew that day was we were going to get married and begin our exciting journey together.

Here’s a photo us of in the midst of exchanging our “I do’s…”



That day was filled with excitement, happiness and anxiety. We were both excited and happy that we were going to get married that day but at the same time feeling anxious. I was anxious because I had a test that I had to take that day for work and Mr. L was leaving that night. I guess Mr. L was anxious too because he was leaving that night. It was almost a bittersweet experience. It was sweet to be married that day and yet bitter because we were going to be apart once again. But we didn’t mind any of that drama, we both knew being miles away from each other was but temporary and we had so many years and a lifetime ahead of us to be together.

So here we are after 5 years, although we have gainfully increased our weight compared to that picture taken above… still happily married …more understanding of each other’s quirks…more accepting of our individuality…yet very much aware of the need of each other’s presence to strengthen our solidarity… continuously striving each day and leaning on each other to face the challenges of life…yet very much enthused of what is yet to come…

[Greeting cards from my mother-in-law & father-in-law and Nana & Grandpa Lil'...]

Mr. L and I haven’t celebrated our 5th Civil Wedding Anniversary yet…We will do so next week, the 18th, because that was the only available date. I will talk more about it soon. I will post pictures soon of how we celebrated our 5th Civil Wedding Anniversary.

Coincidentally, Labor Day this year fell on our Civil Wedding Anniversary and my in-laws invited us for a barbecue. We also got a few treats from them that day: a bottle of hand sanitizer (from my father-in-law); two bottles of Clorox Cleaner (from mother-in-law she bought from BJ’s) and some snacks from Aunt Jan (ooooh, I love free snacks!)

So there. Again, Mr. L Happy 5th Civil Wedding Anniversary! ILU, I can’t wait for our next adventure! You really are my partner in crime!