The Ritz

Last Friday night, I got invited to the Australian Alumni Gala Dinner at the Ritz Carlton, Kuala Lumpur. I thought I'd blog about the food served there because this is my first time attending a Western dinner at a hotel. Every time I go to hotel dinners it would normally be for Chinese weddings and the food are always the same (to my foreign readers, the Chinese in Malaysia usually have their dinners in hotels/Chinese restaurants and because we are such superstitious people, only certain food are allowed to be served at weddings because of their auspicious meaning. Hence, the food we get at weddings are usually similar. I can practically predict the menu after going to so many Chinese weddings!).The only time I attended a Chinese wedding serving fusion food was at The Westin. Since this is an event organised for Australian university graduates, it only makes sense to serve Western food much to my delight :) 

Menu of the day.

Table setting and the obligatory dinner roll and vinaigrette.

Appetizer of to kickstart the night. This is my first time tasting  actual pomegranate, never knew they had seeds! The ones I usually eat in dessert shops are probably fake ones then #fml. 

Pumpkin soup. A tad bit sweet. Realised my tolerance to sweetness has dropped tremendously since I altered my sugar consumption habits last year! Yay :)

Then it was on to the main course which consist of Fish or Lamb. These were the best dishes of the night as the fish and lamb were sponsored by Australia, which means they were flown all the way here for the dinner! Fish was amazingly fresh but not a bit of fishy taste at all. The lamb was tender but not overcooked. We suspect they flew in an Australian chef too just for these two main dishes because the other dishes were just mediocre (probably prepared by the hotel).

My friends at the table had a hard time guessing what the chunk of "polenta terrine" (next to the brocolli) is because none of them has tasted something like that before. Google if you are as clueless as us. It is actually sweetcorn and milk pudding. We learn something new everyday don't we? 

The worst dish of the night for me. The dessert. I did not like how the almond went with the ice-cream, maybe because I personally do not like the taste of almonds. Also felt the grapefruit was way too sour!

Despite that, it was a good experience and I had a great time mingling with fellow alumnus. Would definitely go to this event again next year! Hopefully, I'll get invited again :) 

p/s: Sorry for the low quality photos taken with my Blackberry.