The Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur have teamed up with the Peru Embassy to host an authentic Peruvian Gastronomic event, and they invited me and a partner to experience the Peruvian buffet. I get some restaurant invites now and then, but this one enticed me because: Peruvian food? I don’t think i’ve EVER had Peruvian food in my life, and my curiosity urged me to make a date and GO. I could only make it on Friday night… which isn’t my favourite time of the week to venture into the city, but i REALLY wanted to try it!
We got stuck in a terrible jam for two hours, i almost peed my BCBG dress in the car, and we walked into Cesar’s at Ritz-Carlton at 9:30pm, an hour to the end of the buffet! I was all flustered and bothered, but the moment i was halfway into my first plate of Peruvian cuisine, i said to Clem: “Okay. This is just making it all worth it.” It was really good!
If you’re interested to experience this unique buffet, it’s only on till this Tuesday the 16th, and costs RM180++ per person including two complimentary Pisco Sours.
Sea bass with Seafood and Spicy Sauce – i love soup de poisson and this seems like a thinner version of the soup yet still as flavourful. Loved this. Clem was adamant it couldn’t be better than soup de poisson but you know the French… always so protective of their food 😡
I thought the buffet might be the typical fanfare of helping yourself from lots of big dishes, but there was also a spread of delicately-prepared canapés (a couple pictured in middle below)
Besides the seafood soup, i also tried the creole beef soup. Okay i can’t really choose which one i like better. They’re both really different and the beef was wonderfully tender in the soup. I could just TASTE the beef juices oozing out as i bit into them.
The purplish white canapé on the right is Octopus with Black Olive Alioli – it was certainly very different! I have this idea that Peru has an abundance of octopus now… cos i ate a fair bit that night, and i do LOVE my octopus! The last time i had any was in Cinque Terre… and that was way too long ago. (Mmm maybe it’s time to start learning how to cook octopus for myself!)
A chef from Lima preparing a seafood salad with prawns, octopus, squid and fish. This was my FAVOURITE dish that night. I will be craving this in the weeks to come… everything was fresh and springy, coated in a light sharp sauce with onion and chili. Loveee this.
At the bottom is the seafood salad i just mentioned. On the right is Mash Potato with Yellow Chili filled with Crab – really liked this one too. Besides octopus, i’ll also associate Peruvian food with lots of potatoes now. On top is the Pickled Chicken Escabeche.
Oh Clem and i loved this – Tenderloin Beef Sauteed with Onion and Tomato. Seems so simple but the beef was cooked perfectly and tasted ah-may-zing.
Another octopus dish.
I liked this a lot too – Chicken with Creamy Yellow Chili Sauce.
Beef & Cilantro Stew
There was a lot of food, but i’m only putting the pix of the ones i liked the most! There are other interesting dishes i’ve never heard of before like ‘Sun Dried Potato, Chicken & Peanut Stew‘, and ‘Chicken with Yellow Chili Sauce & Mint‘. I found Peruvian cuisine to be very savoury, which i like, so i found quite a few dishes i liked a a lot. And they’re all bursting with different types of flavours. I’m so glad i went for this!
I tried not to eat too much, cos i really wanted to try as many desserts as i could stuff into myself too:
Three Milk Cake
Clockwise from left: chocolate cake; Lucama Crunch; Sweet Milk Pudding; Rice Pudding; and something i don’t know the name of -.- My fave was the Lucama Crunch, but Clem liked the Rice Pudding out of them all. There was something else that was really strange called ‘Chirimoya, Orange & Meringue‘. Clem hated it but i loved it. So it’s one of those weird tastes you either love or hate.
The Peruvian Gastronomic Buffet is at Cesar’s from 7:30pm to 10:30pm
The Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur
168 Jalan Imbi
Tel: 03 2142 8000
