A Peruvian Culinary Showcase at The Library Ritz Carlton Kuala Lumpur
A Peruvian Culinary Showcase at The Library Ritz Carlton Kuala Lumpur
Until this weekend 4th December 2016, the Library at the Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur offers the Peru Mucho Gusto – A Peruvian Showcase. With collaboration with Embassy of the Republic of Peru in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Peru and Malaysia’s diplomatic ties, executive Guest Chef Pardo Figueroa will prepare the Peruvian Culinary Showcase.
Executive Guest Chef Carlos Pardo Figueroa has curated exquisite menus for dinner and Sunday Roast that are to be experienced at The Library, the hotel’s beautiful and elegant dining room. The menus include traditional, quality organic products that will be showcased for the very first time at a gastronomy event in Malaysia.
Chef Figueroa will be cooking with ingredients that include Quinoa, Kiwicha, Chirimoya, Lúcuma, Amaranto, Camu Camu and Peruvian Aji Chillies, amongst the array of unique products specially flown in from Peru. Peru has one of the oldest, richest and most diverse culinary traditions in the world that dates back 5000 years. It is a true symbiosis of both ancient and diverse culinary cultures and practices and the result of thousands of years of cultural evolution. The products that are brought in specially for this showcase are also highly sought after in cities such as New York, London, Paris, Rome and Tokyo.
To start off the Peruvian Showcase, we had the amuse bouche. It is baby octopus with olive sauce and it has the identical texture of Japanese’s chuka idako. This is bite size baby octopus is tasty and delicious.
Next is the Trio of Appetizers, Quinoa Tabbouleh, Causa Rellena and White Cream Ceviche. Since we have two boys, we cooked quinoas for them when there were infants. It is a very healthy and nutritious food. Served with crispy cheese and avocado mousse, the quinoa was light with hints of nutty flavor.
For Causa Rellena, it is made from mashed potatoes and avocado, served cold with tuna acevichado sauce. Presented like a sushi and the taste is a bit subtle and enjoyed it.
Ceviche is one of the popular Peruvian dishes and it is usually made with lime. Chef Carlos decided to use tumbo (banana passion fruit) instead of lime. The fish was marinated and served with bruleed sweet potatoes and corn. The taste is acidic and this is very enjoyable.
For the main courses, they have three choices of
Aji de Gallina (chicken), Anticuchos de Pescado (fish) or Risotto a la Huancaina (beef).
For Aji de Gallina, it is spicy creamed chicken with potatoes, parmesan cheese, pecans and olive sauce. We would prefer to have more chicken as it is tasty. You get the hints of the cheese and olive sauce and crunchy texture of the pecans.
Anticuchos de Pescado (fish) at the first glance, the fish skewers looked dry but it was perfectly cooked. The fish was juicy and it its well marinated with red chili, vinegar and soy sauce. Chef used swordfish for this dish and we never knew it could be so juicy and tasty. It also comes with grilled potatoes, Peruvian onion salad and sautéed corn.
Risotto a la Huancaina (beef) is Chef Carlo’s signature dish which is served with huancaina sauce, made from aji pepper, cottage cheese, milk and crackers. We loved this the most. The taste is rich and creamy and we loved the classic lomo saltado (marinated sirloin strips). This is very well cooked, tasty and addictive. We highly recommend this main course.
Lastly, the dessert was the combination of Mazommora Morada, Quinoa and Rice Pudding. This is a popular Peruvian dessert and this the icing on top of cake ending the delightful Peruvian Showcase.
When we traveled to South America, we didn’t visit Peru and this is probably one of the few chances for anyone to taste the Peruvian cuisine. Overall, we enjoyed the food and what we like is they serve the food in their original flavours. We want to taste authentic Peruvian cuisine and not localized flavoured cuisines. It is only left a few days to taste this wonderful Peruvian dinner so booked your table now.
The four-course Peruvian dinner will be available from Nov 26 to Dec 4 at The Library and is priced from RM250 nett (dinner – from 7pm) and Sunday Roast (from 12pm) from RM198 nett. For reservations, please call +60 3 2142 8000 or email [email protected].
The Library, Level 1, The Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur, 168 Jalan Imbi, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel: 03-2142 8000
GPS Coordinates: 3.146901, 101.715438
Website: http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/malaysia/kuala-lumpur
