What I Ate Last Weekend

Last Saturday I attended the Malaysian Institute of Accountants 26th Annual General Meeting. And I must say that I pretty much enjoyed the delicious brunch at Hotel Istana. Of course, I wasn't there for the food but to fufill my responsibility as a member of the Institute and to cast my vote on issues affecting my interest as a practising accountant.

The spread was quite limited, being a brunch, but the selection was rather good. If I had not exercised self restraint, I would have sampled everything on offer. I started with the salad (ahem!) and was rather taken by the rice salad with prawns and cold beef with couscous (at least that's what I thought it was). And I went for seconds because it was so good.

Breads to go with soup. Forgot to take picture of soup.

Cold salad of rice and prawns. The prawns were very fresh and had a nice crunch.

Cold salad of beef and couscous with vegetables. There was no card to indicate the name of the dish so I just assume.

I think these are spring rolls.

Tauhu sumbat. 

Chicken wings.

Shepard's pie. I tried a small bit but it was too cheesy for me.

Crispy fried chicken.

Vegetarian beehoon.

Fried rice.

Chillies to go with noodles or rice. They were lucky I did not eat the noodles or rice. Or else they will run out of chillies.

Curry laksa. Very dainty portions.

The curry gravy. Very rustic, they served the whole pot as is.

Rojak buah. Usually I would go for this.

And now for the desserts!

Fruits, healthy but not my favorite.

These are more like it!

Chocolate cake.

Sago, mango and coconut milk with gula Melaka. Very nice!

Custard with lychee. Also very nice!

This one had orange cake at the botton and I think the topping is cream cheese. 

This was what I had for dessert. I just had to sample all. They were delicious but I think my chocolate cake is better than this one (ahem!).

Polished my second helping of desserts. Yes, second helping. I am the epitome of "mong siak, mong pui" a phrase I learnt from suituapui.

Almost ate the pandan decoration.

Voting in progress. Resolution to increase annual subscription passed. Sigh....

And that's not all. On Sunday I had a scrumptious lunch at El Cerdo. The lunch for two cost me a little over RM200, much more than what I would normally be willing to pay when dining out. However, this is not the sort of food I get to eat every day, every week or even every month (we accountants are a prudent lot). I do this only once in a blue moon. I would say that it was well worth the money spent as the food was excellent.

The piggy greets us at the entrance. El Cerdo in Spanish means The Pig.

Appetizer of bread and some kind of mashed meat. Sorry photo is not clear.

The BBQ grilled ribs were excellent. Juicy and tender. Very big serving too.

The paella was to die for. So delicious!

I must buy a paella pan like this one.

Tiramisu for dessert. It comes in a platter of two servings. Forgot to take photo before serving, too excited. The yellow blob is the mango sauce.

If you haven't been to El Cerdo and want to experience nose to tail eating, this is the address :

El Cerdo
43 & 45 Changkat Bukit Bintang
50200 Kuala Lumpur

Tel : (03) 2145-0511