Dinner @ Dynasty Hotel

I had a dinner function at Dynasty Hotel last night. It is a Chinese-style sit-down banquet dinner. I think the food is pretty standard. Go to any hotel in Miri for a banquet, and more or less the same type of food will be served.

Before the meal began, I put together a dish of sliced red chillies and chopped garlic in light soy sauce. I was prepared to dip everything in this concoction.

Chillies and garlic dip

The starter was a Three Hot and Cold Combination. There were seasoned jellyfish, fried chicken, and a fishpaste-surimi-thingy in egg sauce. The three items tasted pretty all right.

Hot & Cold Combination

My serving

Next came the Braised Crab Meat Soup with Shredded Chicken. Crab? I did not see any crab in my soup, though I did chew on fine threads of chicken. The soup, to me, was more starch than substance.


Following the soup were the main dishes. The Steamed Sultan Fish with Tom Yam Paste preceded all the other meat dishes. I liked the fish. I thought the sauce was just right - sour and spicy. Best of all, it was piping hot as it was served on a steaming rack.

Steamed Fish

My serving

I liked the Deep Fried Crispy Chicken with Nestum and Mayonnaise Sauce. The chicken was really crispy, and yet the meat was tender. The sauce was slightly citrusy, with a slight squeeze of lemon juice in it.

Crispy Chicken

My serving

Next up is the Yam Basket with Mixed Vegetables and Cashew Nuts. By now, I was already quite full. Yet, I wanted to try the dish. The yam had a hint of 5-spice powder. I thought the vegetables were quite ordinary.

Yam basket

My serving

Crispy Roasted Duck came next. I think the duck was roasted and then deep-fried. Like the chicken, the duck was crispy on the outside, and tender on the inside. The duck was served with a sweet chilli sauce.

Crispy Roasted Duck

My serving

The last dish of the main course was the Chinese Fried Rice. My friend commented that it was silly of them to serve rice so late into the meal. I thought it was to fill up those whose stomachs have yet to be full. But another friend mentioned that rice came the last as it was a symbol of abundance. Hmn. Profound. ;p

Fried Rice

I did not like the fried rice at all. I thought the rice was soggy, and it was quite tasteless. I left practically the whole bowl untouched. How wasteful.

Dessert, of course, was not to be forgotten. Tonight's desert was Chilled Longan with Sea Coconut. It was too sweet for my liking. I ate the longans, sea coconut and dices of jelly, and left the syrup behind.

Dessert

Well, I absolutely forbade anyone to touch the food before I snapped a shot. So to all my friends, thank you for putting up with my antics ;p.