• Last day of special themed dinner buffet at The Dining Room this Thursday 

If you love Malaysian cuisine, check out the Malaysian theme night at Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo on Thursday (25) – the flavour-packed culinary journey is an absolute delight.

Launched at the beginning of this month and held every Thursday at The Dining Room, the spread successfully showcases Malaysia’s culinary heritage and the diversity of its cuisine, with salads, soups, wok-fried rice and noodles, a host of succulent vegetable, meat, and seafood dishes, action stations, and desserts comprising the line-up.

The Malaysian dishes are served alongside most of the usual buffet offerings, so diners can also enjoy other cuisines at the same time.

The chefs’ picks

With so many Malaysian dishes on offer and knowing how filling they can be, given that coconut milk is considered the soul of Malaysia’s cuisine, I turned to the chefs and asked them which of the dishes were their favourites.

Both the chefs whose expertise shaped the buffet – Senior Sous-Chef Monty Desus and Thai Master Chef Winai Piaphung – picked the beef coconut curry as their top choice. The Thai Chef also recommended the tamarind pork and “all the desserts”.

It was time then to dig in, prioritising their selections!

Soul food

I skipped the soup and started with some sushi and seafood from the international starters section, and then moved to the Malaysian dishes, serving myself some of Malaysia’s national dish nasi lemak (coconut rice), a good portion of coconut beef, and some hokkien mee (noodles with shrimp).

Just thinking about the beef coconut curry makes me want to revisit the buffet. An aromatic slow-cooked dish that packs a flavour punch, it tasted divine – the kind of dish you think about long after you have had it. 

I didn’t care for the hokkien mee which I found a little too salty, but the nasi lemak, of which I am a huge fan, was just perfect.

My second serving featured the tamarind pork, of course, which was melt-in-the-mouth magic. If you’re a fan of the fatty bits, this is the dish to dive into!

Impressive array

I also enjoyed the curry laksa (spicy coconut noodle soup), sambal udang (prawns), kam heong chicken, and Malaysian pumpkin curry, which tasted as appetising as they looked with their rich, warm shades.

I meant to try the ikan bakar (grilled fish), kari kambing (mutton curry), and kuih cara berlauk (savoury peanut beef pancake), but didn’t get around to them given the range of other delicious dishes which distracted me.

I then ended my meal with kuih dadar (pandan coconut crepes), which hit the perfect sweet note.

Other highlights at the buffet include kerabu mangga (mango salad), ayam berempah (spiced fried chicken), oxtail soup, Malaysian braised short ribs, and seafood and meat kebabs, while the dessert corner features several lovely options too.

The Malaysian cuisine theme night is only on for one more day (25 September), so make your reservations now to ensure you don’t miss out on this delightful spread.