Food
A PROGRESSIVE DINING ADVENTURE AT KURUMBA MALDIVES
Hope everyone is having a joyous holiday season! While having delicious food during the holidays with family is wonderful, having delicious food during a vacation is equally important. Although our stay at Kurumba Maldives was short, it cast a spell on us with its various aromas.
As Beth already mentioned, when we arrived, we were greeted with coconut ice cream. This creamy delight was just a small sample of the many succulent foods to come that we were going to taste at Kurumba.
With 8 different restaurants to choose from, ranging from the over-water Japanese teppanyaki and sushi restaurant Hamakaze to the romantic and classy Italian restaurant La Cucina, deciding which one to eat at was tough given out tight schedule.
Fortunately for us, we were surprised with a progressive dinner where we got to sample dishes from 3 of those restaurants. Even though we were eager to dive straight into the foodie dinner tour, we weren’t going to let lunch slip by us.
We had lunch at the main restaurant, Vihamana (as well as breakfast and dinner the following day). It is an open buffet style restaurant and where most guests will enjoy all of their meals with the full-board plan.
The food here, especially the carving and satay station, was some of the best buffet food I have ever eaten. The meat was juicy and tender with a pink center, a medium rare delight to me.
The other hot foods were also very good, with a variety of meats, such as fish and lamb, and vegetables to keep our stomachs satisfied. The desserts were also very delicately presented and had some unique flavors like avocado cake alongside the classics like a cream strawberry cake
Before we had time to fully digest out lunch, it was already dinnertime.
To start our progressive meal, we were to have appetizers at Ming Court. Being from Hong Kong, I didn’t think I could fall in love with a Chinese restaurant in the Maldives, but that would soon be proven wrong.
As someone who likes to try many foods abroad, we got a sampler dish as a starter. It was said to have shrimp crackers, Peking duck, spring rolls and dim sum.
The first item out was the shrimp crackers, which were pretty standard. Next out, was the sampler platter. While the duck had good flavor, it wasn’t what some might expect Peking duck to be, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Typically neither Beth nor myself are a fan of eggrolls, but these had a nice crunchy shell and were filled with fresh vegetables. Add in a dash of the hoi sin sauce the provided, and they were quite good.
All things considered, the portions at Ming Court were surprisingly generous. I’m ashamed to say this, but we actually had to waste some food because we needed to save our stomachs for the rest of the night.
Perhaps it was all worth it for the second dish we ordered which was their fried rice. I enjoyed the fried rice here more than at most places in Hong Kong. The beef made the dish all the more delicious, thinly sliced and moist. The fried rice was a soy sauce fried rice, but it wasn’t too salty. As one of the cheaper dishes at Ming Court, it certainly exceeded my expectations.
To end our course here we enjoyed a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice to quench our thirst after a long day out in the Maldivian sun. The juice here was fresh indeed and had lots of flavor.
It was raining as we left, but with true Maldivian hospitality, we were lent an umbrella to get to our next location, La Cucina.
This spacious Italian restaurant was packed when we got there. The decoration here was more intimate than that of Ming Court and it immersed us into a whole new environment. Upon placing our order, we were brought a basket of freshly baked breads, which we dipped in olive oil, butter, and a dash of pepper.
For the main course, I had the classic carbonara made with hand cut fettuccini pasta, pancetta bacon, and Parmesan cheese. The toppings and sauce were good, but I was not a huge fan of the fettuccini, it was not al dente and seemed a little soggy.
As is often the case though, I enjoyed Beth’s taste in food and would often steal some of her dish. She got a roast filet of beef with truffle battered mash, sautéed porcini mushrooms, and vegetables. Now is when I began to seriously suspect that Kurumba has a secret beef recipe, because every time I had beef there it was cooked perfectly and makes my mouth water just thinking back on it. Even the side dishes were also done very well and made our stomachs even more full.
However full we were, there was still one last course to be had. We meandered our way out of La Cucina and headed to Ocean Grill in order to enjoy some dessert. Ocean Grill offers an excellent atmosphere with a patio right along the ocean and a view of the Malé skyline in the distance. Although the patio was closed due to rain, we were still able to relax and enjoy our dessert and the view from inside the restaurant.
Feeling adventurous, I ordered the Maldivian Bombe Alaska while Beth had the Banoffee (Banana mousse, chocolate crunch, salted caramel, and chocolate). Never having a baked or bombe Alaska, I didn’t know what to expect. When the dessert arrived, I was surprised at how big it was. How was I supposed to finish all of this when I had just finished two other meals? Of course once I tasted how good the dessert was, I knew it was certainly possible.
Made from local coconuts, pandanus, and pomegranate, the tart taste perked up my appetite and the vodka meringue only added to the taste as I scrapped off the pandanus sorbet. Before I knew it, I was already finished with dessert.
Beth had finished off her dessert all on her own too, a rarity. But then again, given how much she loves salted caramel it wasn’t that surprising.
