Malaysia-Melaka Food Festival

The desserts were the best part.

The view over the East River can be lovely, too, on a bright afternoon. Monday to Friday, the delegate's dining room at the United Nations serves a buffet lunch; perhaps a half-dozen times each year, the buffet focuses on a particular cuisine. The first food festival of 2008 was devoted to the cuisine of Malaysia — specifically, to the southern state of Melaka, and to the beloved Nyonya cooking of the "Straits Chinese" who emigrated to the peninsula and flavored their traditional dishes with local herbs and spices.

I suppose I shouldn't have been hugely surprised that the buffet didn't evoke the sensations of the food I've found in Penang and Kuala Lumpur. Many of the flavors were authentic, but the pungency and spice were dialed down (undoubtedly a wise concession to the palates of first-timers). It was disappointing, however, to see recipes for fried rice with preserved shrimp, spicy and sour fish curry, and Malaysian-style fried chicken in the festival literature but not to find them at the buffet. (The selection rotates from day to day, or perhaps week to week, I later learned.)

Among the "entrees": sticks of beef and chicken satay were thickly coated in a peanutty sauce that was much moister than the withered offerings often plopped on your plate in New York. Chicken in black soy sauce was very sweet and unusually bony; shrimp sambal hit and held a single chili note. Less inspiring were sliced beef with bell peppers, Chinese-style rice vermicelli, stir-fried tofu with bean paste, and cabbage-pineapple salad in a spicy vinaigrette.

The dessert table was worth two visits; first for a trio of sorbets in coconut (creamy), lychee (a little off), and watermelon (spot-on). From my second plate, shown above, the most elaborate dessert was the bubur keledak (in the tumbler), sweet potato in a coconut-and-pandan-leaf syrup. It easily outshone the green pandan "cakes," the fluffy pink rice-flour kueh, and the small brown banana fritters. Top honors, though, must go to the larger, sweet-potato fritters, which were filled with coconut and shrimp — a dessert combo that's distinctively Malaysian, and absolutely delicious.

To visit the delegates dining room, you'll need to make a reservation at least 24 hours in advance. Jacket required for men; no jeans or sneakers. Although the security screening is much less onerous than at the airport, you'll also need a photo I.D.; unlike the unlucky masses on the guided tour, you get to wear a visitor's pass like the one below.

Malaysia-Melaka Food Festival
May 12-23, 2008
United Nations Delegates Dining Room
212-963-7625
www.DelegatesDiningRoom.com