Marine Ball Food

The Chisinau Marine Ball was held at the Leogrand Hotel earlier this month.  I think the reason it's held there is because it's the only hotel with a large enough convention hall.  It's certainly not because of the food. The salad course was a choice of two different kinds of seafood salads - tuna or shrimp.  The tuna was very strong smelling. I did not taste either, as I don't like tuna or shrimp.  Soup was a tasteless bisque.  It was very smooth, but could have used some flavor.  My main course was a chicken breast in mushroom sauce, rice, and sauteed vegetables.  The chicken was much, much better than the soup, but was barely warm, as were the vegetables.  The rice was cold.  I know it's hard to serve three hundred people hot food, but they could at least try.  It was obvious the plates were not heated for the food, which would have kept it warmer.

Andreas had the beef.  His was also just warm, and there was a lot less food on the plate. It looked almost empty.  Dessert for me, the crepes, was pretty, at least.  The orange crepes would have tasted better warm, but the raspberry coulis was good.  Andreas' brownie with ice cream had half-melted ice cream when served.

I know this isn't the fault of the Marines at post: no matter how much they try, they're not in charge of the kitchen at the Leogrand, and they do try to keep costs down for ticket prices.  Nevertheless, the charges amounted to $85 per ticket this year, and the food was mediocre, at best.  The Leogrand is supposedly the premier hotel in Moldova's capitol.  This event is -the- event of the diplomatic and military social season.  You'd think the Leogrand would get the hint to go out of its way to give a good impression.  Unfortunately, most Moldovan businesses look to the short term and rarely worry about things like long term reputation.  This was the second Marine Ball I've attended there.  I'll go again, but it's emphatically NOT because it's at the Leogrand.

Next Marine Ball post will be more upbeat, I promise!