Madge Meyer, James Phalen and Flora Sah at the Asian American Civic Association Gala

Mayor Marty Walsh with Ian So (second right) and the Chicken & Rice Guys team at the Asian American Civic Association Gala

Robert Lundy with state Secretary of Labor Ron Walker at the Asian American Civic Association Gala

Denny Ching and Steven Chen at the Asian American Civic Association Gala

It was an Asian food aficionado’s wet dream when the Asian American Civic Association hosted its annual gala at Royale, with wall-to-wall food stations serving everything from Indian to Thai to Korean to Chinese to Japanese to I’m-not-entirely-sure-what.

“I’m going to leave here obese,” lamented one guest, mingling in a crowd that included Mayor Marty Walsh, restaurant equipment czar Felix Lui, grand old man Marvin Gilmore, Chinatown booster Stanley Chen, arts patron Victoria Marsh, Labor Secretary Ron Walker, Boys and Girls Club big cheese Josh Kraft, healthcare honcho Don Cornuet, bridge builder Sherry Dong, retail titan Robert Lundy, emcee and Channel 5 beauty Antoinette Antonio, awardees Yanmei Chen and Sudha Bhandari, banking bigwig Rich Holbrook, Thai wonder Ajaree Walsh (carving works of art out of watermelons) and a guy somewhat distractingly dressed as a banana.

In addition to the food, there was entertainment in the form of Bollywood, Japanese and Han tribal folk dances, and the amount of networking accomplished reinforced certain stereotypes—to wit, Gov. Charlie Baker sticking around to glad-hand the crowd long after leaving the stage.

Speaking of which, this was the evening’s best exchange: “It sounds like the governor has laryngitis.”

“I wish all politicians did.”