Guinness Draught Food Pairing at Makhan Kitchen

Does Guinness pair with food? We find out when celebrity chef Sherson Lian at Makhan of Kitchen Mafia was tasked to prove it. Being an avid stout drinker myself, this was a media dinner promises to be a treat.

(L to R) HEINEKEN Star Academy draught master, Jonathan Chong, Marketing Manager of GUINNESS Malaysia, Archana Sridhara, GUINNESS Expert, Cian Hulm & Head Chef of Makhan by Kitchen Mafia, Sherson Lian

The menu started with a Tamarind Chilli Grilled Tiger Prawns with the prawn head separately served fried in salted egg and flavoured by curry leaves and Crispy Tandoori Spiced chicken on Brioche on the side

The main course was a delectable Pistachio and Herb crusted Leg of Lamb with jus infused with Coffee and Morel (Jus = juice drippings from the meats’ frying).

The grand sweet finale ended with a Belgian Dark Chocolate Ganache slice with sea salt and nitrogen charged smoked cream. Bonus: we had a cheese platter to end the night.

NOM NOM NOM.

The light bitter creamy texture of Guinness Draught paired well with everything, of course. I am at opinion that spicy food, meats, food which are heavy in oils and rich desserts go well with Guinness. Yes, and so did blue cheese!

The event also paved 2 other agendas for the Guinness branding, which was the education of the two part pour of the Guinness Draught. All guests were required to pour their own Draught under the supervision on Draught Master Jonathan Chong before we were allowed to go home (haha).

We were also introduced to Cian Hulm (pronounced KEEan), the latest Guinness Brand Ambassador in Malaysia. He apparently is also an ambassador of Ireland, quoting him, “the certificates you’ve just earned for the participation of the Guinness Draught two part pour will guarantee you an entry into Ireland”.

Selamat datang, Cian.

Mr. Hulm, I will your words to test very soon!

- Jon

(Images: Guinness/Heineken Malaysia)

Tiger Beer’s Uncage Food Festival 1-2 December 2018

The Tiger Uncage Street Food Festival was AWESOME.

What is it? A 2-day food binge festival featuring 20 local vendors, about 40 types of food, with fun and games, live performances and of course, cheap ice cold tiger beers at the Gasket Alley, PJ.

What's the point of all this? Read about it in our previous post here.

Here are some pictures from that day:

So much food! (Image: Tiger)

Happy hour prices were insane! After happy hour prices were also well-priced.

People bought tiger beers by the buckets to park.

We wanted to bike off the crates of beer....

Lots of fun games and free stuff during the weekend (Image: Tiger)

Plenty of live performances to entertain us as well (Image: Tiger)

Tiger Beer, let’s do this again this year!!!

For more information on Tiger Uncage and to find out what is in store in the coming year, visit www.facebook.com/tigerbeermy, or www.tigerbeer.com.my

- Jon

Mrs Jones' Parlour @ section 17

A little foodie enclave in Section 17 has popped up on radar. There are a few grub-worthy makan places in those tinyrows of old 2-storey shoplots with a variety of choices. Parking availability is notoriously scarce but that has not been a deterrence.

The only thing missing here, was a drinking joint.

Enter Mrs Jones’ Parlour. Opened this October and is at this time, the only cocktail bar in the area. There are no clear signboards to this bar, so look out for Tujoh cafe.

The second you step into the parlour, deja vu. It brings us back to the late 70’s with its furnishing and deco. Ah FA said that it reminded her of her late granddad's home. Very nostalgic and cosy.

This is related to the speakeasy bar in TTDI, the Pawn Room and sister wine bar, The Private Room.

With gins from Australia, the UK,  Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands. Scotland, Slovenia, Spain, Thailand and USA, you'll be quite spoilt with choices.

Mrs Jones’ parlour meanwhile, is a gin bar with a small selection of wine. There's also a selection of gin-based cocktails and homemade infused gins too.

4 types of gin infusions.

Drinks and bottles are generally well-priced. Their happy hours are from 5-8pm where you get 2 glasses of gin (and tonics) for RM40 nett.

All the happy hour gin choices you can choose from - not bad.

Schweppes is used for happy hour but there are 2 premium tonic brands you can choose from with various flavours. 

G&T FTW.

There are bites to go with the drinks as well by Tujoh cafe downstairs.

Food is available until Tujoh closes. Creamy (tom yum? spicy?) soft shell crab was DA BOMB. 

I can see people just coming out here to chill with friends, while waiting for queues for the eateries downstairs to clear.

Amoi Melon (RM 35) - Tanqueray, Midori, lemon, agave, watermelon juice, beaten egg white.
There are 4 cocktails to choose from now - easy-drinking sweet gin-based concoctions from RM35-RM45.

As for me, I plan to catch their happy hour G&Ts as frequently as possible.

- Jon

Lower East Side Whisky Officially Launches in Malaysia

Lower East Side Whisky was first introduced to Malaysia during the not so recent Whisky Plus held earlier in July... but the brand was just officially launched at the breathtakingly scenic view of Cielo Kuala Lumpur down at Changkat Bukit Bintang earlier this month. Cielo, if you are not familiar with the establishment, is part of the Werner Group’s latest foray brand under their portfolio of impressive outlets in Changkat Bukit Bintang stretch that includes The Rum Bar, The Whisky Bar, Opium, El Cerdo...

Liquid in glass contained only water for colour comparison...

We found out that Lower East Side Whisky apart from its name, the whisky has nothing to do with the New York reference. Tony Roberts, from the brand new Borders Distillery that owns this whisky, explains that the distillery is located at the ‘lower east side’ of the Scottish border to England about an hours drive to the border. The map on the whisky bottle is the Scotland map but the map grid pattern on the map is the map of New York. Scottish humour, he says (we didn't get it, haha).

Lower East Side Whisky is not a product distilled from its own distillery. Well, not yet, anyway. Barely 1 year in (officially opened early this year), it can't make the whisky yet and still call it scotch (needs to be at least 3 years old). What they have done is source the 6 single malts ( 2 highlands + 4 speysides) from friendly whisky distilleries and marry them instead.

It has light fruits and orange on the nose and twang of orange peel marmalade on the palate. Its a young blend without much of a finish bottled at 40% ABV. Expect to be retailed at around where the other cheeky blended malt whisky brand is priced as well.

The Borders Distillery (because it is near the border la) is already in production with a blended NAS and Gin.

Good Luck Mr Roberts and we will wait patiently to ‘Slainte Math’ with your other products soon!

-Jon