Beery good time

You gotta love the guys at Guinness Anchor Berhad (GBA). They’ve done a lot to revolutionalize beer drinking, and although they were later on the bandwagon than the other ‘sin’ boys when it came to pairing entertainment with their product (think Kent and their Essentials dance show, the first electronic show on commercial radio in Malaysia when I was helming red fm), I think they’re doing a good job taking beer away from cheong sam clad beauties and to denim and mini-wearing lifestyle bar goers.

The Tavern at GAB.

The GAB HERO Academ,y a project which debuted in 2008, was a revolutionary way of offering trade support to the Horeca providers. HERO (Hotel, Entertainment outlets and Restaurant Operators) offers a one-year programme of classroom training, outlet training and offsite workshop in order to hone their clients' skills and improve customer service and the dining experience at their customers' outlets.

Kirrily Waldhorn, Beer Diva.

Recently I was invited to a beer and food pairing session at GAB’s The Tavern in Sungai Way. The focal point was one Kirrily Waldhorn, styled The Beer Diva, for her love of the amber fizz. Waldhorn was in town to talk to food operators about how beer deserves a place at all tables, not just bar counters. To and through the media she wanted to move beer away from its blokey stereotype, and place it on café tables, and in fine dining outlets, to be enjoyed with good food, the way wine is synonymous with fine cuisine.

She presented a fluffy little video on the origins or beer and its effect on the taste receptors of the tongue. She also talked about beer myths and how they can be dispelled. That bloated feeling you get from drinking beer? It’s because it’s drunk directly from the bottle. This causes all the gasses and carbon dioxide to go right down your throat into your stomach, thus causing bloating. No one was rude enough to contradict her by saying they got the same effect when drinking from a glass.

Still, you got to take beer (and Australians) with a pinch of salt. This was not a beer master class, after all.

Smoked duck pasta with Strongbow cider.

There was something illicit about drinking so much beer so early in the day. (The event began at 10.30am and quite promptly too, by deplorable Malaysian time standards). Still, it definitely loosened people up. It helped that GAB made sure the food that was being paired with the beer was good food, catered by the folk at Jarrod and Rawlings. We had some great pairings, like crispy fish fingers with Heineken, which really made me start thinking of pairing the beer with Kit’s cereal prawns. The beer just cuts through the grease and oil and leaves the mouth refreshed and ready for more. Great eye opener!

Waldhorn said while most food and beer pairings were made to complement each other, some were made to contrast and the creamy smoked duck and rocket pasta and Strongbow cider certainly did that. Kit did not like the pairing. It did jolt the senses a bit, since the acidic, tart cider washed all the creaminess out of the mouth, but I think it’s something I would not mind again. And really, both components were very, very good. I did not even know GAB had a cider in its portfolio, so that was another great point picked up.

Let them eat cake... and drink Guinness too!

I think all the girls from the Chinese newspapers liked the dark and white chocolate cake with Guinness the best. Not that they cared very much for the Guinness, but the cake was truly stupendous. However, I dare say if the cake was made with palm oil and cocoa solids, it would be a completely different issue altogether.

The buffet lunch featured more of the dishes mentioned and also spicy grilled chicken and mixed salad with Tiger, beef stew and mashed potatoes with Guinness (that’s a gold standard!), smoked chicken sausages and a fabulous potato salad with Paulaner, and chicken curry and grilled loaf with Killkenny.

I think if the cops had set up a road block across from GAB. They’d be rich! I think everyone drank more than they were accustomed to. I know I did!

At the end of the event I truly could say I enjoyed myself, but I did not, coming in. For one, I have completely outgrown morning assignments. Also, registration procedures at GAB are a real pain. They take your IC, put it in the system and issue you tags which open the barrier of the guest parking lot from where it is a long hike, especially in heels, to The Tavern.

Once there, there was no PR company rep to welcome us. Just a guestbook to sign. I was already in a bad mood from all this, and evidently others were too, because Kit heard the GAB media person tell their PR company rep ‘just give the press the menus and leave them alone. They are irritated enough already.’ Good Lord! What is this PR company doing?

Couple that with the fact that just prior to that I received what was evidently a misdirected mail from the PR company to GAB (one of the GAB ladies and I share a name) talking about what good press they’d received for the event with the Horeca people, and I was of the mind that these guys really did shoddy work.Not checking your email 'Send' list when it is going to a client? Not big deal. UNTIL you send something sensitive to a competitor!

Still, all was forgiven when I floated out of The Tavern in an alcoholic daze. However, it turned out I could not enjoy the languor or a siesta induced by all the good food and beer because carnage awaited at home: the Schnauzer had upset the cage and murdered Erin’s hamster, Fluffy. Having to clean up a crime scene after such a nice event let very little time to rejoice about the bounty of fermented grain!