Posted on Thu, 8 Dec 2011
Give The Girl A Guinness!
Last week for the very first time, I swigged a half pint of Guinness and found it to be rather surprisingly – a most enjoyable drink. Yes go ahead laugh … I tried the penultimate “Ah Pek” beverage but then again the *Ah Peks and the coffee shop connoisseurs are the ones responsible for making Guinness, particularly successful in South East Asia.
The Guinness of the 21st century though is not satisfied to be an old man’s drink of choice .. and they have in motion, big plans to expand their reach in North Asia particularly Hong Kong and China where they have upped the cool factor considerably for this drink to hopefully even attract a female fan base which they have incidentally succeeded doing in Korea when they positioned it as the “Beer Of Perfection” and had a very dishy and hot Korean actor Jung Woo Sung drinking it. Apparently, his Korean female fan base also started trying the elixir to perfection.
Here in Hong Kong, I attended a Guinness food pairing at Delaney’s an Irish pub in Wanchai which I must say serves the BEST Guiness Beef Pie which I now have the recipe for (so please email me at elaine@simplyfabulicious.com if you want it) and serves what has to be THE MOST DELICIOUS Apple Pie with Custard sauce that I have ever tasted. And I also learnt that it takes more than skill to pour a Guinness.
So how does one pour a Guinness?
Adam Brewer, Brand Ambassador for Guinness shares that if you are serving a Guinness Draught then you want to pour it out using a ‘two part’ pour and the right glass, spanking clean with no watermarks is an extremely important factor in making sure that you serve the perfect drink. Ideally use a Guinness glass (the kind with the gold harp logo) which is clean and dry and you pour the draught in when it is tilted at 45 degrees, until the liquid reaches the gold harp logo which should be at the bottom of the glass. Stand it upright on the bar, allow the surge to settle before filling the glass completely to the top.
Now that the drink’s been poured, what do you pair it with?
Apparently its not your usual chicken wing drink. Think classy and think Oysters! It tasted really good as an accompaniment to oysters and the dry roasted, slightly bittersweet taste of Guinness goes great in bringing the flavour of fresh oysters. Some cool posters below that the Guinness folks provided us with.
We also had a lovely Guinness Beef Pie, hearty and too good to leave behind so I literally ate it all!
And because there is a somewhat hidden tinge of caramel sweetness in the drink, a Guinness Draught actually goes great with rich, dark desserts, like Chocolate Mousse. In our case we had Apple Pie which I shamelessly polished off.
Nevermind that there is a 4.2% alcohol content to this drink. I say the next time I am out for a drink – GIVE ME A GUINNESS! It is my new drink of choice for 2012.
* Ah Peks – a Singaporean Chinese slang term for old men!
