After having rojak opposite Taman Bahagia LRT station at 5pm (I really should blog about that stall) on Saturday, I kinda forgot about dinner till it was past way past 9 pm. Logged onto MSN and saw Haze online, so I asked what she was up to. Her reply “emoing cos no one eating dinner with me“.

So I asked her to join me for late dinner, and by the time we got started it was already way past 10pm.

While most restaurants have closed and started cleaning up already, the night is still young at Berlin Biergarten. That was the first reason I chose to go there, secondly, they sells non-halal bratwurst, and thirdly, the Guinness promotion is on-going.

Having the promotion is definitely one of the biggest reasons I chose Berlin Biergarten instead of other outlets. I’ve done quite a few Guinness food reviews and they’ve always been good experiences.

Berlin Biergarten German Bar & Restaurant

Berlin Biergarten is located on the first floor at Solaris, just a stone’s throw away from the now pretty famous Tenji Japanese buffet. While the name translate to beer garden, it actually does offer a pretty comprehensive food menu too.

While there are some tables inside the smallish outfit, almost everyone chooses to dine al fresco style here, and like most outlets of this type, there’s a projector screen showing live sports too. A pretty chilling environment.

free pork balls with Guinness, Farmer’s Bratwurst

The Guinness promotion at Berlin Beirgarten is pretty simple:

• 4 perfect pint (330ml) of Guinness for RM 60
• get a free finger food/appetizer from the menu

I chose the pork ball (worth RM 19.90 if I remember correctly). They were pretty firm and rather flavorful, the sweetish sauce and the pork went really well with the slight after taste of bitterness of Guinness that I love so much. It was the yums!

Berlin rosemary lamb

Upon recommendation from the server, I chose the Farmer’s Bratwurst (RM 28). The two German sausage doesn’t look big here, but they were actually quite a decent portion. It was a good thing I didn’t ended up ordering the Berlin Sausage Selection (RM 59) that comes with 7-8 bratwursts.

The pan fried sausages were very very good, with the accompanying gravy and dill potato salad being very good side kicks. However, I have to say that german bread dumpling (looks almost exactly like wedges) did taste a bit weird to me though.

Haze the awesome artist, and KY with some Guinness

The other dish we ordered was the Beriln Rosemary Lamb (RM 48). Stripes of lamb with plenty of mint sauce resting on mash, steamed vegetable, and surrounded by chili paste and bits of bell pepper. The presentation definitely scores an A. Thankfully, the taste department is in sync with how well the dish looked.

Other than the carrot being a bit raw, the lamb was soft and flavorful, with plenty of mint sauce to give it that aroma and if you so prefer, the spicy chili sauce to add some kick too.

There are interesting dishes in the menu like Scotch Egg (with pork!), carrot in beer, and sundried tomato with mussels that look pretty promising. I shall return to this place for a second round.

The Guinness promotion of St Patrick’s Finger Food Festival runs from now until 31st of March, 2010 with more than 100 outlets nationwide, don’t miss out! Other outlets that are participating in this promotion includes, but not limited to:

• Jarrod & Rawlins
• Meson
• Cafe Chulo
• Muse
• Delaney’s
• Ronnie Q
• The Magnificent Fish & Chips

Besides Finger Food Festival, there’s also the St. Patrick’s Hat promotion. A 13oz pint is a stamp, and 20oz pint 2 stamps, collect 12, send the redemption card in, and get a free St. Patrick’s Hat.

If you can’t wait, the Instant Reward gives you a Guinness St. Patrick’s luggage lock with every 3 pints of Guinness Draught or a bucket of Guinness Foreign Extra Stout. There are three designs in all!

There’s also the St. Patrick’s Day celebration at 1 Utama on the 19th of March from 6pm onwards! Check out guinness.com.my/stpatricks for more.

Address:
Berlin Biergarten
Lot J-01-04
Solaris Mont Kiara
50480 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.174689, 101.659595
Tel: 03-6203 0958

Tags:  bratwurst,  guinness,  haze,  lamb,  sausage,  solaris

Posted by KY | 26 Comments »

Spanish cuisine isn’t exactly very wide spread in this county. As far as I’m aware, there are only a handful of restaurants that go the whole deal instead of only having some tapas on the menu.

As the new kid on the block (just barely a month old when I visited), El Meson is true to its Spanish origin, from tapas to iberico pork. I was overjoyed when I saw El Meson on the list of restaurants that are running the Merry Guinness promotion, and chose to come here without thinking twice.

El Meson at Bangsar Telawi 3

Situated at Telawi 3 just right across Bangsar Village 2, El Meson is a pretty nicely decorated restaurant. There’s the bar with a proper Guinness tab and seating areas around it. Dining tables sprawled around the 2-shop lot restaurant with at least half a dozen tables set along the walkway ala alfresco.

It is a pretty chic yet comfortable set up along the busy street.

cold cuts as appetizer, Guinness the main meal, chocolate cake the dessert

To start off dinner, we ordered the cold cuts as appetizer. The menu stated – iberico, serrano, parma, salami, salchichon with melon & olive (RM68); which basically means a few different types of very delicious pork with some olives and rock melon. They were really, really delicious. It was no less than what I had at Bermuda and Onions over a year ago.

And of course, the pint of Guinness went very well with the meat, saltiness of the cured pork versus sweetness of the melon versus the slight bitterness of the black beer = perfection.

Chilean sea bass, Capellini aglio olio with prawns and scallops

For our mains, Karen and I ordered the Chilean sea bass spaghetti (RM 46, one of the two dishes that comes free with a perfect pint of Guinness during the promotion) while Elfie chose to have Capellini Aglio Olio with prawns and scallops (RM 39.)

Both dishes were quite excellent, the sea bass fresh and not over cooked, with the pasta and its sauce tasting just right too. Elfie too gave her thumbs up for the aglio olio, now if you know Elfie you’d know that this girl can be very critical, if it’s not good, she’ll just tell it to your face that it is horrible and then proceed to blog about how bad it is on her blog.. or something like that.

KY, Karen, and Elfie with some Guinness

We capped off the night with a couple more glasses of Guinness and a slice of chocolate cake to share. While the food was great, service at the restaurant proved to be slightly slow at first, probably due to the fact that they were just opened.

However, the manager Miguel (a guy with Spanish origin, no less!) was very friendly and did take care of us exceedingly well. I am sure this place warrants many returns.

This occasion also served as a testament that good food and drinks can bring people together, Elfie is the first fellow Kadazan girl that Karen met despite having stayed in this region for 4-5  years already. Here’s one to Guinness!

For more information on Guinness 250 anniversary promotion and the list of participating outlets, check out Guinness Malaysia facebook page. You can also find all my previous posts with Guinness (including last year’s promotion) here.

Address:
El Meson espanol
No. 61-63, Jalan Telawi 3,
Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.130435,101.670978
Tel: 03-2282 8290

Tags:  Bangsar,  elfie,  guinness,  karen,  parma ham,  pork,  spanish cuisine

Posted by KY | 28 Comments »

Jarrod and Rawlins is one of the first non-halal “western food” joints that I was introduced to. Their pork burger and dynamite chili sausage sausage are two of my favorite dishes. After a long hiatus, I went to their Damansara Heights branch (they have four locations now) with Elfie to get some dinner and Guinness lovin’.

In case you haven’t found out yet, it is also because Guinness is running their Merry Guinness promotion this time around, more on that later.

Guinness beef stew meat with mash potato

I really like the set up of their branch at Damansara Heights over other locations. The restaurant takes the space of an old bungalow, with tables sprawling within the former living hall, balcony, and back yard. As such, it offers several different ambiance according to taste, I typically favors the backyard especially when the temperature is favorable.

open seafood sandwich with bacon, Guinness stew with mash potato

Jarrod and Rawlins is one of the restaurants that offer several Guinness infused dishes in their menu on a permanent basis. For dinner, I ordered the intriguing Guinness beef stew with mash potato while the lady asked for open seafood sandwich with bacon, and tomato soup.

We also ordered a couple sausages – dynamite chili and something else that is non-spicy, as Elfie is a noob who can’t take anything spicy.

Of course, I got me a pint of Guinness to go with dinner.

tomato soup and J&R’s sausages

The Guinness beef stew was better than I had expected, the slight bitterness from the black beer compliments adds character to the beef and goes really well with the mash potato. This was even better than the Guinness infused beef ribs I had at SevenAteNine during last year’s promotion.

The soup and open seafood sandwich received no complaints at all from Elfie (who is often critical), and the sausages were very tasty as usual. We left happy and very well fed, with my stomach full of a whole pint of Guinness goodness too.

KY, Guinness, and Elfie

Dinner came to around RM 160 with the four dishes and a couple drinks. Jarrod & Rawlins is one of the participating outlets that offer a free pint of Guinness Draught free of charge when you order from the Guinness Infused Menu. For more information and other outlets, check out Guinness Malaysia facebook page.

All my previous posts with Guinness (including last year’s promotion) can be found here.

Address:
Jarrod & Rawlins
No. 6, Lorong Dungun,
Damansara Heights,
50480 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.153693, 101.665077
Tel: 03-2093 0708

Tags:  elfie,  guinness,  lunch money,  pork,  sausage

Posted by KY | 27 Comments »

Several months ago cheesie asked me, “how would Fergie order a plate of char kueh teow?”

Utilizing all the quiz solving prowess I have, I couldn’t figure that out the answer to that one.

She told me Fergie would order them without cockles, humming the tune of “My Humps”, which sounds exactly like “no cockles” in Hokkien. OKAYYYY

Little did I know then that Black Eye Pea was actually coming to Malaysia, so this whole Fergie ordering char kueh teow business has a potential of being true. The world is awesome in very interesting ways.

Estelle & Kasabian at other venue around the world, we have BEP in Malaysia!

Along with other top Asian and Malaysian acts including MC HotDog from Taiwan, Reshmonu, Danny One, and Man Hand, Black Eye Pea will be performing in the biggest party of the year.

The party that is Guinness@250 -  Arthurs Day Celebration

It all started 250 years ago when Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease at St. James’s Gate brewery in Dublin and started brewing the most famous black beer in the world. This global celebration is to mark the remarkable man’s archivement and to mark the monumental milestone.

Did you know that 1759 was also the year when George Washigton got married? A strange coincident.

With the awesome lineup and the fact that Guinness does know how to throw a great party, I am sure the celebration will be a great event. For the press invitation that I was lucky enough to get invited to, Guinness booked the entire Aquaria and had eleborate set up with decorations all over the place, served up good food, great Guinness, and even had divers and Guinness bottles in the tanks.

I can only imagine what they come up with during the main event this 25th September at Sunway Lagoon. It will be glorious!

Tickets will be sold at RM 100 a piece, certainly a very good value for the international line up, but since you’re reading, I am going to play Santa and give away 5 pairs of tickets, absolutely free!

All you have to do is leave a comment answering this question:

“How would your celebrate your 250th birthday?”

The most creative 5 answers will get the a pair of tickets each. So lets see what you got. The biggest party awaits!

Tags:  guinness,  lunch money

Posted by KY | 70 Comments »

Remember at the post on Guinness Gastronomy Workshop with Chef in Black Emmanual Stroobant, I suggested that Western food places should look into adopting some Guinness inspired dishes? Well, about a month back I had some Guinness dishes, but instead of Western, it was something of an opposite: Japanese food at SOMO Mont Kiara.

SOMO mont kiara, dinner for two

I went to SOMO with the infamous Cindy, who happened to stay around the area.

The restaurant is basically fully alfresco with a smallish set up, a dozen or so tables under a retractable canvas. The ambiance is pretty comfortable and actually a bit unique as far as Japanese outlets go: outdoor, a bar, LCD tv player sports, and music.

two Guinness inspired dishes

The Guinness inspired dishes were not actually on the menu, so I spoke with the friendly manager and requested for them. The grilled beef set and seafood set was suggested, and I also ordered sashimi for two, shisamo (grilled pregnant fish), and a pint of Guinness as good measures.

SOMO was not among the restaurants that ran the Guinness-infused Christmas main course promotion like these below. However, like many restaurants, you can sometimes get the chef to cook up something different, if only you ask nicely.

• The Magnificent Fish and Chips at Changkat Bukit Bintang, KL
• SevenAteNine at Ascott, KL
• Gypsy Wine & Bar at Changkat Bukit Bintang, KL
• Ronnie Q at Bangsar
• Cafe Chulo at Jaya One, PJ

the girl, the sashimi, the seafood, and the soup & chawanmushi

The chef did probably take slightly longer than usual to prepare the dishes. While it was tough to find the hint of Guinness from the grilled seafood Cindy ordered, the beef I had was excellent. The slight bitterness contributed by the black beer was clearly present in the meat and actually adds character to the otherwise sweetish dish. It was really good, I think SOMO should consider making this dish a permanent fixture on their menu.

Cindy, Shisamo, and yours truly

The sashimi for two consists of squid, sweet shrimps, octopus, tuna, salmon, and a generous portion of salmon roe. They were fresh, served on ice, and made for very good appetizer. The grilled shisamo too was done properly even as first time eater of the fish, the girl said it was good. And of course, the Guinness drought was excellent.

SOMO is a stone’s throw away from Plaza Mont Kiara

The sets also come with miso soup and chawanmushi, they are priced at RM 35 and RM 45,  sashimi was RM 60. Together with drinks and shisamo, the dinner came to just a little over RM 200. It was very satisfying though, good food, great atmosphere, and of course, a very good company.

Address:
Lot 2B, The Shoplex@Mont Kiara, Jln Kiara
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
GPS: 3.166571, 101.652696
Tel: 019-312 6528

Tags:  cindy,  guinness,  Japanese-Food,  mont-kiara,  sashimi,  shisamo

Posted by KY | 27 Comments »