Merry Guinness with chef Adam Liaw (MasterChef Australia)

This post is a little bit late, considering Christmas is actually sorta.. well, over, but better late than never, right?

A couple weeks ago I was invited to probably the biggest Merry Guinness event at Double Tree by Hilton in KL, featuring the winner of MasterChef Australia season 2 – Adam Liaw. Guinness & good food? I can’t resist, even though it meant that I had to braved the KL traffic on a weekday to get to this place.

Merry Guinness with chef Adam Liaw, Kelly Siew at lower right

A kitchen was set up in the main banquet hall, with chef Adam Liaw demonstrating how many of the Guinness infused dishes served for the night is created. While we waited for the dishes to get ready, unlimited rounds of Guinness were being served.

Good life yah?

oysters, chicken and egg terrine, squid, lamb shank pie, gravad lax

As for the food, we were actually served over a dozen different dishes over the course of the night, and yes, I was stuffed at the end of the night. Here’s the menu in two parts:

Chef Adam’s Inspired Menu

• Farmhouse chicken and egg terrine with Guinness mustard
• Oyster with Guinness cream
• Crispy squid with chili Guinness salt
• Open Guinness lamb shank and mushroom pie with champ with watercress salad
• Guinness butter roasted chicken
• Guinness BBQ wings apple slaw
• Guinness and fruit Christmas pudding
• Sweet Guinness damper with blackberry maple compote

Guinness butter roasted chicken, Christmas vegetable

The second part of the menu, Christmas Feast:

• Gravad lax with dill honey mustard
• Roast pumpkin soup with julienne smoked duck
• Roast turkey roulade with chestnut stuffing, giblet and cranberry sauce
• Christmas vegetables
• Christmas pudding with vanilla sauce
• Christmas minced pies
• Black forest pudding with cream cheese frosting

roast pumpkin soup with julienne smoked duck,
Christmas pudding, BBQ wings

Many of the dishes were excellent, I particularly think that the sauce for gravad lax and oysters were executed to perfection. Chicken and egg terrine were interesting but tasted slightly foreign to me, and the wings & buttered chicken would perhaps be that much better if served warm (the room was too cold I guess, and they didn’t really serve it with heated plates).

The squid too was perfect as finger food to go with Guinness, but ultimately there were really just way too much food for my stomach that I actually skipped desserts.

desserts & drinks, Nigel, Michael, Wilson, and yours truly mucking around

This was another rather awesome event by Guinness, and it is a shame that we can’t order some of these creations by chef Adam Liaw anywhere in the country. Perhaps some pub owners will take note and incorporate some of the ideas into their menu (oysters & the gravad lax please!)

And by the way, hope you had a great xmas and Happy New Year!