As early as Monday, Arpee informed about an event that was brewing on Thursday. It was a beer event, a beer appreciation event at Red Box. The guy’s been inviting me to all of these blogger events, but I never had a chance to go because either I have a dolly meeting or I have more important personal matters to attend to. But this time, I’m not letting such an opportunity pass by. A chance to drink different beers around the world saves you some cash from traveling around the world just to taste them. Besides, if this gives a glimpse of what the Institute of Brewing and Distilling has to offer, then I’m up for it. And I’m so happy that I didn’t miss this event.
I’m not entirely an avid beer drinker. I have mentioned to Arpee that I’ve got a weak spot for beer. I can go all night drinking Spirits and Wine, but beer is something else. With 3 bottles, I’m probably incoherent. Thankfully I wasn’t driving that night, so I barely had any problems. However still, the idea of having to drink myself silly that night just to taste different beers scared me. Thankfully, all we got were samplers.
A renowned British chef (whose name escapes me) guided us through the tasting. The event was rather packed and the tasting seemed to be placed to speed so the waiters pretty much poured us dribbles ever 2 minutes or so. I’m familiar with the basics of wine and coffee tasting. However, I wasn’t so sure if this was applicable to beer as well. Since the guy didn’t mention of any technique (he only said take time to taste it) I pretty much let the beer swirl around my mouth for a bit and then swallow. It wasn’t much of help since I realized later that tasting beer was similar to how you taste wine. It involves some swirling of the glass, a sniffing of the beer, the slurp, the gurgle, and the swallow (or the spit if you don’t wish to get drunk.) I think it would have been more interesting if there was time to really go through the tasting process and to distinguish the flavors. The only thing I learned from the lot was “The essence of the beer is its water. Drink it chilled and without ice because only then will you taste the water.” A very helpful tip, perhaps one that could be useful to our family drink outs.
Anyway, they served our group around 6 beers, all of which had very distinct flavors which I didn’t realize beer ever had. Here’s the rundown.
- Heineken – A very good straightforward German beer that had a nice crisp texture and light tartness. It was very smooth to drink. I will consider this the pre-WWI beer. Very nice and clean impression of German beers.
- Beck’s – Another German beer that had a far more complex flavor than Heineken. So this would be my post WWI beer. It’s bitter without being difficult to drink. To me, it even had a slight sweetness for a beer. I find this beer very manly. If beers can be manly.
- Stella Artois – A Belgian beer described as Belgium’s table beer. It was clean to the taste but it still had that small tartness of beer. I don’t know if that tartness is actually related to the malt and the beer. I think I understand why this beer is a table beer. Because of it’s mild flavor, you can eat it with anything.
- Kirin Ichiban – A Japanese beer which I believe is the reason why we see a lot of Japanese salarymen out drink with neckties over their head. The beer is too clean that it tastes like water. I think it would take a couple of bottles before you can even taste that malt. Maybe because Japan’s water is too clean. However, after the first three beers, I think I understand why Japanese men prefer drinking San Miguel. I wonder if Asahi or Yebichu are the same.
- Hoegarden – A beer with a hint of coriander. NOT! It tasted like fizzy coriander juice! I can be harsh about this but it tasted awful. The coriander was too strong and I don’t think I’d even drink another sip of this (in fact, I threw the rest of the drink). According to the chef, this was such a beer that is enjoyed by women. I’m a girl but… well… another female attendee liked it. Maybe I really have a more manly taste on things. At most interesting, but never again.
- La Fin Du Monde – A very expensive beer no longer produced in the world. Apparently, it’s award winning too. What is interesting about this beer is its triple fermentation. It’s also considered vintage which is something I’ve never heard of in beer. The beer tasted like a heavier version of champagne, without the sweetness or the acidity of grapes. If champagne was stored for a century, it could have tasted like this.
They offered some food pairings. Had a chance to taste only baked tahong (mussels). It was yummy, but wasn’t able to match it with beer. I wish I had a shot to really take more time to study the pairings and see what matches with the beer but time flies by when you’re buzzed. I wasn’t honestly buzzed though since we only had sips. We had a chance to drink the beer afterwards but I didn’t bother because I had eaten so much of the buffet. The night ended with a sweet swag of bringing home your favorite beers. To the organizers and Red Box, it was a pleasant experience.
Apparently, Red Box is bringing in these beers for their karaoke-goers to taste. I don’t think I need beer to sing karaoke, but it’s nice to know that you have an option to drink these beers in their club. They’ll also be introducing some beer of the month bit which is sweet.
I ate Jamaican Patties at home. There’s not a day that passed by with me regretting what I did not attend to because of some work I’m doing which I have not been paid for yet. ><;; Oh well, that afternoon was spent with a really lovely Cheesy Beefy Jamaican patty. :3 I guess I’m partially okay. I think.
I always wondered what’s inside these things. Seriously, it’s sludge. But it’s the tastiest sludge I’ve ever tasted. I can’t distinguish the beef from the chicken. All I know is Pinatubo is nice and spicy and Express is spicy enough for my mom to enjoy. For a moment I thought of recreating this Jamaican Patty at home but then I thought, there are some things that are best left unexplored. Jamaican Patties are all about the mystery filling, don’t you think?
A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine were talking about food and flavors. I was telling her how I find Asian food amazing, especially simple Japanese and Chinese dishes because they bring out this indescribable flavor, one that tastes so great but I just can’t figure our what it constitutes of. A kind of taste that, as the Iron Chef commentators put it, makes that ingredient honorable. My friend then tells me of this 5th flavor called Umami. I really didn’t get what it was, but a recent trip with my Japanese friend and her family really showed me what Umami was all about. The place. Kikufuji. The honorable dish. Sushi.
Gata, or coconut cream has been a food staple in my family for years. For one, having a lineage rooted in Quezon, I was exposed to cuisine with tons of gata. From Laing to tinuto, I got the hang of having this creamy soup. Now, there are different ways to cook gata. Quezon definitely has a difference with their neighbor Bicol. Bicol is what everyone knows as the center of spice and gata. I have eaten countless laing and bicol express from different restaurants but none can compete with the flavors I have been accustomed too. Until Market Manila posted about the joy of eating Tita Cely’s food.
Tita Cely is a stall in Market!Market! and she prides herself in serving great Bicolano food. I knew I just had to try it! I managed to eat their Bicol Express, Laing, and Ginatang Kohol. All were lovely dishes although slightly different from what I was used to. Her Bicol Express would be similar to the a ginataang sili (trans. chili) on our end, sans the spice. She used the spicy green sili used for our sinigang rather than the non-spicy one which I don’t even know where my aunts and uncles get. Her laing was good but sweet for my taste. But her laing is as good as our local tinuto wherein taro leaves looks like mush (but tastes oh so good!). It was just sweet for my palate but it does taste great.
The winning dish for me was the Ginatang Kohol. This is a lovely dish of snails stewed in coconut cream and… bagoong. >w< Yes! It’s hard to believe that a concoction of coconut cream and bagoong would actually work! My uncle has tried this before but with great failure! Not Tita Cely. Her Ginatang Kohol rocks my socks off that I’m a firm believer that bagoong and coconut cream could work. :3
The thing with Tita Cely is she totally shows her mastery of gata. She knows how to cook the coconut cream and it shows in her cuisine. Although, in the end, some of her flavors were not to my taste, but I’d have to say that she does cook them a lot better than other Filipino fare restaurants and stalls.
This is almost like the real thing but not anything close to it yet. It is definitely a step further from your regular Samurai Balls, but not anything close to the real takoyaki. Found beside the Market!Market! Metro Gaisano’s grocery, Kuya Chito’s Takoyaki attempts to sell a Filipinized version of Takoyaki. It was a brave attempt, but not quite like it.
Wry!? Where did Kuya Chito’s path to Takoyaki fail? It was the empty airy inside and the rubbery almost gummy consistency outside. The gummy texture may have been due to the fact that the Takoyaki was overcooked. It was deep brown when we bought it, which was definitely strange for takoyaki (unless it’s brown due to the Tonkatsu sauce glaze). The inside was airy that it was like biting through a deflated baloon. I think they forget to pour some more of the batter after placing the vegetables. Or maybe there’s too much vegetables in it that there’s no more space for the flour. I am assuming that this Takoyaki stall is still at its earliest stages. One wherein they don’t know if they are cooking it right or not and they’re still studying which combination is done right. Meh. Major meh.
Fine, I do have a fault of eating it a little cold. But that’s no excuse. I’ve asked my mom to bring home some of Ngee Ann City’s Takopotchi. 3 hours after it was bought, the outside may not have been crispy anymore, but it wasn’t gummy and it still had a creamy inside. I’ve also brought home that elusive Takoyaki from that discreet Takoyaki stall in that shady grocery at the end of EDSA extension and it was far from gummy. So with those flavors as basis, I know this Takoyaki isn’t doing something right.
It’s quite unfortunate that I wasn’t there to buy it myself. I’ve seen the stall before but never bought one because I was in a rush. My mom just brought these home last night in hopes that I no longer need to keep on requesting her to get me those damn tasty Takoyakis from Ngee Ann City. But to our disappointment, these takoyakis were a failure.
I must say though that despite the texture, the takoyaki was still flavorful. From what you can taste on the inside, it still had that nice gooey almost cheesy flavor. They also topped it with some mayo (not a lot though, I had to add kewpie) and instead of katsuoboshi, they used something like pork floss.
Word of caution though, if you buy it in the stall and eat it right away, they will pour this hideous Chilli Sweet and Sour like sauce. ><;; Not good. Just stick with the mayo and the pork floss and you’ll be fine.
