Kirin Is Officially In Malaysia!
Two weeks ago I was invited to attend the launch of Kirin beer in Malaysia. Which is distributed by TWE (Tong Woh Enterprise). Kirin is a familiar brands by locals here, as I still have a 2 litter metal growler I bought many years ago at Langkawi. Malaysia actually like Japanese brand beer like Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Suntory.
Before the event start, Masakazu Ashida give a simple brief on product and the different between Kirin beer and their competitors. Unlike other beers, only the first press of the wort is used in Kirin. That is Kirin beer signature.
Compare to most beer event, Kirin did something more unique, which is my favourite as well – Food Beer Pairing. TWE work together with Daikanyama to create dishes that will paired nicely with the beer and enhance the food experience.
Plate #1 Soi Sashimi & Century Egg Chawan Mushi
The tuna sashimi is awesome, subtle and nice texture. The subtle taste with simple garnish goes pretty well. Although I would love it more in sushi style. As for the century egg was lovely. Goes nicely with beer as it didn’t over power the taste. Of course, later we are served with sushi, so no rice in this dished are justified.
The food presentation looks so good that everyone pause a while before we stick our chopstick in… haha
Plate #2 Grago Agedashi
The Tofu is refreshing like the beer and the soy sauce bring up the sweetness of the tofu. The beer give the subtle malt character that don’t crash in flavour.
Plate #3 Salmon Truffle Oil Tataki & Sake Bomb Maki
The Maki is my favourite in this pairing. As the sushi rice and crunchy deep fried soft shelf crab really bring out both flavour and texture with the enhancement of the beer. I find Japanese beer goes quite nice with rice and rice noodle.
Plate #4 The Spanish Sushi Platter
This is far most interesting flavour and very fusion style which I like a lot. Grilled Capsicum and anchovy is something very appetising but can’t really paired that well with the beer. In fact the prawn goes the best in this 3 fusion sushi.
End with a dessert of ice cream. Not really paired well as it bring out nasty bitter flavour to the beer. But who can deny a dessert after such a nice food showcase. Overall, Daikanyama did a very good job on pairing the food with Kirin beer. They capture the subtle and refreshing flavour of Kirin to paired nicely with the food.
Each of us have a media gift of Kirin Chocolate. The chocolate cover most of the beer liquid in flavour. But is always nice to have chocolate that have alcohol in it. This media preview dinner of Kirin really set a good example that many bars can do is create food that goes well with the food. Good job to both TWE and Daikanyama that create such a nice dinner preview of the beer and food. Cheers!
