GUINNESS CNY Banquet Feast @ Grand Imperial Restaurant

Celebrate a Bold Start to a Prosperous New Year with GUINNESS®

It’s all about black gold with GUINNESS®! Festive cheers are made more luxurious and delicious with GUINNESS®, Malaysia’s favorite stout. Ushering in the Year of the Goat, GUINNESS® is the perfect stout to be paired in the festive Chinese banquet menus that many indulges for this festive season.

Going all out with a delicious gesture, GUINNESS® is teaming up with Grand Imperial Group of restaurants this festive year to create a special GUINNESS® Chinese New Year Banquet Menu available at all 6 Grand Imperial restaurants across Malaysia. Gourmands can now enjoy eight sumptuous courses paired with the rich and flavoursome black gold GUINNESS®. Each course is carefully matched with GUINNESS® to bring out the full flavours from both dish and stout.

Our preview of the evening took placed at the Grand Imperial Restaurant at Bangsar Shopping Centre with distinguished guests, members of the media and bloggers. Our emcee of the evening was Owen Yap and the evening took off with a special Chinese calligraphy presentation by Haze Long. She was really so good because her calligraphy really had a unique and artsy feel.

Hailing the collaboration, Bruce Dallas, Marketing Director of , GUINNESS® Anchor Berhad, said “ GUINNESS® is known the world over for its superb quality, rich taste, and proud traditions. It is a beer Made of More – more flavour, more boldness, and made with passion and dedication by our Master Brewers. As such, I can think of no better beer with which to usher in this auspicious time of the year, when we gather with friends and family to celebrate sau-kong and to look forward to beginning the New Year in the best way possible.

By pairing with the Grand Imperial Group of restaurants, renowned across Malaysia for its sumptuous food, GUINNESS® ensures that you can begin the New Year in a bold and prosperous way while out to celebrate, as well as in the comfort of your own home.”

Dinner commenced with the Yee Sang with Silver Fish, a unique take on the auspicious Yee Sang featuring crispy golden battered silver fish. The Yee Sang here looks normal but the flavours and textures are just so awesome! I have had many Yee Sangs and this one definitely is few on top of my list of Yee Sang.

As we Lou Hei with our usual foodies, it was the merriment of laughter and shouts of joy that made me feel that its great company with good food that makes life feels so blessed!

The combo of loads of fresh cut greens with cucumber, carrot, radish, pickled ginger, fresh sour mangoes, pickled onions, jellyfish, pomelo, chicken floss, peanuts and dressing is utterly tangy and so refreshing in each bite. Many of us raved about this Yee Sang for its flavours. We polished off this dish with much gusto!

The next course had everyone at Hello! Our table was silent, as everyone enjoyed the lavish bowl of Braised Bird’s Nest with Fresh Crab Meat. Going eco-friendly, the restaurant still manages to amp up the opulence of the feast with bird’s nest. Teaming up with fresh chunks of sweet crab meat and speckles of truffles, the soup tasted just as majestic as it sounds. The strong and earthy truffles worked well with the GUINNESS® if you asked me. It seemed to be the link between the stout and the soup. We loved this course dearly…

A traditional Chinese banquet meal cannot be completed without the ever popular and sought after Roasted Whole Suckling Pig! Ours was roasted to perfection, showing off super golden crackling with a luscious note. Our table left nothing on the plate as we literally devoured every single part of the suckling pig with loads of happiness. This course is pure 100% satisfaction and went so well with GUINNESS®.

Classic Steamed Pomfret Traditional Style will always be a favorite this time of the year. The highly prized pomfret is best savored steamed with superior soy sauce as usual.

Our prawn course was another luxurious pot of Fresh Water King Prawns in Casserole. The aroma was heavenly and the prawns looked all gloriously delicious coated in a sticky sweet and lightly spicy sauce. The robust sauce deserves a bowl of steamed rice. The prawns came in different sizes so some were cooked right and some were slightly over cooked. Other than that, there were no complaints as the flavours of the sauce were good and addictive while the prawns had a nice light note of sweetness.

Another highly sought after seafood took form in Braised Slice Abalone with Black Moss & Dried Oyster. This course is always a favorite with the older generation as abalone considered a precious ingredient that only the rich could afford. Slices of abalone together with braised dried oysters, black moss, mushrooms, bean curd sheets and greens are drenched in the classic brown abalone gravy. It’s prepared well but I happen to prefer other dishes compared to this one.

Claypot Rice with Chinese Sausage & Dried Meat Hong Kong Style is another popular dish that never fails to be ordered by many during the lunar festive season. The star of the pot is all the waxed and cured meat and sausages which basically lends the aroma and flavour to the rice with the helping of a flavoured soy sauce. It was certainly a generous helping of two types of Chinese sausages, waxed duck and cured bacon. While the meat and sausages were gorgeous, the rice fell short as it didn’t have enough flavours or crispy crusty bits that I would normally love in this dish.

Dessert ended with two types of Chilled Fresh Mango Puree with Sago & Pomelo and Deep Fried Nian Gao & Deep Fried Sweet Potato Pastries.

The Chilled Fresh Mango Puree with Sago and Pomelo is fresh and bursting of the sweetness of the mangoes. With bits of pomelo sacs and jellied sago, the chilled sweet dessert has always been a crowd pleaser.

Deep Fried Nian Gao & Deep Fried Sweet Potato Pastries completed the evening feast on a really wonderful sweet note. Both are pretty good and satisfied our sweet-tooth cravings well.

GUINNESS® New Year Banquet Menu priced at RM1888 nett, available from January 13^th until March 5^th, and includes two quarts of, GUINNESS® stout, as well as two sets of exclusive , GUINNESS® ang pow.

Additionally, between 5^th January 2015 and 28^th February 2015, consumers throughout Malaysia may be in the running to win one of the 100 pure gold bars, worth up to RM1 million, with any big bottle of GUINNESS®, Tiger, Heineken and Anchor by looking out for the winning bottle cap liners and answering a few questions! Good luck…

GRAND IMPERIAL RESTAURANT

3rd Floor, East Wing,

Bangsar Shopping Centre,

285 Jalan Maarof,

Bukit Bandaraya,

59000 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2283 1118

GPS: 3.142808, 101.667448

Website: www.grandimperial.com.my

Facebook: www.facebook.com/GrandImperialGroup

GAB Chinese New Year Media Gathering @ Grand Imperial, Bangsar Shopping Center

An Extravagance Feast by Guinness Anchor Berhad!

Talk about extravagance! Recently, Guinness Anchor Berhad (GAB) held a Chinese New Year Media Gathering for its guests and media at Grand Imperial Restaurant, Bangsar Shopping Center. And yes… everyone was truly pampered to their max at the Feast of Abundance of Poon Choi and more!

In addition to the indulgence feast, we also had the honor of Jason Yeoh aka Axian, the famous Malaysian food host who emceed the night’s event by providing his insight on our fabulous feast. No stranger to the Malaysian market, Axian plays host in several of his own food tv series where he goes around in search of Malaysia food. He also shares history on Malaysia food culture and traces back to those good old days of street food at its best.

My first time at Grand Imperial, the whole ambience reeked of elegance in the classic Chinese décor of wood and lots of gold and red. The private event kicked off with a casual speech by GAB Marketing Director, Ms. Yap Swee Leng. ‘Guinness is all about more taste, more look and more soul and the traditional Chinese dish Poon Choi shares very similar characteristics. It certainly has more taste and more look than any  other Chinese New Year dish and to give the dish more soul, a dash of gold was added, making it a worthy start for the Guinness Feast of Abundance.’ Said, Ms. Yap when asked why Guinness decided to make Poon Choi, out of all the other fine Chinese cuisine.

Axian took over and provided an insight history of Poon Choi and its meaning together with other dishes served that night.

Our banquet rolled off with Gold Bar Eggroll with Chicken Floss. Thin beancurd sheet is shaped into long cylindrical bars to resemble its namesake of wealth and filled with savory chicken floss with a sprinkling of pepper. The dish uses eggs to symbolized success and fertility while other ingredients like sugar signify sweetness in life and cornstarch for family togetherness. One gets a salty sweet sensation of comfort flavors of the much beloved chicken floss with the crispy thin beancurd sheet. The touch of heat from the pepper powder is a nice touch!

Yee Sang is almost obligatory during this season of festivity, and so we savored Salmon Yee Sang to ring in the festive season with prosperity. Salmon has become a famous choice in Yee Sang due to its availability and color. As we all gathered to ‘Lo Hei’ and shoutouts of our wish list of everything from everyone, the atmosphere was pure joy and filled with much laughter.

Then we got down to serious food business with the unveiling of the Golden Poon Choi masterpiece created specially by Chef Kenneth of Grand Imperial Restaurant. Using only the very best quality of lavish ingredients, the enormous treasure pot was a mind boggling!

A photo session with the GAB team and honorary guests together with Chef Kenneth Chai before we focus our lenses on the gargantuan Poon Choi.

Our star of the feast was gorgeously surrounded by the opulence sea ingredients and Guinness of course. Poon Choi has been gaining popularity stakes these days in many celebrations because of its association with prosperity and abundance. Layers of flavors and precious ingredients are carefully arranged and packed in a huge pot while the piece de resistance was crowned with a gold ‘Dragon Ball’.

In true Guinness style, the Poon Choi had to be ‘made of more’ and as such, luxurious ingredients such as abalone, dried scallop, prawn, sea cucumber, dried oyster, black moss, dried shrimp, goose web, real edible gold and more are present in the treasure pot. Each ingredient has its own significant festive meaning representing bountiful wealth, precious treasures, prosperity, liveliness, happiness, abundance of good things and more.

The specially catered Poon Choi is tailored to Guinness for more taste, more look and more soul. Jam packed with lots of flavor pieces, our top layer was an array of braised abalones, braised goose webs, soft gelatinous sea cucumber, sweet spicy prawns and a lion’s head meatball covered in edible gold. We ate our way down to another layer of braised pork knuckle, braised pork belly with yam, prawn balls, fish maw, roast duck and chicken, braised dried oysters, scallops and a few varieties of mushrooms. The very bottom layer had lots of soft radish that melts-in-the-mouth and sweet long cabbage. The rich gravy was well balanced and tasty echoing the Guinness flavors, robust and smooth and matching up perfectly with the black gold liquid. We ended the treasure pot with a scrumptious pork meatball.

Just like the soulful effort put into brewing Guinness, the Poon Choi also took a few days to prepare starting from the gathering of the precious ingredients and cooking them separately before being layered and allowing the flavors to meld together. It was certainly an abundance of everything!

Our finale of the evening ended with Chilled Mountain Snow See with Lily Bulb, Pan Fried Handmade Nian Gao and Baked Lotus Paste Pastries. Lightly sweet, the dessert broth provided much soothing feelings while the classic take on pan fried egg coated Nian Gao evoked memories of childhood days. The baked lotus pastry was still warm, making the pastry rich and buttery with sweet creamy lotus paste beautifully yummy.

More picture taking session with Axian took place after the meal ended. It was certainly an unforgettable night with the Feast of Abundance from GAB. Utterly pampered and loaded up with lots of prosperity from that feast, I already felt that my coming New Year was something to look forward too. Thank you GAB for an unforgettable feast!

This Chinese New Year, make GUINNESS a part of your celebration and usher in a year filled with an abundance of all good things. To find out about exciting promotions on GUINNESS this festive season, head on over to www.facebook.com/guinnessmalaysia for more information.

**More pictures in my Facebook: ChasingFoodDreams

Celebrate Chinese New Year with GAB’s Three Iconic Brews to Usher in a Year Overflowing with Fu, Lu and Shou!

Let’s raise our glass and cheer Yum Seng with family and friends as GAB (Guinness Anchor Berhad) launches their ‘Celebration of Good Fortune, Prosperity and Longevity’ campaign which promises great promotions, exciting activities and auspicious events for loyal consumers to usher in the Year of the Snake. Spearheaded by Guinness Anchor Berhad’s own iconic trio of brews, Guinness, Tiger and Anchor, this nationwide promotion will reward discerning drinkers with an abundance of fortune, prosperity and longevity throughout the year and beyond.

 

We assembled at GAB Tavern for a few hours of the launch of this Chinese New Year’s promotion to catch a glimpse of the famous Fu Lu Shou figurines made from solid gold and the three stars of GAB, Tiger, Guinness and Anchor. The event was graced by the GAB team, three auspicious lions, GAB ambassadors and entertainment artists.

Guinness Anchor Berhad’s Managing Director, Charles Ireland (查尔斯爱尔兰 – fourth from left), Marketing Director, Yap Swee Leng (叶瑞玲 - third from left) and Sales Director, Thum Chee Yuen (谭智远 – fifth from left) along with other members of the Guinness Anchor Berhad Management Team strike a pose with the three Fu Lu Shou deities during the campaign launch.

 

Speaking during the launch of this auspicious campaign, Yap Swee Leng, Marketing Director of GAB shares, “The Lunar New Year has witnessed the time-honoured tradition of reunion and gathering within the local Chinese community. Not surprisingly, this is also the period when GAB’s three stars of Tiger, Guinness and Anchor shine brightest to bring good times and great memories for discerning drinkers as they usher in the Year of the Snake with family and friends alike.”

Swee Leng continues, “The Year of the Dragon has been a really great year for us, being the 11^th consecutive year of growth for Guinness Anchor Berhad. We are truly appreciative to our loyal consumers and would like to engage with you through innovative promotions such as this one. Whether it’s the presence of the Fu Lu Shou deities in our campaign or the fundraising dinners to benefit the Chinese grassroots community in Malaysia, we at Guinness Anchor Berhad are pleased and proud to be able to reward consumers in a way that resonates with them on a personal level.”

For generations, the Fu Lu Shou has been central to the Chinese community, bestowing good fortune, wealth and health whenever they are sighted together. With its loyal drinkers in mind, GAB has put together a Chinese New Year offering that will reward them with the three Chinese star deities of Fu (福), Lu (禄) and Shou (寿) whenever they pick GAB’s own three stars; Guinness, Tiger and Anchor.

 

This festive season, enjoy big bottles of GAB’s three iconic brews, Guinness, Tiger or Anchor to stand a chance to win one of nine solid gold Fu Lu Shou sets worth RM 10,000 each or 999 gold-plated Fu Lu Shou sets worth RM 1,000 each. You can also redeem 18 bottle liners for a Fu Lu Shou set to ensure good favour, wealth and health in the New Year ahead.

 

Throughout the festive season, consumers can check the bottle cap liners of any big bottle of Guinness, Tiger and Anchor to see if they have won one of 9 solid gold Fu Lu Shou sets worth RM 10,000 each, 999 gold-plated Fu Lu Shou sets worth RM 1,000 each or to redeem 18 bottle liners for a Fu Lu Shou set to usher in good favour, wealth and health throughout the year ahead.

In addition to an auspicious nationwide consumer promotion, this Lunar New Year will see GAB host a series of seven charity dinners to raise funds for worthy causes featuring appearances from talented local Chinese artistes.

This year, GAB will also be organizing a series of charity dinners to raise funds for worthy causes such as for the refurbishment of the Chan She Shu Yuen Clan Association (陈氏书院) Hall as well as six other Chinese communities and villages across the country. These fundraising events will feature a Chinese dinner with Yee Sang and GAB’s iconic beers, great live entertainment and an all-round memorable time for all attendees, as well as a charity bazaar that also contributes funds towards the worthy cause of the dinners.

Hanging out at The Tavern for a couple pints!

Let’s Join in the Fun… who knows… you may win yourself the auspicious solid gold set of Fu Lu Shou!!

This Chinese New Year, be sure to think of GAB’s three iconic stars and you will receive an overflow of Good Fortune, Prosperity and Longevity. For more information on this campaign, please visit www.gab.com.my today.