Thursday, 21 March 2013

Malaysia Earth Hour 2013: Starbucks FREE Grande-Sized Beverage


Earth Hour 2013, March 23, 2013 830pm-930pm :D

As you’re reading this there’s only less than 48 hours to the 9 years in the making Earth Hour event. For those of you who doesn’t familiar with it Earth Hour is the single, largest, symbolic mass participation event in the world. Born out of a hope that we could mobilise people to take action on climate change, Earth Hour now inspires a global community of millions of people in 7,001 cities and towns across 152 countries and territories to switch lights off for an hour from 8:30pm-9:30pm on a selected day as a massive show of concern for the environment.
^__^
This year in Malaysia Earth Hour is held on March 23, 2013 at 8:30pm-9:30pm, so let us spread the news of this interconnected global community to mobilise people around us through each of our actions for change and build momentum and motivation for the next person, for a sustainable & better future.



As for Starbucks lovers now you have one more good reason to switch lights off on March 23, 2013 at 8:30pm-9:30pm as Starbucks Malaysia is giving away Free Starbucks drink this Earth Hour 2013. Simply bring your Starbucks Tumbler and drop by to any Starbucks Store in Malaysia on 23th march 2013 from 8.30pm to 9.30pm & get yourself a complimentary Grande (16oz) Hojicha Beverage.

So spread the words people & lets do this together! ^^ 


60+ EARTH HOUR: UNITING PEOPLE TO PROTECT THE PLANET   b^__^d

Wednesday, 20 March 2013

A TASTE OF GUINNESS® IN THE KITCHEN THIS ST. PATRICK’S!



Have you ever had that kind of feeling where you attended an AWESOME party which, even few days afterwards you'll still goes LOL remembering all those great times you had & cool people you've met? Well that is exactly the kinda feeling I had after the Arthur Guinness St. Patrick's Pub Crawl 2013~  held last Friday! So here's a little something I got from G2 Public Relations which is pretty useful for all those lucky winners of GUINNESS® Black Brew—— A special Guinness Inspired Recipes via GUINNESS’ in-house chef, Justin O’Connor ^_^


——Press Release——

March 19, 2013 - St Patrick’s Day has always been about the time to get out and about with your mates, celebrating with a pint of GUINNESS. And with its month long celebration this year, why not create a food feast, too? With the right recipes, you’ll be able to gather your friends and family around the table and as you serve up a fantastic spread, you’ll wow them with your culinary skills using the ‘black stuff’.

GUINNESS’ in-house chef, Justin O’Connor, has shared 14 easy-to-make recipes, each of which makes use of the complex flavour of the stout in a unique way. In addition to lunch and dinner dishes, Justin has also produced delicious recipes for sweet cakes, brownies and candies, proving just how versatile cooking with GUINNESS can be.

Some of Justin’s recipes are brand new, while others have been sourced from the GUINNESS archive detailing how GUINNESS has been used as an ingredient in cooking over 250 years.  Some of the mouth-watering recipes include, Lamb Kebabs with Guinness Marinade, Guinness Chocolate Brownies, Irish Lamb Stew and Guinness Chocolate Mousse.

Justin, executive chef, GUINNESS Storehouse, comments:
 ‘GUINNESS is ideal for cooking because it contains several discrete flavours that bring other ingredients to life. I use its sweetness in cakes, brownies and ice cream, its salt flavour to compliment meat in stews and its citrus note gives a zing to food like pork chops’
Added to this, the unique colour and texture of the stout is put to good use in the rack of lamb recipe, providing it with a glossy finish similar to wine’

Finally, if you are looking for a special aperitif to serve as part of your GUINNESS themed night in, why not mix up a Black Velvet Royale. A unique twist on the classic Black Velvet cocktail, the Black Velvet Royale consists of GUINNESS, Champagne and a splash of Cassis and is the perfect accompaniment to help revellers celebrate in style this St Patrick’s Day.

For those of you who want to try some of these mouth watering dishes but just want it served up in a nice platter all ready to be digged in, don’t fret. Choose from our list of outlets participating in the month long Guinness St Patrick’s celebrations! Yes, the party still continues throughout the month of March with delicious Guinness St Paddy dishes and of course great promotions on your favourite black brew!

To find out all the exciting happenings and participating outlets this St Patrick’s, visit www.facebook.com/guinnessmalaysia for more information!

——St. Patrick's Day Guinness Inspired Recipes——


Guinness marinade Corned Beef, Champ Potato & Cabbage


Ingredients
Serves 6
   ·   1.4 kg of corned beef soaked in pint Guinness overnight.
   ·   1 onion chopped
   ·   5 cloves
   ·   3 bay leaves
   ·   9 – 10 black peppercorns
   ·   1 head of Savoy cabbage
   ·   Kg peeled potatoes
   ·   150g butter
   ·   400ml cream
   ·   3 sliced spring onion
Method
    1. Place the beef and Guinness into a pot and cover with cold water.
    2. Add onion, cloves, bay leaves and peppercorns.
    3. Cook for 2 – 2 ½ hrs or until tender
    4. Cook the potatoes in salted water, drain and mash.
    5. Add 100g butter, ½ the cream and spring onion. Season potato to taste.
   6. Boil the sliced cabbage in salted water for 5 minutes and drain, add a knob of butter and season.
    7.  Take 100ml of the cooking stock and place in a pot, add the other 200ml cream and simmer for 2 minutes whisking in 50g butter.
To serve 
 Carve the corned beef onto a plate with a scoop of champ potato, boiled cabbage and finish with the cream sauce.

Beef & Guinness with Puff Pastry 


Ingredients
Serves 4
   ·   200ml of GUINNESS® Foreign Extra Stout
   ·   400g stewing diced beef
   ·   100g pearl onion
   ·   1 large carrot - diced
   ·   100g sliced button mushrooms
   ·   2 cloves of garlic crushed
   ·   ½ Litre of thick beef stock
   ·   Sprigs of fresh thyme & rosemary chopped
   ·   Small sheet of puff pastry
 Method
   1.  In a pot seal the diced beef and brown all over.
   2.  The vegetables are then added and cooked out for 4 -5 minutes.
   3.  Add the herbs and beef stock. Now add the Guinness.
   4.  Slow cook the beef over a stove for 1- 1 ¼   hour. Add a little water if needed at the end.
   5.  Cut the puff pastry into 8 even pieces.
   6.  Egg wash each piece of pastry.
  7.   Using one piece of pastry place it on top of another piece of pastry to form a double case. Do this with the rest of the pastry to form 4 double pastry cases.
   8.  Using a knife score the top of the pastry to give the effect of a vol au vent.
   9.  Now bake at 200C for 14 minutes.
  10. When cool cut the top of to form a lid. Core some of the pastry out for the centre of each case.
   11. Spoon the hot beef into each case and serve.
  
Rack of Lamb with Guinness and Mustard



Ingredients
Serves 2
   ·   1 French trimmed rack of lamb (ask your butcher to do it for you)
   ·   Herb breadcrumbs (you can buy them ready made)
   ·   ½ can of GUINNESS® Draught
   ·   Dijon Mustard
Method
     1. Put the lamb and the GUINNESS® into a bowl, cover and allow to marinate in the fridge for 6 - 8 hours.
        2. Take the lamb out and coat it with the mustard.
      3. Then press the lamb into the herb breadcrumbs. The crumbs will stick to the mustard and make a nice crust.
      4. Then simply roast in the oven at 200° C for 20 - 25 minutes.
      5. Serve with roast vegetables and champ potato. Delicious.
Tip
GUINNESS® is the only beer that really makes this work. The glaze on the lamb is as rich as you'd expect from red wine.
  

Guinness Chocolate Cupcake




Ingredients
·   10oz flour
·   2oz coco powder
·   6oz castor sugar
·   ¾ teasp baking powder
·   3oz butter
·   ½ teasp vanilla essence
·   2 eggs
·   4 floz Guinness
Butter icing
·   6oz butter
·   12oz icing sugar
Method
       1.  Preheat oven at 170 C.
       2.  Cream butter and sugar.
       3.  Combine all the dry ingredients; add egg, Guinness and vanilla slowly until the mix comes together.
       4.   Place into 12 cupcake papers and bake for 15 – 20 minutes.
       5. For the butter icing beat the butter and icing sugar till soft and creamy.
    *When cupcakes are cold pipe the butter icing on and serve

Guinness Chocolate Mousse


Ingredients
Serves 6
·   10 egg yolks
·   10 egg whites, whisked
·   350g dark chocolate
·   1/4lb butter
·   100g caster sugar
·   100ml GUINNESS® draught
Method 
   1.Melt the dark chocolate and butter in a bain-marie and add in the GUINNESS® draught.
  2. Beat the egg yolks and caster sugar until light and fluffy.
 3. Mix in the melted chocolate mixture in with egg yolks and slowly fold in the whisked egg whites until everything is smooth.
   4. Transfer the mousse to serving glasses and chill.
   5.Serve with fresh raspberries or other seasonal berries.

Guinness Chocolate Truffles


Ingredients
Makes 25 Truffles
·   1 kg dark chocolate in small chunks
·   400ml cream
·   100ml GUINNESS®
·   Zest of 1 Orange
·   Cocoa or coconut powder 
Method
  1. Add the cream and GUINNESS® to a saucepan and bring to the boil.
  2. Add the chocolate and grated orange zest.
  3. Mix together until the chocolate is fully melted.
  4. Leave the chocolate mix until it is cool to the touch, but not set.
 5. Take generous tea spoons of the mixture and roll in your hands to form small round truffles, dust in cocoa powder or coconut powder.
  6. Set in the fridge for 2 - 3 hours.


Saturday, 16 March 2013

Arthur Guinness St. Patrick's Pub Crawl 2013~ ( ̄^ ̄)ゞ



While I'm still drenched in the enjoyable moments of Nuffnang 6th Birthday Bash, time flies & It's March 17th already, which means that It's St. Patrick's Day, the officially Friendliest Day of the Year!! Sounds like a good reason to party huh, yeah~*cheers* St Patrick's Day is celebrated on 17th March to remember one of Ireland’s most commonly recognised patron saints, St Patrick. For those who celebrate its intended meaning, St. Patrick's Day is a traditional day for spiritual renewal and offering prayers for missionaries worldwide, while for the rest of us this official Friendliest Day of the Year has come to be associated with everything Irish: anything green and gold, shamrocks and luck, and of course endless fun parades, parties plus a pint of nice cold Guinness black. :D

This year instead of throwing a single party Arthur Guinness is upping the stakes & decided to bring the St. Patrick's Celebration up a notch by running an epic pub crawl across Kuala Lumpur, a journey of spreading joy & happiness.

Starting point-Malones Sooka Sentral
Malones Sooka Sentral, getting ready for Malaysia biggest St. patrick's Pub Crawl  v^^v
Malones Sooka Sentral 
Malones Sooka Sentral, buffet & GUINNESS® served :)
yum yum b^^d

cool & pretties

cute & adorable :)
hosts of the night, shamrock! :)
M'sia Standup comedian Douglas Lim, super funny guy :D
Let's dance, Irish style~

airbrush tattoo, just for fun ^^
 Thanks to Guinness Malaysia I was invited to the Arthur Guinness St. Patrick's Pub Crawl 2013- Malaysia’s biggest St. Patrick’s pub crawl of all time which I had my very 1st St Patrick's Day celebration & pub crawl experiences. :D It was an amazing once-in-a-lifetime trip, a night fill with fun & laughter, where awesome party, games & performance as well as good foods & GUINNESS® were generously served. :)
Here comes the street parade *clap clap*
Ready or not time to kick start the Pub Crawl :D
1st stop-Backyard Sri Hatamas

tall & funny :)
simply cool

nice dish courtesy of sweet Backyard's folks, thanx mate :D 
arrival @ epic stop-Sunway Giza ^^ 
Show House @ Sunway Giza 
Beer Factory @ Sunway Giza
The Hub @ Sunway Giza :)
Awesome shamrocking good time b^_^d
Great atmosphere @ Sunway Giza
lucky draw time, whose's d lucky winner? :)
The winner goes to....~
presents from up above :D


It was a splendid experience hooping through 6 pubs in one single night (new record sets & guess I'll just keep it that way, not going to try breaking it anytime sooner :P) & bringing home lots of prizes, overjoyed & deliriously happy
( ̄^ ̄)ゞ Salute to Malaysia’s Biggest & Coolest Pub Crawl!! 


Thursday, 14 March 2013

Nuffnang Premiere: Django Unchained Movie Review

Django Unchained, a Quentin Tarantino’s film

There was a time in the wild wild west where guns & bullets could solve pretty much all of the problems.. That was in 1859, 2 years before the American civil war, where story of Django the slave & bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz took place.. Schultz’s hunt for the murderous Brittle brothers soon turns into a rescue mission of Broomhilda, Django’s beloved wife which lost in a slave trade long ago. Eventually they found out that Broomhilda is now a house slave of Calvin Candie, proprietor of "Candyland," an infamous plantation..Thus quest to the rescue!..

Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained stars by solid Cast actor Christoph Waltz (Dr. King Schultz), Jamie Foxx (Django- The "D" is silent) and Leonardo DiCaprio (Calvin Candie) is certainly an entertaining one, it is complete (2 hr 30 min+ showing time), brutal, extravagant and ferociously violent (18SX under Film Censorship Board of Malaysia).

Here’s what top critics in the film industries had to say about the film:

The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy, who included it in his top 10 films of 2012, wrote: “Tarantino’s affinity for black culture and interest in the ways blacks and whites relate always have been evident, but they’ve never before been front and center to the extent that they are in Django Unchained. Some might object to the writer-director’s tone, historical liberties, comic japes or other issues, but there can be no question who gets the shaft here: This is a story of justifiable vengeance, pure and simple, and no paleface is spared, even the good German who facilitates a slave’s transformation into a take-no-prisoners hunter of whites who trade in black flesh.”

New York Times’ A.O. Scott: “It is digressive, jokey, giddily brutal and ferociously profane. But it is also a troubling and important movie about slavery and racism.”

Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday: “The art of creative anachronism Tarantino practices in this extravaganza of Southern gothic camp is far more successful than 2009’s Inglourious Basterds in meaningfully engaging the history it’s repurposing. Where Basterds was little more than a larky speculative burlesque, Django Unchained possesses an unmistakable subversive power, its playfully insurrectionist spirit perhaps the modern-day pop-culture equivalent of far more high stakes rebellions of yore.”

acknowledgement to Nuffnang for the invitation :)
So obviously Django Unchained is a great movie as it is thrilling, funny, brutal and superbly-acted. Though it comes with admittedly overlong running time, but still it’s worth it.

Rating: 7.9/10 ^^ 
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