So this week at Casa Del Almigo it's just myself and the dog as the wife and kids have started their holidays early. I'll catch up with them on Friday after I finish my latest week of the breakfast show and then my holidays can well and truly start.
So what am I up to this week to keep myself amused then?
Cooking those things that the kids won't eat - like hot and spicy stuff.
So last night it was Sambal Chili Shrimp Chicken on white rice and figuring I might need something on hand to douse any potential chili flames, I bought myself a Tiger. I haven't had one of these in roughly 12 years so my memory of how it went is a little hazy but an Asian beer with an Asian meal, I can't stuff that combo up too much can I?
It's world acclaimed apparently!
So in no time flat I had a bowl of hot looking chicken on cool looking rice and a even chiller beer on standby, just in case. I'd never worked with any chili shrimp paste before, so I wasn't taking any chances.
It looked okay.
It turns out my choice of brew was a decent one as my first bite into my chicken concoction brought forth some searing heat like a burping dragon out of an episode of Game of Thrones. My lips started to burn, the sweat started to pour. This stuff wasn't hot, it was verging on nuclear. I held back the tears, grimaced through the burning chicken (hey I'm not wasting tasty chicken here!) and soldiered on. This was where the beer started to shine. It was smooth, it was calming. If the label said something about soothing burns, I wouldn't be surprised. The chicken threw a Molotov in my mouth, the beer tamed the flames.
A pity then apart from the calming, soothing, 'chili's be gone' tactics it employs - there's not much else going on. It smells like a lager, tastes like a lager and wouldn't stand out in a lager lineup but it's basic base model with no frills at best. There's nothing really standing out here, no 'that tastes like bread on a crisp winter afternoon' notes, no sudden need at the end of it for another unlike say a Brooklyn Lager.
Still it lived up to the task I bought it for so well done Tiger!
It gets 2.5 out of 5 stupidly hot meals from me.
(For the record while I did finish the chicken, I skimped on the now oil and chili shrimp saturated rice leftover. There's only so much fire damage one mouth can take.)