Beer & Bites

WORDS H. CLARK

A souvlaki after beers at 3am is the great Australian way
Photo: Lonely Planet Images / Rich Prohaska

Talk all you want about what a late harvest riesling does for your dessert, but the near-primal combination of beer and chow is still what cheers most people. And while most countries have great artisanal and boutique beers, the brew that most people chug on a regular basis to wash their food down with, is the real “traditional” beer. Here, we celebrate the the finer merits of beer and pub grub around the region.

A Singha beer and a lovely laab gai salad are perfect on a hot day
Photo: Fred Wissink

In the steamy air of Thailand, beer is nearly a necessity for cooling off. And although the country has quite a few brews, it’s Singha which is the most famous and the best match for the spicy Thai food.

When the Boon Rawd Brewery was founded in 1933 (the first in Thailand) by a guy called Phraya Bhirom Bhakdi, he hired a German brewmaster to oversee operations. Even today, the German heritage is plainly evident in this – paradoxically – classic Thai beer.

While the “Lion of Asia” is no knock-yer-socks-off superbrew, it’s tasty and well-crafted enough to have earned a slew of reviews praising its “structured German drinkability” and the way the slight citrus tones complement Thailand’s unique cuisine.

And while the national cuisine has a breathtakingly wide range, some dishes stand out above all the rest for enjoying with a few cold ones on the beach. Laab gai, a spicy minced chicken salad, and som tam, a spicy papaya salad with sticky rice, are particular favourites, both from the north-east region of Thailand, Isarn. Many Bangkok-dwellers originally hail from Isarn, so you’ll find these two dishes all over the city.

You can pick up a laab gai or som tam on the street anywhere, but for a sit-down meal, try the restaurant Cabbages and Condoms. It serves traditional Thai food, with the twist that it gives out condoms instead of dinner mints, in an effort to raise funds and awareness for the country’s family planning program.

6 Sukhumvit Soi 12, Bangkok, tel: + 66 (2) 229 4611.

Dipping into a hot pot with friends makes for a great night out
Photo: Fred Wissink

Across the border, the Lion of Asia is swapped for Bia Saigon, one of Ho Chi Minh City’s favourite beers. Don’t expect a taste explosion though – like most Vietnamese beers, it’s a fairly unexciting lager and tastes much like most other beers in the country (with the exception of Bia Hanoi, which tastes like chemicals fermented in socks).

In Vietnam, when you drink you eat and a noisy, messy street scene involving plenty of beer and toasts is a given. Lau (hotpot, pronounced ‘low’) is a notoriously popular meal. It’s a communal thing. Diners are given a pot filled with soup, held over a small, portable gas stove, and the makings of a meal on various plates. Vegetables, noodles (often a couple of different kinds) and meat – usually chicken or fish, but sometimes a fun array of offal – are then dropped into the pot to cook and ladled out with a slotted spoon into small bowls.

Seating at these stalls isn’t fancy; most offer child-sized plastic stools on the pavement and as the night goes on the beer bottles pile up with abandon. Because of the heat and the frequent lack of good refrigeration, the beer is often served with chunks of rough-cut ice in it, watering it down even more. Still, it does keep the beer cold – and that’s a must in the perennial stickiness of Saigon (you don’t always have to call it by its official name, Ho Chi Minh City).

The Vietnamese love to eat outside on the street and hotpot places abound, but if you’re unsure which to try, look for Lau Vietnam, which has 42 kinds of hotpot and also serves fresh seafood.

103A Hung Vuong, District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, tel: +84 (8) 835 4824.

An assortment of yakitori to try ensures it’s going to be a long night at this outdoor izakaya
Photo:John Harte

The Japanese enjoy a drink and stories of salarymen sleeping it off in parks (or wherever they fall) are not entirely exaggerated. Apart from whiskey, and the obvious sake, the Japanese love beer. And the rumours are true: you can buy beer from vending machines in Japan and there are no rules barring public consumption.

In Osaka, Japan’s third-largest city and the former capital, it’s that internationally famous stuff they quaff – Asahi Super Dry. After an unprecedented survey of 5,000 drinkers, the beer hit the market in 1987 and became an immediate hit, marketed as a “beer for people who don’t like beer”. Except that the Japanese do like beer… which makes things a bit confusing. Its light, clean taste makes it a good match for food at izakaya – pub-type eateries that serve substantial bar snacks to go with your after-work beers. Although these days they often shrug off their traditional roots, they can still be identified by the row of red paper lanterns hanging outside.

Izakaya snacks are usually salty and oily and there are lots to choose from, but yakitori are the favourite. They’re little more than grilled chicken skewers, but it goes to show that the Japanese understand the rules of Booze Food well: things on sticks are a good idea when having a few.

Osaka is well-known for its gourmet scene and one area, called Dotonbori, is almost entirely given over to eateries, bars, shops and high-end restaurants. Neon-lit, with winding alleys lled with everything anyone could want to spend money on, Dotonbori is dotted with those wacky, quintessentially Japanese things like giant models of crabs and octopus. Try Chanto, a well-respected chain izakaya, just off the main street of Dotonbori; it’s near the giant crab.

Nanba 1-6-22, Dotonbori, Osaka, tel: +81 (6) 6212 0425.

It’s hard to stop at just one sizzling sate when enjoying a few
Photo: Don Jensen

In Bali, Indonesia, the local brew is Bintang, which means ‘star’. Bali’s itinerant but ever-present Australian surfer population are huge consumers of it, as are the locals, when they’re not drinking arak, a potent locally brewed clear spirit made from palm sap. Bintang is available everywhere, from nightclubs and restaurants to beach shacks and corner stores. It’s a nice crisp pilsner and tastes best very cold – naturally, given the hot climate.

There are plenty of spicy, tasty and cheap Indonesian snacks to munch on, but a couple of standbys are sates (again, basically grilled chicken skewers), pisang goreng (fried bananas) and fresh grilled shark. As Bali is Hindu, not Muslim like the rest of Indonesia, fried pork skin is also a favourite nibble.

Apart from beachside shacks (warungs), night markets and snack carts (called kaki lima), there are only a few restaurants doing Balinese food – most stick to Indonesian and Chinese fare. Try Sate Bali, a smaller, up-market warung in Kerobokan serving a wide variety of traditional Balinese food.

Jln. Laksmana 22A, Kerobokan, tel: +62 (361) 736 734.

Slicing up the souvlaki
Photo: Lonely Planet Images / Alan Benson

When it comes to down-home local brews in Melbourne, Australia, it’s hard to choose between Carlton Draught and Victoria Bitter (VB), actually a lager. Both are brewed by the same company, Foster’s (incidentally, Australians don’t drink Foster’s itself any more than they spend their days throwing shrimps on barbies). Carlton Draught is readily available on tap in pubs across the city, while VB is best drunk from a “stubbie”, the squat 375ml bottle it comes in. Neither are stand-out beers compared to the offerings of the country’s boutique breweries, but like all “traditional” beers, they’re cheap and consumed in vast quantities – plus they have cheesy ad campaigns.

When eating and drinking, there are a few different options. Drinking at the football will invariably involve a meat pie, and after the game, a few beers at the nearest pub. The best-known “footie” pub, and the one closest to the iconic MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) where many football games are played, is the Cricketers Arms at 327 Punt Road, Richmond, tel: +61 (3) 9428 7471. Sausages and hamburgers are cheap and good, and the beer is always very plentiful on game days.

Pie and sauce
with a beer are as
Aussie a lunch as
you can get
Photo: Lester
Ledesma After a night on the booze, Australians love a good feed, and few things are more popular at 3am than a souvlaki – which isn’t so surprising, given the size of Melbourne’s Greek population (second only to Athens). Standing on the street scoffing one of these flatbreads filled with fatty meat carved from a gigantic spit is a rite of passage for many Aussies. There are several excellent kebab shops on Melbourne’s Brunswick Street, in inner-city Fitzroy. Happily, it’s also a fantastic spot for a few beers – try Bar Open, Bimbo Deluxe and the Royal Derby for jug after jug of icy beer.

These beers and foods don’t “match” or complement each other the way a Singha will a Thai dish, but that’s a bit beside the point. It’s more about tradition, and when it comes to beer, tradition and ritual is everything. Cheers.

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