Insta Weekly: Maruhi Sakaba - The Great Beer Bar - #MyTigerBites - 44 Bar Promos - Neroteca Brunch - DIY Old Fashioned

Last weekend, a good friend proposed that I should consider migrating from blogspot to wordpress, because it's more flexible and the layout allows me to come up with a very sleek, magazine-like feel.

He showed me a test site, which I really like. But I'm not sure if I have the time/energy/intelligence to toggle around with the coding. Wordpress, while is infinitely more moudable than Blogger, requires quite a bit of HTML knowledge to mess around with. I find myself not having enough time to even update this blog more than once a week (which I should because I have quite a few feature posts in the back burner argh!).

But I know that with Wordpress, readers would enjoy my blog more simply because it will look better, plus there are even more awesome, cooler usable widgets that comes with it. Oh man. How do I account for the opportunity cost of time vs traffic?

Let me mull over it for a bit more. I'm a really slow thinker. Meanwhile, here, the weekly update which I make myself to commit to (at least!):

1. Maruhi Sakaba - an Iazakaya that doesn't break the bank. 

I haven't professed my love for this place on the blog yet have I? I do know that I have multiple mentions of it on my instagram though, coz  I always go back there whenever I feel like a good, simple, satisfying meal with drinks (which isn't too insanely expensive) that kinda transport you to Japan.

It's a simple little casual izakaya (Japanese drinking and yakitori place) tucked away in Taman Desa owned by the same guy behind Gerai Makan Japanese BBQ (where you DIY BBQ your own meat). While Gerai Makan has the coldest bottled beer I've had in a hawker place, I like Maruhi just a bit more than Gerai Makan simply because they cook the stuff for you almost always perfectly. Even their non-bbq items like the salads and soups are delicious. Lots of review of it online, just Google it up.

There are also quite a few choices of beer, sake, sochu to go with the yummy food. Pictured here, the ice cold One Cup Ozeki sake is my staple order whenever we visit. It was RM15 (180ml, 15% ABV) once upon a time. Prices of everything has increased when we visited it last week, and I found my sake priced at RM17 now, sigh. That ain't gonna stop me from coming back. <3

Address: 6A, Faber Plaza, Jalan Desa Jaya, Taman Desa, Kuala Lumpur

2. Visited The Great Beer Bar, again.

Wanted to go to a place for a quiet drink on the way home to unwind. I discovered that this is actually not a bad place to hang out on your own - spacious and comfortable enough for you to ignore people, and there are seats that faces the wall to completely block out everyone else, if you so wish.

Opened since early this year (May 2015), it's already got its slew of regulars. That shouldn't be a surprise since this shop is pretty much the ONLY place in PJ that offers a wide selection of craft beer (next closest place would be in Taps, Mont Kiara) - bottled, canned or on tap. The food, by 2 different providers (Curbside Cantina and the Coolinary Ronins) also changes periodically. On days when the kitchen is closed, TGBB encourages you to bring your own food to pair with their ever-changing craft beer menu.

Craft beers start from rm20 up. Food from rm5-rm15.

Find out what they are up to on a regular basis here:
https://www.facebook.com/TheGreatBeerBar
https://instagram.com/thegreatbeer/

3. More about Tiger Beer's #MyTigerBites

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned in passing about this new campaign that Tiger beer might be running - now I'm confirming it, they ARE running something!

I found out that if you participated in this #MyTigerBites campaign, you can win prizes and even possibly an awesome all-expense paid trip to Taiwan for 2! Plus, there are also prizes for the best street food post on Instagram.

To participate, you'll need to sign up on their microsite. By doing so you could even get exclusive invites for an upcoming street food festival (with lots of beer of course).

For more & to join: www.tigerbites.com.my

4. 44 Bar's various promotions.

I've gone back to 44 Bar a couple of times to try to beat the jam and learnt about these few promos that they run to help you.. well.. beat the jam:

• Gintoxicated Happy Hour Promo (5-8pm): Buy 2 Free 1 ( = Rm80 for 3) - 8 gins to choose from, accompanied by its various garnishes then topped up with a full mini bottle of Fentimans (LOVE!). Gins available for happy hour are: Greenhook Ginsmith, Tanqueray No.10, No 3 London Dry, Botanist, Hendrick's, Williams Chase, Martin Miller's and Monkey 47. These stuff are the good high-end stuff, man. In fact, Monkey 47 is so premium that there's a place that actually charged RM100 for a GnT with it, I kid you not! If you're not a regular drinker, I would highly suggest that you share the 3 drinks with a friend or two. While they are delicious and go down easily, they are deceptively strong - you can't taste how strong it is truly until you fall flat on your face trying to navigate down the steps, hehe.

• Tiki Takeover - So every Thursday is Tiki nights at 44 bar. Tiki drinks came from when the Polynesian-inspired F&B concept became wildly popular in the States. Think outlets decorated with Tiki god masks & carvings, grass clothes, torches, bamboo, lava, hula girl, palm trees....etc.... A tiki drink is generally made with rum, fruits & bitters and usually served in cute little polynesian-inspired vessels. Almost like you're having a drink in Hawaii. So 44 Bar is currently giving out free drinks every 1st Thursday of the month to the first 3 people who repost their #TikiTakeOver44 FB posters on instagram. Also, this week's going to be quite a treat because Junior, the beverage maestro behind Marini's on 57 and also known as the one of the godfathers of the industry, will be guest bartending this Thursday! You bet I'll be there!

• 10% discount for selected whiskies for Dram Full Malaysia members - This is pretty much self explanatory right? Just make sure you're a Dram Full Malaysia member already (GET THE CUTE LITTLE LAPEL PIN TOO!) to enjoy it.

• Bonus - Made a visit to 44 Bar on a Friday night, had a little too much fun and realised that you can't drive? Until 31 December and if you're new to Uber, you'll get a FREE ride home with this promo code: UBER44KL

They've also told me that something seriously cool will be coming up soon in September, but I'll keep that for the next post. I can't wait to tell you what that is. :)

More:
https://www.facebook.com/44Bar
https://instagram.com/44bar/

5. Neroteca Damansara Height's Weekend Brunch.

Damansara Heights folks can now rejoice! The Neroteca Damansara Heights outlet now offers weekend buffet brunch and it's probably the only (family friendly) place that actually offers this in the neighbourhood (please correct me if I'm wrong).

On its menu, there will be salads, cold meat cuts, cheese cuts, pizzas, soup, various cooked meats, seafood, pasta, vegetables and desserts. From 11am to 3pm every Saturday & Sundays. RM88 without alcohol and RM188 for free-flow wines & prosecco. No prizes if you guessed which one I'd prefer? /Hic

For more: www.neroteca.net & their FB Page.

6. Home Made Old Fashioned - Difford's Guide's recipe.

Tried to replicate Difford's Guide recipe for an Old Fashioned where both rye and bourbon whiskeys are used - totalling a freaking strong 2.5 shots in a drink!

I wasn't happy with my end product because I didn't have an orange peel and used Orange Bitters instead. :( Repeat after me: the orange peel is NOT JUST A GARNISH. It is a VITAL ingredient for a good Old Fashioned!

Until next week, drink safe!

Insta Weekly is a weekly summary of boozy updates from my Instagram.com/fireangel80 with the hashtag #angeltini. Feel free to follow me if you enjoy daily updates on booze, food and other random stuff by a girl from Malaysia. Cheers!