Guiness Stout is Good for You

There are a few must have items in any Sibu or foochow coffee shops: Guiness Stout, Beer, kopi-0, teh-0, milo and roti kahwin (toasted bread with kaya and butter sandwich - the toasting is done over charcoal fire).

Guiness Stout is called black beer or uu mik by the Foochows. Sometimes the Foochows call it Si-tot. Beer is called ba-mik (white beer). When a Foochow man offers his friend a bottle or two of Stout, it is the greatest gesture of friendship.

When two Foochow men sit in a coffee shop drinking Stout, they are the happiest men in the town!! You can bet any one for that matter.

the Foochows I know have a great liking for Guiness Stout,the reason being Stout is good for blood circulation. How true it is, we would never know. But it is a good excuse to drink it. And the Foochows do drink a lot of Guiness.

Guiness Stout reminds me of several things.

One, it has a luxuriant black shimmering look. It thus has a very sexy, seductive appearance. The bottle is black and hence it is mysterious and dark. Most men are therefore captivated by it. A friend once told me that he would definitely leave his girl friend of the day, if a bottle of guinness stout could turn into a feminine form. (just creative thinking for him, I hope) But I was wondering at that time, could drinking two bottle of Guiness Stout turn him into such a treacherous conniving man?

My mother would always buy three bottles of Guinness stout for her third brother, whenever he came to help us with some heavier household chores, like moving the stone mill, or lifting some planks to construct a chicken coop. There could not be a happier man on earth with three bottles of Guiness in front of him. I would always remember my cheerful uncle in this way. Sweating after a few hours of heavy work, shirtless too but very happy with his sister and sister's children, and of course the Stout in front of him. What a nice way to end a day's good work.

A distant relative of mine suffered from depression. Of course in those days, no one could cure her. There were no psychiatrists around yet. Church workers were not trained to help any one suffering from poor mental health. women living difficult and pressured lives had to live with their problems or commit suicide or run away.

She loved her Guiness Stout. Perhaps one bottle every evening,secretly.

My grandmother had even tried cracking a newly laid egg into a glass of Guiness Stout and swallowed it. She was quite a dare/risk taker. She lived a very long life. And many attributed it to her having a liking for a glass of good wine every night.

I would not be telling a lie if I said that the only time I touched Guiness Stout was just recently. I had a small glass of it: not refreshing like beer, a little strange on the tongue. But it really has a mysterious. It was also at that time that I was given a very simple recipe to cook chicken with it.

Just heat the marinated chicken pieces in an oven for about 15 minutes until the skin turns a little brown.

Take the chicken pieces and put them in a saucepan. Add a tin or guiness stout and simmer the chicken until very little of the stout remains. Add a little bit of soy sauce to taste. Serve with a refreshing cucumber salad and rice.

I was told that one can add guiness stout to a kentucky flour batter, instead of water and deep fry chicken pieces....Heard that it is marvellous.

This posting is not completed yet. In the days to come, some of my cousins have promised me their stories!!

Below is some backup reference I obtained on Guiness Stout.

Guinness is a popular dry stout that originated in Arthur Guinness's St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, Ireland. The beer is based upon the porter style that originated in London in the early 1700s. It is one of the most successful beer brands in the world, being exported worldwide. The distinctive feature in the flavour is the roasted barley which remains unfermented. For many years a portion of the beer was aged to give a sharp lactic flavour, but Guinness has refused to confirm if this still occurs. The thick creamy head is the result of the beer being mixed with nitrogen when being served. It is extremely popular with the Irish and is the best-selling alcoholic drink of all time in Ireland, where Guinness & Co. makes almost €2 billion annually.

Now available around the world, the brand is heavily associated with Ireland. The parent company has been headquartered in London since 1932 and was later merged with Grand Metropolitan plc and developed into a multi-national alcohol conglomerate named Diageo.

Studies claim that Guinness can be beneficial to the heart. Researchers found that antioxidant compounds in Guinness, similar to those found in certain fruits and vegetables, are responsible for health benefits because they slow down the deposit of harmful cholesterol on the artery walls.

Guinness ran an advertising campaign in the 1920s which was stemmed from market research - when people told the company that they felt good after their pint, the slogan was born – "Guinness is Good for You". Guinness were told to stop using the slogan decades ago – and the firm still makes no health claims for the drink. Diageo, the company that now manufactures Guinness, said: "We never make any medical claims for our drinks."

Many vegetarians consider Guinness as unsuitable for a vegetarian diet, as the production process involves the use of isinglass, made from fish. It is used as a fining agent for settling out suspended matter in the vat The isinglass is retained in the floor of the vat but it is possible that minute quantities might be carried over into the beer.

Just in case you like stout so much, and you want to go to Ireland for more of it, here is something for you to study before you go:


A Guide For The Un-Initated To Buying Guinness In An Irish Pub

1 Choose your pub carefully. A pint of Guinness does not appreciate loud music, loud people or bright flashing lights.

2 Ask politely for a pint of Guinness. Depending on the pub, it is possible to catch the barmans eye and mouth the word "pint", he will translate this accurately.

3 The barman will fill the glass between 70% and 80% capacity. It will then be put to the side for a few moments to allow it "to settle". Once the brownish liquid has almost turned to a solid black the barman will then fill the rest of the glass. NB: do not under any circumstances take the glass before it is filled. Some virgins seem to think that the settling stage is the final stage and walk away with an unfinished pint. At this point we Irish DO understand the predicament, but I assure you it causes endless mirth as well.

4 Once you have received your pint, find a comfortable stool or seat, gaze with awe into the deep blackness, raise the pint to your mouth and take a large mouthful. Be firm.

5 A good pint can distinguished by a number of methods. A smooth, slightly off- white head is one, another is the residue left on the inside of the glass. These, surpise surprise, are known as rings. As long as they are there you know your're okay. A science of rings is developing - the instance that comes to mind is determining a persons nationality by the number of rings (a ring is dependent on a swig of Guinness each swig leaving it's own ring). An Irishman will have in the region of 5-6 rings (we pace ourselves), an Englishman will have 8-10 rings, an American will have 17-20 (they sip) and an Australian won't have any at all as they tend to knock it back in one go!

6 As you near the end of your pint, it is the custom to order another one. It is a well known fact that a bird does not fly on one wing.

- Alan Clinton aclinton@dub-fdev.dub.comm.mot.com (Alan, I hope you don't mind this blatant copying. I just want my fellow countrymen to be politically correct when they order a pint... thanks for the guide. May be we should use it in sibu too...)