Penang - Beers to the memory...

Some beer brands don’t die – they just end up being sold in another part of the world. Back in the late 1980’s, early 1990’s there were many cheap brands of beer which were heavily advertised on TV. Who can remember Hofmeister and their ‘for great lager...follow the bear’ marketing campaign? How about Skol and the cartoon advert with Hagar the Horrible? Well I’m not sure if Tesco still sells Skol (maybe it just got rebranded as Tesco Value?) but I can tell you it’s pretty big here in Penang. And I thought these brands had gone to beer heaven. These were the brands of beer that, as students, were firm favourites. From memory it was a very cheap and tasteless beer and I can confirm that nothing has changed from this part of the world.

The range of satay here in Penang includes mutton, beef and deer. I daren't eat deer as I just can't imagine this being fresh produce; so went for a combination of mutton and beef from a stall announcing itself as Satay International. (I guess this is just one stall out of many the owners have worldwide). I must admit that I don't think these meats work well with satay. Satay doesn't tend to be chunky and is thus easy to overcook and become tough. I think this is what happened to both the beef and mutton in this case. The peanut sauce though was excellent. Good consistency and nutty. For good satay.....follow the chicken.