HO HO freakin' HO.

Christmas Day, 2008.

Christmas Eve, 2008.

Christmas supper table, a Heine longneck, and as usual good food and good company. A quiet intimate Christmas Supper.

Saturday 13th December, around 5pm

Two glasses of Serramalte (and a caipirinha) to accompany a rather splendid churrasco on a baking Saturday afternoon. Once again, good food and wonderful friends.

My original plan was to buy a barrel of Abadessa Export, and rent a draught beer dispensing machine, however, I wasn't to know that the whole of Porto Alegre would be partying that weekend and drinking draught beer. I called around and, with the exception of one place - who wanted R$80 for the rent of their machine - all were rented out. I settled for doing a deal with my local corner shop grocery store and bought up a crate of 24 600ml Serramalte bottles, complete with the said beer inside. This, supplemented with three 1 litre bottles of Uruguayan Zillertal, of which a German friend assures me is a vastly superior to the original Austrian beverage (the latter being equated to Guaíba River water on a February day) and Jenny's Caipirinhas, slaked the collective thirst of: 1 New Zealander, 1 Spaniard, 1 Saff Africin, 1 Chigagoeanne, 1 Hollander, 1 Englishman, 1 Welshman (no Scotsman to make up the joke) and 4 Brazilians. A truly international event.
We all got pissed.

Marty Feldman's bugger'd off and I've had a life saving operation to uhm, well, to er...save my life.
Here's a Baden Baden 1999 Bitter Ale, blazes if I know why they call it 1999, can't read the small print. Follow the "produtos" link and choose "1999", it says:

"A perfect partner for risotos and white and red meat. (dammit, doesn't mention grilled cheese or red-peppered spicy sausage).

Inspired by the high quality, traditional and renown English Ales, 1999 is unmistakable. Its slightly bitter taste and fruty aroma are remarkable. Its reddish colour also (don't look at me, I'm just tranlsating what they wrote).

Produced from specially (I added that 'coz they didn't have any adverb here, and it NEEDS one!) selected malts and hops and from the purest waters of the Campos do Jordão, this beer has been produced through a slow and careful process of maturation that guarantees all its flavour"

Exellent, but WHY THE DIVIL'S IT CALLED 1999??

In case you're wondering about the squashy yellowy thing on the plate, it's not an omlette, it's an experiment that went wrong, but didn't turn out too badly. I bought "quejo coalho" which is grillin'/barbecue cheese, popped it into my doughnut grill-pan and instead of it turning out nicely grilled, browned and crunchy around the edges, the whole thing just oozed through the grill into the pan and formed a blobby mass. Still, I scraped it out and ate it, delicious!

SPECIAL SAMHAIN EDITION!

31st October 2008, Samhain.











First I invited Marty Feldman around for a glass of Abadessa Export.






















Then I got stabbed in the chest whilst clutching a glass of Heineken (longneck)

TERROR!

Tuesday 21st October 2008, around 8pm

Is this a still from a Horror B movie or WHAT??

I'm just back from a 10km run and thought a glass of chilled Heineken would go down rather well.

Maybe we should just concentrate on the Glass of Beer (sexy thighs uh?)

Saturday 20th September, Farroupilha Revolution Day. I got a 20 litre barrel of Abadessa's export, barbecue and great friends to celebrate! On the menu pork ribs, chicken hearts, alcatre, tatu. I made tahini and blue cheese dips, there was caipirinhas, good music, good people and altogether a great afternoon.

Friday 19th September, Heineken longneck and sunset at 18:13. I'm at home alone

Sunday 7th September, Independence Day, around 2pm. I'm celebrating alone with a few glasses of Serramalte and some Jigs and Reels practice.

Some lonely evening a few weeks ago, can't remember the beer.