Year: 2012

The London 2012 Olympics kicks off this Friday featuring 10,000 athletes from 204 countries competing in 26 different sports. Watching the opening ceremony from home (while enjoying a cold Singha or two) is probably the closest most of us will ever get to being part of the Olympic Games. But for beer fans in the San Francisco area there’s a different kind of Olympics that’s open to anyone over the age of 21. The Drink:Eat:Play 2012 Beer Olympics (originally the Bay Area Brew Fest) takes over the Ft. Mason Festival Pavilion in SF for their own beer-centric ceremony. There will be 61 beers featured, dozens of food trucks and dressing up as a “team” is highly encouraged. Tickets are $40 for general admission and $50 for VIP (You get in one hour earlier with the VIP pass) and can be bought here.

Sure, buying tickets is good and all, but winning them is even better. That why I, your friend Mr. Singha, has a pair of VIP tickets for you to win. Here are the rules:

How to enter to win a pair of VIP tickets to Drink:Eat:Play’s 2012 Beer Olympics:

1. You must be over 21-year-old
2. Follow @Singha_Beer on Twitter
3. Tweet about your favorite Summer Olympic event and why and mention @Singha_Beer and @DrinkEatPlay at the end of the Tweet so we can find it.

Tell us what your favorite Summer Olympic event is and why and we’ll pick our favorite response. We want to hear about why you’re so into fencing or how you sat next to a future Olympic rowing team member in high school or that your girlfriend’s dad made the Olympic judo team and nearly broke your hand the first time he shook it. On Friday, July 27th, we’ll choose our favorite story at 12pm. The winner will be notified through Twitter and sent instructions on how to send us verification that the winner is at least 21-years-old. The tickets cannot be resold.

Cheers,
Mr. Singha

The Asian Festival in DC is an annual celebration of Asian countries and cultures. The free two-day event features unique music, cultural performances, food, fashion and handicrafts. The festival has over 200 multicultural vendors, 35 authentic Asian food vendors, and live performances for a complete Asian cultural experience. It all goes down July 21st and 22nd at George Mason University.

Cheers,
Mr. Singha

The boys of Drink Inc., Steve Livigni (Pour Vous) and Daniel Nelson (The Writer’s Room), drop by Jitlada in LA’s Thai Town and enjoy a meal with the vivacious Jazz Singsanong and daughter Sirine while looking for inspiration for Thai inspired cocktails for their first webisode. Needless to say, Jazz and Sirine dropped some knowledge on what it’s like to cook with Thai chilies so hot you need to wear goggles in the kitchen. Watch the video as Steve and Daniel take on Jitlada’s notorious Dynamite Challenge and wash down the burn with some Singhas. If you love chasing heat when it comes to spicy cuisine then a visit to Jitlada is definitely in order the next time you find yourself in the City of Angels. Jitlada: Real Chili, Real Spicy!

The historic Packard Building in downtown Anaheim, CA is the latest location for Umami Burger as they continue their Orange County takeover. Each Umami location is unique and this one is no different. The Packard Building was once a car dealership for a better part of the 20th century starting in 1926 and license plates of that era, which were dug up during renovation, were used as part of the aesthetic in the wall and lighting décor of the dining area. And what would a new Umami Burger location be without it’s own exclusive Specialty Burger? The Anaheim location gets a Welsch Rabbit Burger (house beef patty with broiled cheese sauce and house made pickles, doesn’t have actual rabbit in it) as their calling card. Check out the video of their Grand Opening below and then head over to the 714 and indulge in some Umami goodness.

UMAMI ANAHEIM: Grand Opening from highFIVE on Vimeo.

Umami Burger Anaheim is located at 338 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim, CA, 92806

Cheers,
Mr. Singha

The Rose Bowl. If you live in Southern California, chances are you’ve got a story to tell about the famed Pasadena stadium. Tailgating a UCLA football game, watching Brazil and Italy’s shootout in the 1994 FIFA World Cup, letting your long hair flow freely during the Guns N’ Roses/Metallica show in ’92, catching a 1984 Olympics soccer match, attending the annual Rose Bowl Game… the list of fond memories goes on.

For the past two years the LA Street Food Fest has been creating fond memories for those visiting the Rose Bowl for their Annual Summer Tasting Event. We’re giving away TWO PAIRS of tickets to the Summer Tasting so you can create some new memories about hanging out at the Rose Bowl. From now until July 20th we want you to Tweet us your favorite Rose Bowl experience. The two people who posts our favorite story will get a pair of tickets to the LA Street Food Fests 3rd Annual Summer Tasting Event and enjoy over 75 of the city’s best street food vendors while throwing back a cold one in one of two Singha Beer Gardens.

Here’s How To Enter:
1. Follow @Singha_Beer and @LAFoodFest
2. Tweet us your favorite Rose Bowl experience and end it by tagging @Singha_Beer and @LAFoodFest. Use as many Tweets as necessary to tell your story, just remember to include the tags so we can find it.
3. That’s it… pretty simple, right?

On Friday, July 20th at Noon, we’ll announce the two winners of a pair of tickets to LA Street Food Fest’s Annual Summer Tasting Event and give instructions on how to claim them. So start Tweeting us now!

Cheers,
Mr. Singha

San Diego has become a beer Mecca in the past decade so it’s appropriate that Drink:Eat:Play brings its 2nd Annual San Diego Brew Fest back to Liberty Station. We’ve taken part in our fair share of Drink:Eat:Play events and we can tell you they’re not to be missed if you’re a fan of tasty brews, food trucks and live music. If you haven’t been to a Drink:Eat:Play event then we’d like to help remedy that. We’re giving away two free VIP passes their San Diego Brew Fest on Saturday July 21st. Read the rules below on how to enter to win.

How to enter to win 2 VIP tickets to the San Diego Brew Fest:

1. You must be at least 21-years-old to enter
2. Follow @Singha_Beer on Twitter
3. Tweet your favorite Summer photo (Twitpic, Instagram, etc.) you’ve recently taken with the following: Send me to @DrinkEatPlay’s San Diego Brew Fest @Singha_Beer

Take a picture of your favorite beach spot, your epic pool party, BBQ’ing up delicious meats, enjoying a baseball game or partying on a rooftop under the Summer’s night sky. It’s Summer in California, there’s no shortage of Summer fun going on. Then on Thursday, July 19th, we will choose our favorite photo at 12pm. The winner will be notified through Twitter and sent instructions on how to send us verification that the winner is at  least 21-years-old. The tickets cannot be resold.

Cheers,
Mr. Singha

We all know that Singha goes great with Thai cuisine. But there is a pleathora of other types of food that goes great with a tall glass of our Lager. The first thing to know about Lagers is that there are three types of Lagers: Pilsners, Bocks and Märzen. Singha falls under the Pilsner category of beer given the hops (Saaz, Perle and Hallertau) we use in our brewing process.

Pilsner beer was first brewed in Pizen, Czech in 1842 and since then has spread in popularity. In fact, Pilsner style beers make up more than half the world’s beer market. We like to believe that Pilsners tend to follow the wise acronym first coined by the Kelly Johnson (you know, the guy that created the SR-71 Blackbird among other influential aircrafts) which is KISS or “Keep it simple, stupid!” Keeping it simple is one reason why Pilsners enjoy widespread popularity as they’re clean, crisp, simple beers that are good to drink for any occasion.

Well, now you probably want to know what goes with Singha. Although it’s light bodied the hoppy bitterness is sharp in our brew, which is a signature of Pilsner style beers. Think of the bitter flavors as a way to kick-start your palate. The bitterness will cut through spicy dishes making our beer great not only for Thai dishes but Vietnamese, Mexican and Indian food as well. Seafood pairs very well with Singha, especially shell fish like oysters, lobster, crab, clams and shrimp. The bitterness also helps to accentuate flavors of more oily varieties of fish like bluefin/yellowfin/bigeye tuna, salmon, sardines, anchovies, trout and mackerel. Pork items like prosciutto, bacon and sausages also go great with Singha as the beer cuts through the fat and pulls away the salt so that you can really enjoy the flavors of those meats. Like any good Lager, Singha is great with fried foods and Hors d’oeuvres as it brings out the flavor in foods that are deepfried or rich in texture like fish and chips, fried calamari, buffalo wings, smoked salmon and shrimp cocktails. If you’re the booze and cheese type of person then look for cheeses with a hint of fruit and sweetness and avoid avoid potent cheeses that can overpower the beer. Try pairing geit-in-stad, aged gouda, ossau iraty, terraluna or prima donna cheeses with your next Singha for pleasant experience.

Cheers,
Mr. Singha

Looking for a delicious way to beat the summer heat? Like beers? Of course you do. Like hot sauce? Good. Mix up some Singha micheladas and laugh in the face of triple digit temperatures. The michelada is a beer cocktail traditionally made with beer, lime, salt and hot sauce or chile slices. Depending on where you order one, ingredients such as tomato juice, clamato juice, Maggi seasoning are also used. Here’s one of our favorite ways of preparing an ice cold michelada.

Ingredients
Lime
Worcestershire sauce
Soy sauce
Sriracha hot sauce
Singha

In a pint glass with ice, squeeze the lime and add a dash of Worcestershire sauce and a dash of soy sauce. Depending on how spicy you want your michelada, add a few healthy squirts of Sriracha. Then pour in the Singha while mixing together the ingredients with a spoon. Then you take it outside, hang out with your ol’ pal The Sun and enjoy the summer.

Cheers,
Mr. Singha

Many New Yorkers know the glory that is the Luckyrice Night Market Festival and now a lucky few West Coasters do too. The Cosmopolitan hosted the sold out Luckyrice Vegas Night Market, the first festival to be held outside of The Big Apple. Over 20 of the countries hottest chefs took over the Boulevard Pool and cooked up some innovative Asian eats. Luckyrice Culinary Council members Susur Lee, Pichet Ong and Angelo Sosa were joined by the likes of Top Chef Texas winner Paul Qui, San Francisco’s acclaimed Charles Phan, The Cosmopolian’s own Comme Ça head chef David Myers, Father’s Office/Lukshon mastermind Sang Yoon plus many more in serving up the over 1200 attendees. Las Vegas was well represented with Lotus of Siam’s Saipin Chutima, Fukuburger’s Colin Fukunaga and Robert Magsalin, Monta’s Takashi Segawa and Raku’s Mitsuo Endo cooking up some unique dishes.

Luckyrice continues their West Coast invasion on August 10^th with their inaugural Luckyrice Los Angeles Feast. For more information about the culinary line up and ticket prices head over to the Luckyrice website.

Cheers,
Mr. Singha

On the western end of the Sunset Strip sits Night + Market, an annex to the longstanding Thai restaurant Talésai, where owner and chef Kris Yembamroong brings the street cuisine of Thailand to hungry Angelenos. We had shared a table with Chef Kris and his crew at Taste of the Nation and, after sampling some of dishes at the event, decided it was in the best interest of our taste buds to make our way to Night + Market and get the full experience. Night + Market features a core menu of fried, fermented, skewered, spicy, fish sauce ladened, fatty, banana leaf wrapped goodness along with a smaller “Sharpie” menu full of rotating seasonal dishes and whatever else Chef Kris decides to serve up. Vegetarians and vegans be forewarned, you can have the papaya salad, sweet sticky rice and get drunk (off Singha, of course), that’s about it, your loss. The rest of you will ride the savory flavor train of fried pig tails, kar moo parlow (whole braised pork hock), hor ab (catfish baked in a banana leaf w/ chili and herbs), pork toro, sai krok isaan (grilled fermented pork sausage), kao kluk gapi (shrimp paste-seasoned rice), pork satay skewers (bathed in condensed milk and charcoal grilled) and hot pot tom yum shrimp soup straight to gastronome nirvana. Out back, past the kitchen, behind the restaurant is a patio space where they grow some herbs and banana leaves used across the menu and will soon use as an event space. There’s a reason why Jonathan Gold featured Night + Market in his LA Weekly’s 99 Essential Restaurants list, we’re pretty sure it’s because of the enlightenment you receive while the food coma sets in.

[EDIT: Chef Kris also made Refinery 29‘s 30 Under 30 LA list this week. Well deserved!]

Night + Market is located at 9041 West Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA, 90069

Cheers,
Mr. Singha