Just for an episode tho, on the National Geographic Channel!
A travel program on food n drink, CHUG, was in Malaysia a coupla months back. I was contacted to show ’em some local brew. In this case, it was toddy.
It’s hosted by Zane Lamprey, an established drinker. I think he wants to be a celebrity drinker, like me.
Imposter!
I guess the diff is Zane has 141,000 likes on FB. (Probably all fakes.)
The show is called CHUG (Country Hopping Ultimate Guide), and is due to air on some networks, n on DVD.
Toddy is basically weak-ass coconut sap beer. Its sweet-sour n fizzy, and is consumed almost as soon as it’s made. It’s a common drink in many tropical / island countries around d world.
The guys met up with me at a toddy joint in Banting, before we headed to d plantation where d hooch is produced.
Its quite easy how its made, basically requiring an ability to climb. The guy goes up there, trims d flower stems n bunches them together, so they drip into a pot.
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After a few hours, the sap becomes booze! It truly shocks me how quickly this particular strain of wild yeasts work. The yeast that i use to make cider (and most strains of yeasts) take weeks to do d job. Weeks. So the toddy ones are super-yeasts!
Fuckin cool mutants.
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Anyway, we head back to d toddy shack to drink away, as well as enjoy food like turkey rendang, wild boar curry, etc. Good stuff.
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It was a blast, and everyone was pretty buzzed by the time the afternoon was over. Haha. Coz I also made them do the toddy-Guinness cocktail, while biting on exotic meats, like monitor lizard. Ambik.
This toddy joint was checked-out in detail on this about blog three years back, and is a cool place to hang.
Note: This episode featured on Nat Geo in Nov 2014.
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Brain damage: 6.5/10