Gastronome

Yesterday I was charmed when I was skimming Fancy Toast & read the most amusing food blog entry I’ve seen in some time: High Maintenance Gimlets. It’s not just that I love gimlets. Or cucumbers. (Though I do love both. I even like cucumbers in my cocktails.) The writing is excellent - and I keep coming back to that High/Low Maintenance vs. High/Low Quality matrix for another grin. As a solidly Quadrant III girl, I was compelled to mix up up a few of Erielle’s cocktails to accompany our movie last night. Amusingly, I didn’t read the comments until this morning - and sure enough Kip: I picked Hendrick’s off my shelf to accompany the cucumbers. I made a few other amendments to Erielle’s formula - I prefer my gimlets a bit more on the tart side, so I upped the lime, and dropped the sugar. So very tasty!

(more…)

I created the tulgey wood for the drinks spread at the Alice party my fabulously creative friends threw a few months ago. It was definitely my favorite of the three cocktails we served. It’s done in the style of a Manhattan, replacing the sweet vermouth with a concoction called Torani Amer. (I originally picked up the bottle to try the cocktail in the link - the Hoskins. It was gooood.) I think the Amer is deeper and darker than the vermouth, and the bitter orange lends a touch of mystery. I’d like to try this with some orange bitters - I used my house standard Angostura.

(more…)

My uberlist for 2004 included the line “67. Create at least one cocktail that showcases a Hangar One vodka.” Coming in just under the wire, I came up with this orange & basil cocktail to start off our New Year’s Feast this year. I’ve been seeing (and trying) more cocktails with savory herbs in them; I wanted to try my hand at the same. This is definitely a strong cocktail, with clean flavors. Hangar One makes fantastic vodkas - I highly recommend you try them out.

(more…)

Here’s a little cocktail I whipped up in Tim & Heather’s honor to serve at their wedding reception. I wanted to do something with vanilla vodka and gingerbread syrup - two things that Tim quite likes in his cocktails. They turned out to be a big hit with Tim, and with many of the guests!

Kudos to Aimee, who helped me with the name. The key is in the garnish…
(more…)

While i’m no Ardent Spirit just yet, i quite enjoy developing cocktails here and there - especially when i have a particular event in mind. I wanted to serve a couple of signature cocktails at Tammy & Todd’s engagement party; I knew that one would be a Damiana margarita, at Todd’s request. I set out to design a second drink that i thought Tammy would love.
(more…)

Gary Regan and his wife Mardee are truly excellent cocktailians. I look forward to Mr. Regan’s biweekly column in the Chron faithfully, and today was messing around on their site, Ardent Spirits.

I found a link to this: The Victorian Secret. I really need to make these sometime soon… Anyone want to be a taste tester?

A saucy little cocktail i mixed up for the girls when they came over to swap clothes. I forgot to take a photo - i’ll get one on the next serving. This was especially precious with a cluster of tiny frozen champagne grapes in the bottom of the glass as a garnish.
(more…)

This is probably not a “true” mango lassi, as depending on which East-Indian friends I ask, a true lassi is made with yoghurt, and the mango taste is meant to come from mango puree. (I think Ashish is wrong on the mango puree, but I’m not getting into an argument with his mother!)

So this is my own variant on the classic, using fresh mango and kefir
(more…)

I’m so in love with Gary Regan’s column, that I dream of starting a bi-weekly Professor’s study group, to get together with a bunch of people and sample all the cocktails he makes.

This week - the Floridita

Created in honor of Hawaiian Dick, a tiki noir comic from Image & Isotope Comics - our favorite comics shop in the City. Based on the original bruised kidney - vodka and french sparkling lemonade in about the same proportions, same framboise treatment.
(more…)