I have got into this mode of finding perfection in everything. Trust me, it is not easy.
It may be related to my threshold for mediocrity being tested with each passing week. My work brings me to travel a lot, I respect the food industry and the people who drive it today. But amongst the murk and the lowly, the dispassionate and the green eyed monsters who also bond the framework of our industry (I do not deny they are not prevalent in other industries too) the rise of these kinds have made things a little difficult to process as to what exactly is happening to our food culture.
I may sound cynical but I have one too many bad an experience to begin with in the name of food and drinks in this cities superficial world of being a food haven. Yes, the stalwarts and the old timers remain and continue to do what they do best but what about the newbies? The so-called entrepreneurs from another mother who step into our world of food with only ROI in their Rotis, the son-of-a-gun who comes back from a stint in a culinary school abroad to bang out restaurants with concepts which are as befuddling as the smoke in the cocktails, the flitting young butterflies who crave for a pot of honey by tweezing edible flowers on to everything from a soup to a dessert and not to forget mentioning the abominable lounge-rs who have reversed the art of making cocktails and bringing back prohibition – by actually wanting me to prohibit alcohol from being even remotely mixed with anything but soda/tonic/juice or straight up.
The restaurant industry is turning into a joke. I used to be quite diplomatic as a writer before, I think I had more patience and an understanding ear and gave my critical feedback then and there, allowing them a chance to change, to revisit, to correct themselves. I only covered (and still do) brands or the people behind them in my print pieces should my long-standing association work its way into my own heart with their food, their hospitality and most of the keeping a keen eye and ear open to the experiences of the others around me. Trend pieces, world cuisines, passionate individuals who were slowly making their mark excited me. But as the months go by and I return to India from my travels I realize that more and more people are monkeying around with concepts and their spaces than ever before.
My biggest grouse is with the way cocktails are perceived in this city. I make a beeline for the exit if I see wisps of smoke emanating out of glasses or if glasses are not glasses but skullduggery vessels to tempt the drinker into believing in it. Mind you, there are a few great discoveries out there – undoubtedly, but I am yet to park myself at a new bar with a promising list of cocktails (we don’t use sugar!) and be sated. Ps: if you don’t use sugar how in the world are you going to make my old fashioned?
Nary a Negroni has been ruined with extra vermouth (we think people won’t like the bitter taste!), oh well then they won’t order it next time or the cocktail is not for them. An old fashioned made with sugar syrup (not simple syrup mind you – there is a difference – simple syrup is sugar dissolved in water without heating) resulting in a clammy, ‘cooked’ sugar taste imparted in an otherwise well balanced aromatized drink. The more I go to bars these days the more worrisome it is to order my favorite classics. I once had a martini made with watermelon because I asked for a three olive martini. I am yet to fathom how and what hit me when I saw a pink drink with 3 olives on a skewer being served to me?
I will go on to say that yes I am fussy about my cocktails being made perfect. They should not be just good or great, they have to be made right. Each classic has a history and a legacy. In the name of experimentation and mixology expertness its fine to tweak a recipe and come up with your own versions, but in the end if I want a dry martini, a dry martini is all I need – no spice additions, no odd shaped glasses, no tweaks and turns, no dramatism! A ton of bars today take their customers for granted and pretend that they know what a customer really wants. I make my own cocktails at home, I make them well and when I go out to drink with friends or for socializing I would expect a mean classic to be presented when I desire it. The art of cocktail making is an acquired talent and it seems to be warping as the people behind it get more and more experimental and strain away from the DNA.
I have decided I am going to cover classics once in a while on the blog. I do have many stories for each one of them and how I have observed them being made. I waxed eloquent about a lemon drop one many moons ago on the blog and had shaken it up at that time (it was all about the shake) but the classic martini, dry, aromatic and with a squirt of lemon is my favorite. I have been stirring up martinis (not shaken unlike James Bond) for many years now and I test the bar when the claim they have a good pick of gins.
My most memorable experience with a perfect martini was in Japan. I and a buddy of mine were visiting Kyoto and we had stumbled upon a speakeasy perchance, called K6. A small dingy bar on level one of a house like structure on a residential street. It was predominantly a malt bar, with no menu / list and just two people working the space. The lights were dim, the space was leaded with heavy smoke and peat (angels share right there for you) and we sparked a fat one and settled ourselves amongst an array of malts. It wasn’t long before I saw cocktails being churned out at one end of the bar to a handsome couple. I scooted over to the center and asked the bartender to fix me a dry martini. And oh boy did he. It took him a good nine minutes to come up with this beauty and I have sipped on this luscious elixir to its last drop. He had painstakingly cracked ice and topped up a crystal mixing glass, picked out a delicate gin and a splash of dry vermouth, stirred it just right with a peel inside. This all happened atop his workspace with a single lit spotlight embedded in the table. The drink sparkled like a diamond with each stir and pour. The finale was in a gorgeous crystal glass which I was very tempted to pocket. I think the whole process of creating my drink did me in more than savoring it for a long time.
I share with you the perfect dry martini and the key is in following the recipe to the “T”. Coincidentally my good friends Ruchi and Jan who have moved to Hamburg graciously sent me a bottle of the famed Monkey 47 gin. It is a rich indulgence and I thought it would be perfect to crack open the bottle and make myself a good drink. Many memories came flooding in and I sip on one while I type this post up.
Dry Martini
Ingredients
- Cracked Ice
- 45 ML Gin (I used Monkey 47)
- 15 ML Noilly Prat Original Dry (You can use the Martini brand dry vermouth available in India)
- 1 dash Orange Bitters
- 1 Strip lemon peel
Method
- Place cracked ice in a martini glass and set aside to chill
- Place cracked ice halfway through in a crystal mixing glass.
- Pour the gin and vermouth, dash of orange bitters and stir. Stir well till the drink is chilled and the crystal mixing glass has formed a good condensation. You will see some of the ice melt and rise the liquid content by about 5%.
- Toss the ice out of the martini glass and immediately strain the liquid into the glass.
- Peel a strip of lemon (pick a nice thick skinned one). Hold over the cocktail and give a proper twist, squirt the oils on the surface and rub it quickly around the rim and the stem. Place on the edge of the glass and serve the cocktail.
What you or the drinker should experience is a burst of citrus as he brings the cocktail up to his nose, the arid coolness of the chilled glass and the inimitable puckering dryness of this beautifully balance cocktail.
Nonchalant Note
You can double the recipe in the same mixing glass, but don’t try and triple it. It is best to make two at a time.
