FIVE THINGS: COCKTAILS
1. BLOOD ORANGE WHISKEY COCKTAIL
2. STRAWBERRY CLOVER CLUB
3. BLACKBERRY THYME SPARKLER
4. ROSEMARY FLORA GREYHOUND
5. CRANBERRY KIR ROYALE
Showing posts with label alcohol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alcohol. Show all posts
Thursday, 4 July 2019
Monday, 27 August 2018
LADY DATE SUMMER 2018
LADY DATE SUMMER 2018
We started our day with ominous clouds at Notting Hill. We had a walk around with the tourists while looking at the colourful houses and along the market at Portobello Road. It started raining around this time and we made the walk back and into Kensington.
It stopped raining as we made our way past all the elegantly large embassies and into Kensington Gardens. We walked past Kensington Palace and around the large pond. Then up towards the gold statue of Albert by The Royal Albert Hall.
The rain started again with massive raindrops as we made our way towards Chelsea. It was a typical English Summer day and within only a few minutes we were again putting away umbrellas to make way for sunglasses. We stopped to eat once we made it to Kings Road.
I didn’t want anything too big and quite fancied some fries so we thought the American place The Big Easywas our best bet. Unfortunately it was disappointing. DesPite there being empty tables and the hostess offering us where we wanted to sit, she did not seem to want us to be there. To the point where I felt so guilty about just ordering fries even thought that was all I wanted, so ordered chicken as well. I’m glad I did because despite this place being American, there were no fries on the menu. There were only big chips, which I am not such a fan of. The chicken was nice though. We just didn’t feel very welcome. We didn’t stay very long. Rebecca had a mac and cheese, she said it was OK but that it was very difficult to really mess up a mac and cheese. The BBQ sauce tasted like pure alcohol, which was a shame.
So we left to go to our booking at The Bletchley. We descended a staircase into a basement with 1940s music and very little light. We were sat at the bar and given army jackets to wear and a radio and enigma machine to use. They give you an option of three different scenarios. Some have better stories, some have more interesting flavours for cocktails and others are harder. We went for the one with the most interesting flavours. The tasks were not too hard, a lot of punching into the enigma machine and trying to work out what the coded messages could mean. The welcome cocktail was a lovely fruit punch affair, probably my favourite out of the three. The second was determined by the first task, which was based on a menu. The food you ordered on the menu for an imagined dinner party determined what flavours were in your cocktail. Mine had a bit of fizz and a little kick but I have no idea what was in it. The next task to determine flavours involved smelling things in bottles and spraying tastes on your tongue. You had to choose where you were going on an imagined mission. I chose Italy and received an Amarettococktail. We were finished a little early but as we’d finished our cocktails quite quickly decided to leave to get a drink somewhere else. I think this experience runs a lot smoother with only two people. I think it would be a little tedious with a big group, especially when there are so many things to decide for each person. I did hear some bad reviews before I booked about people being left for too long or forgotten about but we didn’t have this problem at all. We did have a little problem with our enigma machine giving us the wrong letters for a while but a member of staff told us we had a problem and we started again rather than spending ages trying to decode a wrong message.
We were going to head to Bartsnext but quickly realized this would be an impossible place to get into without a booking so we headed to Mr Foggs. This is a little out of the way place behind the main street in Mayfair. We hadn’t booked but managed to get a space at the bar. They hand you a kind of spinning menu of cocktails as you head in but don’t be fooled, because these are only some of the cocktails on offer. There is actually a whole book of cocktails, almost like reading a novel, which is always one of the things I love most about a good cocktail bar. I, as usual, went for a vodka-based cocktail, something fruity but a little different. The barman was a true artist. He amazingly knew the recipes for both drinks we ordered off the top of his head. He mixed with flair and decorated with the skill and care of an artisan. The cocktails were lovely. My main flavor was of raspberry puree until I reached the bottom which unfortunately was all ginger beer, so it started off better than it ended. If I wasn’t left with pure ginger at the end it probably would have been my favourite cocktail.
And then, after seeming to walk all day, we headed home.
Here are links to some of the places we visited:
Saturday, 10 February 2018
TOP FIVE: COCKTAILS
1. ART PRINT
2. MAD MEN COCKTAIL IDEA: MAI TAI
3. PEAR ROSEMARY SPRITZER
4. COCKTAIL RECIPES
5. 7 COCKTAILS TO MAKE YOUR PARTY POP!
Sunday, 8 November 2015
Saturday, 7 November 2015
FILM 1402: AMY
TRIVIA: Amy Winehouse's immediate
family were initially willing to work with the film's producers and director,
having heard about the success of their earlier documentary, Senna (2010). They granted
the filmmakers access to hours of archive footage of Amy and her family, as
well as giving the filmmakers' their blessing to interview Amy's family and
friends. However, they - in particular, Amy's father, Mitch Winehouse - soon
began to feel they were being misrepresented in the documentary, that the
negative aspects of Amy's life were receiving much more attention than the
positive, and that footage had been edited in order to produce an inaccurate
narrative of Amy's story, especially the last three years of her life. Mitch Winehouse has said
that Amy's fans should consider seeing the film for the rare, previously
unseen, archive footage of his daughter, but should pay no attention to the
film's general portrayal of her, which he has labeled "preposterous".
Sunday, 16 August 2015
FILM 1361: THE UNTOUCHABLES
TRIVIA: Robert De Niro tracked
down Al Capone's original
tailors and had them make him some identical clothing for the movie.
Brian De Palma met Bob Hoskins over a drink
in Los Angeles to discuss playing Al Capone
if De Palma's first choice Robert De
Niro were to pass on the role. Since De Niro had not yet said yes,
Hoskins told De Palma he would do it if he were available. When De Niro finally
took the role, De Palma sent Hoskins a thank you note, and the studio paid
Hoskins, who had a "pay or play" deal, $200,000. Hoskins called De
Palma and asked if there were any more movies the director did not want him to
be in.
An envelope is dropped on the desk
of Eliot Ness in one scene. It is assumed to be a bribe but the amount inside is
never revealed. In real life, Al Capone
promised Eliot Ness that two $1,000 notes would be on his desk every Monday
morning if he turned a blind eye to his bootlegging activities (an enormous
amount of money then). Ness refused the bribe and in later years struggled with
money. He died almost broke at the age of 54.
In real life, Al Capone, knowing that
killing a Prohibition agent would only lead to more trouble than he or his
outfit could handle, actually had a non-violence order to his men, concerning
the Untouchables. While Capone did repeatedly attempt to buy them off, he never
once attempted to kill Ness or any of his men.
The scene where Al Capone (Robert De Niro) pulls out
a baseball bat at a dinner party and suddenly beats to death one of his men is
based on a true incident which happened on May 7, 1929. Two of Capone's most
feared hit men, Albert
Anselmi and John Scalise,
had hatched a plot to kill Capone and take over his gang. Capone got wind of it
and invited all his associates to a dinner party, including Anselmi and
Scalise. In the middle of the party, Capone pulled out a baseball bat and
battered both men to death, then shot them both in the head. A conflicting
version of the story has Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo, one of Capone's
hit men, as the man who bludgeoned the traitors to death.
Despite the final courtroom scene
in this movie, the real Al Capone
and Eliot Ness never came face
to face during their battles.
Michael Douglas, Don Johnson and Mel Gibson were considered
for the role of Eliot Ness
and rejected. Harrison Ford
was offered but turned down the role before Kevin Costner was signed.
When Agent George Stone is
introduced, Malone finds out that his real name is Giuseppe Petri and he was
born in Italy. In Italian, Giuseppe Petri can be literally translated as
"Joseph Stone".
Sean Connery turned up to
the shoot in his golf clothes they did a close open and Sean was dismissed for
the day. He came back after a full day of golf, acted for five minutes then
went to go home. Andy Garcia
and Charles Martin Smith
grabbed him after the scene and said that was very clever of you, you just got
back from golf turn up for five minutes and do your scene and that's it.
Connery turned to them and said, "this is not my first BBQ."
Patricia Clarkson's film
debut.
Monday, 6 April 2015
Here are the cocktail reviews.
I have a few places to review going
back over the year so I’m going to make my way backwards over the next few
weeks. Obviously the more recent reviews
will be more detailed, mostly because I have a terrible memory but I will do my
best.
Hopefully these reviews will help
you decide which place to visit next time you’re in London.
1. SATAN’S WHISKERS, BETHNAL GREEN.
I really liked the atmosphere in
this place, it wasn’t pretentious or unwelcoming like some small cocktail
establishments and even though there were reserved tables we were welcomed to
sit where we liked.
The décor is eccentric, bones and
taxidermy, as is the latest fashion it seems. I liked the touch of the vintage
drink posters on the wall. The Dubonnet posters taking me back to my studies in
Graphic Design. The ice counter with
brightly coloured fruits is a particularly nice touch.
I had an East 8 Hold Up, which contained Vodka, Aperol, Pineapple and
Lime. It was deliciously refreshing, one
of the best cocktails I’d had for a long time and at £7.50 ever so slightly
cheaper than London prices. I did not
want it to end.
2. THE ALCHEMIST, ALDGATE
This bar is slightly bigger than we
are used to. It is beautifully decorated
with a friendly and warm atmosphere.
There is somewhere to eat upstairs; I didn’t get a chance to look at the
food though. There is an extensive list
of cocktails. A lot of places claim to
have a long list and you realize that a lot of them are very similar but this
list is impressive. They have classic favorites
for those who are less adventurous and some very experimental ones designed by
the bar staff, these ones have the drama.
I had a White Chocolate Raspberry Martini, it was heavenly. A berry cocktail with raspberry vodka, raspberry
liqueur, cranberry juice and a white chocolate foam on top sprinkled with an
explosion of berry powder. At first taste, a bit like you’re drinking liquid
jam but once the ingredients start to mix a little it is truly delicious and I
have to confess to licking the white chocolate foam cream from the inside of
the glass.
My friend had a Bubble Bath, which is gin based with
Chambord, apple juice, sugar and what they call Alchemist magic. The magic is truly impressive, they use dry
ice to create a magnitude of bubbles that sit on your glass, and they keep
multiplying!
The buys behind the bar are
enthusiastic about their cocktails and make them with such spectacle. If you can, try and watch a while till you
see them warming a cocktail on a Bunsen burner and you’ll see sparkles coming
from them sprinkling something into the flames, followed by a warm cinnamon
smell, a wonderful experience!
3. LOUNGE BOHEMIA, SHOREDITCH
You should always book here. We didn’t, although it seemed quiet, we did
get told off by the waitress. Plus it’s
hard to find, we walked past it because it is just an open door with a
staircase leading down. It is a
mid-century modern masterpiece in a basement. The first smell that hits you is
the popcorn and the first sight is the magnitude of different flavor vodkas above
the bar.
It is low ceilinged and cozy, the
cocktail menus are stuck inside old books with graphic covers. The list is quite long and interesting. I have been to a lot of cocktail bars in my
time but there were things on this list that I’d never heard of. Drinks infused with leather, a cocktail
called into the woods with literally
every woody ingredient you could think of.
I went for a d&b float, which
contained Vanilla Vodka, Ice cream, and dandelion and bergamot. It was lovely
but I know how some people find it hard to drink spirits and ice cream
together. It came with a metal straw that was also a spoon and a piece of ice
cream cone. It was a lovely relaxing
atmosphere with music quiet enough to talk above, free popcorn, beautifully
designed plastic jugs and comfortable seats and sofas.
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