Monkey See, Monkey GO

Bangalore meets New York, New York meets Bangalore. New Gastro-bar in Bangalore so much lives upto their Twitter description. I paid this watering hole a visit a week before for lunch and my verdict a BIG thumbs up. I will not bother putting up pictures of food or drinks on this blog post as their website does quite a good job with that.

Since I went there with wifey and my two year old Zyana, I walked in very sceptically into the place wondering if they would be kid friendly. The place was buzzing with young and restless of Bangalore.

The décor of the place as you can see from the pics on their website (http://mobar.in/) is quite young as well. Walls are adorned with frames on monkies and a lot about monkey business.They have quite a decent seating size but not a single table available when we went there. I approached a smart young man who looked like to be running the place for a table. 15 minutes I was told. They had a table vacant in the cellar section. We climbed down the stairs and the cellar was loud with a bunch of kids and few families playing around on the foosball and pool table. It was definitely a relief to notice they welcomed kids.

We climbed back up and perched ourselves at the bar. Zyana comfortable on the bar itself J.The seating across the bar is high stool and is smoking area with an opening in the roof. So it’s not all that smoky on that side. Besides no smoking allowed at the bar itself, so that was fine.

Again I won’t bother writing about their menu as their website has enough links to reviews and articles that will give you details. I ordered myself a “Mary Beer”. The menu says its beer and spicy tomato juice but I saw my barman giving me a dash of vodka into it as well. They used kingfisher premium and premade mixture of the spicy tomato juice which I presume is used into their Bloody maries as well. Because it was premade, the drink was served very fast well. And it had perfect balance of quantities of beer and the tomato juice. Very refreshing. I ended up having 3 of them.

The most popular drink at the place seemed to be the “Mangaa”  - vodka and aam panna served in nutella jars. There were quite a few Sangria pitchers as well that I saw going out. Lot of fresh fruits and ingredients in most cocktails. One unique thing I saw them doing with some of their cocktails was using freshly pressed  “Sweet lime” (Mausaumbi) that I know no bar in Bangalore uses. Although my Mary beer was perfect I saw quite a few drinks come back to the bar in the 2 hours we were there for some fix or the other. Don’t know why. It could be the palate of Bangaloreans is still getting ready for the Monkey.

We ordered the house specials – “Tikki Of Joy” – (fish cutlets) and “Peri-Peri” prawns for starters. Both came with suggestions for paired drinks which ofcourse we could not do as I had my Mary Beer running. Very few or almost no bars in Bangalore have cocktail pairing with food, but since this is a Gastro-pub, the guys at Monkey bar did well with this. I could not order anything else but their cheese burger for the main and it was served with a pickle on the side. I wouldn`t say it was the BEST I ever had but it surly was quite decent. Well done, juicy and served with nice and crispy fries. You must check out their pictures on the website on how they serve their burger, on a wood plate. My wife`s grilled chicken was quite satisfactory as well. All food is plated quite elegantly.I do want to go back and try almost everything on their menu.

The prices were reasonable. The mary beer was Rs.250 a drink. The lemon soda that my wife ordered was just Rs.50. although when the 7% service charge , 10 % service tax and 4 % vat get loaded on these rates, they add up quite a bit. Can`t blame the bar for the taxes part.

The young gentleman who we approached when we entered the place came around later to ask if liked the food and in conversation told us he was the creative director of Olive Bar & Kitchen group of restaurants. Monkey bar is a division of the famous Olive Beach  just a 100 meters down the same Wood Street road in Ashok Nagar. I am sure this place is buzzing a lot more during weekend nights.

Good addition to Bangalore scene, I would say. We need more places like these. Small, unpretentious, good food, great drinks, lovely music, good crowd and gentle on the purse strings. Follow them on twitter at @MonkeyBarBlr

For the love of Bacon & Bourbon

Here is a solution to mix your love for food and drink. I love Bacon and I love Bourbon.I present to you here a well known practice of infusing flavours of smoked bacon into bourbon. The pictures shown here are straight from work outs at my home. "Statutory statement: Do try this at home." If you tried this , you will surly realise how well the smoky flavours of bacon complements the charcoal filtered flavours of bourbon.

Like most techniques of infusing spirits this one is quite simple too. The technical term for this methodology is "Fat Washing".

Step1, Pan fry some smoked bacon. I fried about 15 strips.

Step 2 Collect all the fat in the pan from frying bacon into a small container. I got about 100 ml of fat

Step 3 Pour the fat into bourbon. I mixed 100 ml fat with 350 ml of Bourbon. I used a relatively inexpensive bourbon called "Benchmark" easily available in wine stores in Bangalore. Rs.1500 a bottle of 750ml. Make sure to use a wide mouth bottle or jar when you mix the fat and the bourbon. You will now why - soon.

Step 4, Chuck the concoction into deep freezer for a while. A while can be 2 hours to 2 weeks depending on your patients. I left it for 2 days and then took it out.

Step 5. The fat would have frozen in the jar, but the spirit would not as its free

zing point is much below your freezer`s best. Now use a spoon and pull out the frozen fat and the remaining spirit in the jar is now infused with the bacon flavours. A wide moth jar is helpful to scrape out the fat easily

Step 6. Filter the spirit using a muslin cloth several times to make sure you have removed fine fat particles as much as possible. And tadaaaaaaaaaaa....your bacon infused bourbon is ready.You may drink it the way you prefer your bourbon but in a post soon I will show how to use this with the ginger adn honey syrup to make a delicious cocktail. Till then, have fun...

Of Ginger and Honey

Last weekend I experimented with the thought of making my own Gingerale. I think it a noble thought to replace the supermarket stuff with freshly home made gingerale to give company for whiskey or vodka or gin. What started as an effort to make Gingerale lead me to discover the age old simple way of making a ginger syrup that grannies have always made as home cure for your throat infection or common cold and how well we can adopt it into the cocktail world.

This is the most easiest of things to make. Aim to start with a batch of 500 ml of ginger syrup. Throughly clean about 400 gms of ginger roots,cut them into small chunks. Peel them if you are not through with your cleaning. Put them in a open bowl with 2 liters of water and put the bowl on high flame. In about 45 min, the water would soak up the flavour of the ginger roots and would have reduced to almost 500 to 600 ml. It would be gain slightly thicker consistency too. Remove the bowl from the heat and let it cool down for a bit. You can empty the bowl into a glass jar and then top it up with equal amount of honey. Close the lid, give it a shake and refrigerate the syrup. Your ginger syrup is ready.

If kept refrigerated the shelf life of this syrup can be upto 6 months. I took a sample from my batch to Take 5 on Sunday evening and made everyone I know around taste it. Most liked it. You can use this syrup as a cocktail additive into a whiskey sour replacing the sugar syrup. This pic below is what I concocted at Take 5 with this syrup.

To continue to make your own gingerale, all you need to do is take about 60 ml of this syrup in a tall glass and top it with soda. One of my early memories of a cocktail was drink called "Ginger Banger" in a night club called Bottles & Chimneys in Hyd a good 8 -9 years ago. I vaguely remember it to be a vodka cocktail with lot of ice,dash of lime juice, mint leaves (not muddled) topped with gingerale. Super refreshing for summer noons.

To improvise the syrup, while boiling the ginger originally you could add cinnamon or cloves or any other spices that you like. One common drink I can think of using this ginger syrup is with brandy and hot water into a cocktail that is famously known as "Doctor`s prescription". Works quite well for your bad nose or throat days :).

Stuboto

As the temperature in the city is starting to rise, its about time for those refreshing summer drinks. And taking advantage of the seasonal availbility of strawberries here I present a simple and delicious improvisation to the caiprinhia/mojito kind of cocktail family. I call it "Stuboto".

What you need is 45 ml Gin/Vodka/Rum (clear poison of your choice), I used Beefeater Gin. 4 Fresh straberries, 1 lime, 60 to 90 ml cranberry juice, 15 ml Chambord (raspberry liquor, u could use syrup if liquor not available), 2 tsp sugar and some ice.

Cut strawberries into halves and muddle them with the juice of half lime and sugar in a shaker tin. Add scoopful of ice, gin, chambord and cranberry juice. Shake it with love and empty the concoction along with ice into an old fashioned glass. choose your garnish the way you like. perfect drink for ladies who prefer the sweet drinks that mask the smell of the spirit well. Pairt it with some bbq and you are good to roll.

A dip into Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest in India may sound a bit absurd but I just happened to visit a recently opened watering hole - "The Biere Club"(TBC) in Bangalore and they were celebrating the official last day of the fest. I was doubly lucky to have not procrastinated my pint of beer, for tomorrow is officially a dry day in the whole country.

TBC is situated on Lavele road in Bangalore, exactly in place of the old Kingfisher Airlines office. I doubt if that`s coincidence :). With the govt of India allowing separate and affordable licenses for brew pubs, I am guessing we will see more and more of these kind of places. There are a few already in other cities and TBC is almost the first in Bangalore. Toit in Indiranagar is also a brew pub, but they have not started making their own beers yet. The biggest dependency for this kind of place is to hunt for a in-house brew master, not so easy in this part of the world.

I entered TBC with my wife and daughter, about the same afternoon showers time for the city. It was 4 pm and the 3 floor beer garden did not have a single table free!!! Shows how much love and respect Bangloreans have for their beer. Neverthless I was directed towards the bar with my two girls..so clearly they do not have a problem with kids in their pub. Infact as we waded through the beery tables, I saw several tables had a kid or two thrown in :). The crowd of the place quite mixed - a few expats, a couple of small families, some teeny woopie youngsters, a group of men, few single girls. Almost like a place for all.

The USP of TBC is obviously that they make all their beers in-house. They have huge coppers overlooking the bar, where the beer is brewed. One whole wall of the ground floor is painted in cartoons in the Mario Miranda style. They have decent and simple lighting and several tables in all fashions - coffee, pub, 10 seater dinning, 4 seater. Some tables were dressed in typical German red and white chequered table cloth. Smoking is not allowed inside.

We looked at the beer menu and it was not disappointing. Finally there is a place in Bangalore that sells Stout. Thank HEAVENS!!! They have ales, lagers, stouts and wheat beers. At 300rs a 500 ml pint of Rs.225 for a 330 ml, I would say they are very decntly priced for what is being offered. Marking the occasion of Oktoberfest they have a few specially brewed beers too. Great thing about the place is they give you tasters from all or any of their categories if you want before choosing which one to order. I ordered ourselves a wheat beer to begin with as I always find them to be greatly refreshing starters. The last great wheat beer I liked for Giest, but that was bottled. When the beer arrived, it was perfect.....taste,temperature, head, the mug everything...I unfortunatly did not have my camera handy to take any pictures.

We got a table soon, and started looking at the food menu. TBC mostly serves mediterannean cuisine, a lot of moroccon actually. We asked for a spicy moroccon chicken appetizer. Priced at Rs 380, it was a very decent portion of grilled boneless chicken served with grilled peppers and zucchinis. Succlent chicken, well grilled veggies. My daughter Zyana, 2o months young, is a french fries loyalist and she had to disrespectfully for the place, order fries and was happy.

I ordered another pint from the Oktoberfest special beer menu - a coffee malt stout. People....after tasting the first sip, I was convinced that Jesus has arrived in Bangalore and we are to be redeemed soon. My wife Smita, almost said this looks like a dash of espresso in a beer can.A greatly brewed stout with the perfect balance between coffee and malt. I am not sure it will be available from tomorrow but this one was a killer.

We wanted to order a Tangine dish but Zyana decided we have had enough fun and that we should probably be heading home.

Staff were decent and friendly. I recommend you book a table in advance Walet factor- 1500 to 2000rs for beer and food for 2.

I came home hungry and made ourselves some Thai Rice stick noodle soup. I do not have patience to write the recipe and process right now but sufficed to say a lot of liquid for a single weekend...

PS: TBC does serve spirits too but would you care for them in such a place?

The rocket science of a Sidecar

The biggest problem with a booze blog is that to keep it going, u need to keep drinking. Nevermind. For quite a long time I have been drinking straight and had almost given up cocktails. I mustered myself upto make one this friday and it happens to be a Sidecar - it cant get more classic than this. I have written about it befoe but still, a Sidecar is the father of all sweet and sour drinks for here it started all. The whiksey sour, the margarita, the daiquiri are some of its improvisations or shall we call close cousins.

The basic rule of the sweet and sour cocktails is this - 1 of sour (lime), 2 of sweet (syrup), 3 of strong (alcohol) and 4 of week (ice). The numbers represent the potions. Change the ingredients but retain the characterstic and you will have all the variations/cousins like I mentioned before.

When I reached upto my bar this Friday, this is what I found. Lime juice, Orange liquer, some left over Brandy, and nice Angoustra Bitters lilliput. I like bitters in almost all my drinks, its what I call the salt of cocktails.






Traditionally a sidecar is made of cognac but i shall use its poorer cousin brandy today and the sweet in the drink comes from Cointreau (liquer made from orange peels). Unfortunatly I left my shaker at my friend`s place last time i took my kit there, so I substitute it with a gym sipper and man it works just fine. I use a BIG margarita glass to make this one and pour all ingredients after shaking them with ice.

Will blog soon!!!

My exceptionally great blogging tempo is thanks to my work life getting much busier (& not FB or Twitter please, I still do love the classic blogging too). So here when I am sitting doodling around at the Heathrow airport, I thought I ll put my time to good use on my deprived blog. There are two main things I need to blog about and soon.
Everyday Drinking - An deviously fantastic book for all drunkards of the world presented to me by someone who I fondly call "Bhabi"
& ofcourse my fabulous spiritual experiences from the land of the Queen.

The earlier deserves a good number of posts seperatly. So I shall indulge in reporting out on the later lest I might loose memory of small little things that made the experiences. For ease`s sake, I ll split that into two posts - one on the drinking culture of the place as observed by me and another on the new things I have tasted and come across. So stay tunnned for my dole out as I am sinking into my word pad ......

The Cocktail Faceoff

Timeout Magazine Bangalore did a Bangalore bartender faceoff for their cover story this month. They went around bars in town putting them up with each other on who makes a better concoction. Mostly classic cocktails. All the A list cocktail gardens of Bangalore were up in the race. So was Take 5 and yours truly as well.

For our part we were to show how to make a Manhattan and here it is with the classic recipe. And the bonus - we were declared winner!!!!

Tangerini in Chaos Theory

I was watching this movie called Chaos Theory I and in a scene in there, this chick at the bar wants our leading man to try something different from his vodka tonic; orders this drink called Tangerini!!! Sexy name I say. Next shot I see them holding martini glasses with almost orange juice looking like drink in it.

I did some googling and this is what I came to understand a Tangerini Tini is :
30 ml Vodka,
30ml Cointreau
15ml Amaretto
60 ml orange juice
1 tsp Grenadine

Shake all ingredients well in a cocktail shakers and serve in a martini glass on crushed ice.
Leave an orange peel for garnish.

Sweet stuff, this drink looks like a cross between a Vodka sunrise and a Cosmopolitan to me. And I think the recipe has come out super cool. I am gonnan cook it very soon!!!

Wished we knew our Caiproska

Seriously, I just want to hunt that one guy who taught Indians that a Capiroska is just a Vodka Mojito. I am confronted with this version of Cairposka ( mint muddled with sugar and lime , crused ice, vodka & soda splash) everywhere. Bars have menus written this wrong way and over the years have taught Indians to order and expect their Caiproska this way.

Caiproska is an improvisation on the Bazilian national cockatil - Caiprinhia and it has no mint in it. Allow me to differentiate these three drinks and for once clear the air around these 3 classic muddled drinks. These are classic recipes and there may be variations available around the world but the DNA wont change so much.

Mojito - Orginated in Cuba

Mint & Lime muddled with white sugar, load with ice, slop in White Rum & top it with a splash of soda. Served in a long glass

Caiprinhia - Orginated in Brazil

Lime muddled with castor sugar, load with crushed ice, add 60 ml Cachaca (Brazilian white rum made from Sugar cane juice - much sweeter than regular white rum). No soda, no mint please. Served in rocks glass or a small glass as there is no soda and mostly alcohol & ice.

Caiproska - Improvisation of Caiprinhia

Same as Caiprinhia except that Vodka replaces Cachaca. No mint, no soda again.

Fusion Confusion

It was one of the super busy Friday`s at the bar when I got this call from a friend of mine. He wanted to know if its safe to imbibe some Scottish malt after some Champagne. I am no authority at this subject but still, I do not like to let go of exploring the idea once it lands up in my radar.

For the moment, I told my friend it`s never safe to mix drinks unless you have a dehydration plan at hand. (Cocktails are another thing). Secondly it will also depend on how he defines the “some” champagne and the “some” single malt. Thirdly, what quality alcohol are we talking? Turns out he had no plan at hand, by “some” he meant half bottle of Champagne and 3-4 rounds of scotch. The brands of evil at question were “Moet & Chandon” and Glenfiddich 18 year old –undoubtedly great spirits both.

Not many people in India would have much experience with drinking Champagne. It`s not so much part of the drinking culture in India as in the west. Also known sweetly as “Bubbly”, I know of it to be devil. At many a parties that I have managed the bars, I have seen what it can do to people. It is easy to drink, hard to say no to, and can leave you with one hell of a hangover. I carry no statistics, but looks like its more favorite with women and also its perpetuates greater hangover to women than men. But again this is a general observation.

Champagne by category falls under sparkling wines and comes exclusively from the Champagne region in France. The fizz in champagne is like that in beer, caused by secondary fermentation induced in the bottle. This carbonation speeds up the body`s process of absorbing alcohol. If you plan to drink licquor I shudder to imagine what it can do to you.

I have not tested empirically in the field, but suffices to know from reading that the lesser the intake of other kinds of sugar while consuming champagne, the lesser is chances of being left with cotton mouth, head or body aches & nausea. This is because Champagne itself has very high levels of sugar.Once the cork is popped open, it’s always a good idea to stick to champagne for the rest of the evening. It should be the beginning and the ending of your drinking session.

Turns out next day, my friend did not graduate to the malt at all. The Champagne was enough on her own. Sugar crash I guess.

BOTTOM LINE: CHAMPAGNE AND LIQUOR THE SAME EVENING – NEVER WORSE.

How manly is your drink ????

Midnight Muse

There are many times you run out of cold beer in the midst of a good drinking session at home. While this doesn`t happen too often with me, but it did last night. My bum chum pal was meeting me for dinner and drinks yesterday. After swishing through THULP burgers,we started our spiritual journey for the night with him on Rum & Cokes and me on Tuborgs. As ill-planning would have it, I ran out of beers in the middle of the night. But being a believer in the power of positive thinking, I felt its a good opportunity for me to pick up the mixing glass and help myself a chilled cocktail.


And since it was in the middle of the night, I chose this aptly named cocktail - Midnight Muse (MM).

45 ml whiskey of your choice
15 ml Midori
Pour ingredients over ice in mixing glass and stir. Serve it straight up in a pre chilled martini glass.


This is a typical American contemporary martini drink. The base for MM is whiskey and generally Bourbon. In la martini style - whiskey is stirred along with Midori, in a mixing glass half filled with ice and fine strained into a chilled martini glass with lime peel as garnish. Midori is a sweet, honeydew melon-flavored liqueur that is a vivid green color and comes in a distinctively-shaped textured bottle. Midori lends its deep green colour to MM without overpowering the taste of the whiskey.



Being a Martini drink, MM is a tad strong drink. So make sure you get your proportions right. I prefer 45 ml of scotch (instead of Bourbon, just cause I was in a that mood). 15 ml of Midori is good enough. The best ratio is the one which will make you love your drink. Be bold enough and experiment with the ratios although beware that Midori is crushingly sweet. Have enough ice in your mixer and stir the drink long enough (20-30 secs at least) to aerate & dilute the drink to suit your palate. This is an important step. If neglected, you will end up having either a very strong drink due to lack of enough water content or over diluted drink tasting very watery with none of the characteristics of either whiskey or Midori.



I have not seen to many bars stocking Midori in Bangalore. But my guess is Hard Rock and Shiro must be having it. So next time you are in a mood for a martini and you like you dram of whiskey too, ask for a Midnight Muse. Do not discard it as a sweet green drink, for it has a delectable taste.

Schumacher doesn`t mix drink and driving

Last night I bumped into an aquaintance at the launch party of B52 a new bar in town. Only when he mentioned that he is off to the middle east for a 10day holiday from this morning and that includes the Bahrin Grand Prix, I realised that the F1 racing season has begun.

Schumacher is racing this time and I am sure every racing fan is eager to see what he`s got. Apparently Schumi doesn`t like to mix drinking with driving. You would remember my post on driving under influence, won`t you? Bacardi came up with this sooper cool advertisement against Drink and Driving, bringing together stalwarts of both sports and alcohol. Ace bartender Salvatore Calabrese tried mixing a drink in a Maserati, while Schumi was charming the steering wheel. Can he mix a good one...check it out.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eO886N-jLo

Of Whiskey Cocktails

Last night was one of the most packed I ever saw at Take 5. And there is no fun to match such occasions for a man behind the bar. More so if he has to churn cocktails and more cocktails. However there was a small detail that was a bit different about last night compared to most packed cocktail nights.

At the backdrop of live texas blues music that "Ministry of Blues" was drumming out, I was super busy manufacturing the regular stuff - pitchers of Margaritas, some Cosmos, a Martini here, a Mai Tai there. What made the night different was two things.

1) Good friend of mine came to the bar with a drink in her hand asking me to desperately fix her wrongly done Manhattan and later for asked for an Old Fashioned as well.

2) A regular patron at the bar wanted to do something unusual and I suggested a Boilermaker.

Now Whiskey cocktails are not quite regular at any bar in India. You would very rarely find people in India wanting to drink a Manhattan, forget an Old Fashioned which most wouldn`t even know. At best - a Whiskey sour. The fact that these are classic cocktails and probably quaffed in quite abundancy anywhere abroad has got no relevance here. Similarly Boilermaker - a whiskey shot with a beer chase is unheard of in these parts of the world. Shots in India are mostly Tequila or sweet/sour vodka shots with lots of fruit syrups. So I am on a rampage to do my bit of teaching people who come to the bar on "how to drink"!! In this blogpost I will give you the recipes ofBoilermaker, Manhattan & Old Fashioned.

Boilermaker (A whisky shot and a beer chase)
Officialy called a Boilermaker,choose whiskey of you choice - bourbon, blended scotch, single malt, rye or whatever. Shoot it, gulp it. Pick up a pint of your favourite beer and down some of it immedietly. Some popular combinations are

1) Jameson & Guiness
2) Jack Daniels & Budwiser
3) Yamazaki & Asahi
4) Tequila (Although not a whisky) & Coronoa

Manhattan

A classic martini drink, many bars serve it in a rocks glass, which I do not like much. The whiskey in the drink should be a Bourbon. If you change it to any other whisky as tennesse,rye or scotch, the taste will surly vary. Vermouth - the italian fortified wine - should be the sweet one , also called Rosso. The drink must not be shaken. Its a stir drink.

60 ml Bourbon (Jim Beam Black mostly available in India)

2o ml Sweet Vermouth (Rosso)

Pour Ingredients into a shaker with Ice. Stir and fine strain into a Martini glass with a marchino cherry dropped in as garnish. A dash of bitters while stirring into the shaker is optional. The taste is water diluted bourbon with a slight sweet hint.

An improvisation of the drink is Dry Manhattan (Bourbon & Dry Vermouth), Perfect Manhattan (Bourbon, Dry Vermouth & Sweet vermouth).

My friend found the drink very bitter (wonder what happ!!) and asked me to do something to it. I added a dash of triple sec and shook it on ice again and gave it back to her. And she loved it. I guess the pure taste of a Manhattan needs repeated drinking to develop a taste for it.

Old Fashioned

Also supposed to be the world`s first cocktail. Simple to make but easy to goof. Whiskey of your choice can be used. Place a cube of sugar in a rocks glass and muddle it in a dash of bitters. Fill the glass with ice cubes and pour whiskey over. Splash of soda ll do great help. An orange slice with a lime twist and a couple of maraschino cherries is a garnish. I wonder why maraschino cherries are a garnish in most whiskey based drinks. Anyways.....

My goof last nite with this drink - did not use soda, did not use garnish. Criminal,I know.....I blame it on the packed nite.

So next time you ignore all advice about never drinking whiskey cocktails, I suggest you try one of the above. A boiler maker is a good party starter, a Manhattan a nice drink to hold through an evening and an Old Fashioned a perfect nightcap!!

Blue Bar, Delhi

Its been quite sometime since I have returned from Delhi. I have been wanting to scrape a few lines about what I considered the highlight of this January trip, apart from the incorrigable Delhi fog , - the mecca of cocktails, The Blue Bar at Taj Palace Hotel, Chanakyapuri.

The purpose of visiting the bar was not to have drinks or do a review of the place. Good friend and master mixologist - Nick Hawkins mans this bar and I just wanted to meet him, since I was in this part of the country. And I got a bonus and a shot of jealousy when I checked out his daily space of work. Blue Bar, Delhi is not just another bar in a 5 star hotel. It is a mosh pit of the most plushest things your could lay your eyes on. Everything at this bar is unique and shows the kind of attention to detail that has been given.

Blue bar has a fabulous alfresco section by the pool besides its great art deco interiors. The interiors have been done by Pool Associates, Singapore who have done some of the best bars of the world. The bar top alone is worth USD 30K - imported metal blocks that shine their golden strips under the lights. The super high ceiling and tall wave curtains give an illusion of space. This bar is no joke as all the glassware comes from UK. Each and every peice of glass is imported. Taj group has spent a whoppinig 8 crores on this bar.

Nick has written the cocktail menu. He has clearly demonstrated what a master mixologist can do if you give him the correct space. Nick`s menu has three sections: Signatures, Revivals and Topshelf.

The Signatures is a section which clearly brings out the creativity and experience that bartenders like Nick can boast of. Drinks like Matahari and Belgravia are hallmark to this section. Nick has been given the freedom to experiment and he is not afraid to do that. Bacon infused bourbon and cigar infused vodkas are used in his signatures. The Revivals section truly bring to life an era of cocktails that are long gone or even possibly unknown in India. Corpse Reviver, Blood and Sand, New York Flip - I am doubtful if you will ever find these on any cocktail menus in India. Its as it is difficult to lay hands on the sinful ingredients that some of these need and hence imported. Topshelf cocktails are popular cocktails made with ultra premium spirits - Mojito made with Rum Agricole (Sugarcane based rum) , Margaritas made with Petron Tequila etc.

Guzzle - dark rum (not Old Monk - Bacardi Black), bitters, pineapple juice and lemon charged with Ginger beer is what Nick made for me while talking about the place.Blue bar uses only premiun brands, be it straight drinks or cocktails. The pouring vodka is Absolut, pouring rum is Havana Club, pouring gin is Tanquery.

This apart the collection of single malts, liquers and premium spirits is just unbelievable. I have been previliged to see and taste a designer vodka on the shelves of Blue Bar. "ROBERTO CAVALI" vodlka - can you imagine. Has a very short after taste, doesnot burn at all and is sooper smooth. "Silk on the bum" - Nicks words.

Music at Blue Bar comes straight from the record case of Blue Frog. You can imagine the quality and kind yourself.

I did not have time to look at the food menu and apologise not being able to comment on that. That is not my forte anyway. One round of cocktails for two would burn 12-1500 bucks. So next time you are in Delhi and you feel like a real cocktail.....do make your way to The Blue Bar!!!

Driving Under Influence

How many of us have been holed at least once for drink and driving? And how many of us have been holed in for having just one beer or 30ml of our favorite whiskey before getting behind the steering wheel?

I have personally been caught ONCE in my active drinking life thus far and unfortunately for only one pint of my favorite lager. I ended up paying 2000 Rs after a bit of nagging and looking like an ass at a traffic police mosh pit at 1 in the morning. And I was duly pissed off when I got home and switched on my idiot box to see a liquor company advertising responsible drinking.

But how much is responsible drinking? What is the permissible limit to drink and drive? And what are our rights when we are faced with a cop in the middle of the road asking us to test on his breath analyzer? I am not trying to advocate drink and driving today, but there seems to be quite some ignorance and illiteracy about “driving under influence” DUI laws in India. This note will try to give basic info on this subject with my jaundiced opinion as well.

So, do you know why I paid 2000 quid for just a pint of beer before driving? My research shows that anywhere in the world except India I would be within permissible limits of driving under influence because the limit under the Indian law is, unfortunately, the lowest in the world.

The Indian Law: Central Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 Sec 185:

Driving by a drunken person or by a person under the influence of drugs.
Whoever, while driving, or attempting to drive, a motor vehicle,-

1. has, in his blood, alcohol exceeding 30 mg. per 100 ml. of blood detected in a test by a breathanalyser, or
2. is under this influence of a drug to such an extent as to be incapable of exercising proper control over the vehicle,

shall be punishable for the first offence with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 6 months, or with fine which may extend to 2000 Rs, or with both; and for a second or subsequent offence, if committed within 3 years of the commission of the previous similar offence, with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years, or with fine which may extend to 3000 Rs, or with both.

(You only get a receipt of being caught and will not be allowed to drive the vehicle. You would be required to face the traffic court as early as 730 or 8 the next morning and pay fine as the judge may deem appropriate. )

The level of alcohol in blood is referred to as Blood Alcohol Content/Concentration or Breath Alcohol Content (BAC). It is measured either as a percentage by mass, by mass per volume, or a combination. BAC is a combination of 4 important aspects

• Quantity of beverage consumed
• Percentage of Alcohol in the beverage consumed
• Your weight
• Hours of consuming the beverage.

So, if you consumed a 330 ml can of beer with 5% Alcohol in about an hour and your weight is 90 kgs, your BAC would be about 0.0308%. A BAC of 0.03% can mean 0.3 gram of alcohol per 1000 gram of an individual's blood, or it can mean 0.3 gram of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. Per Indian law, you are screwed if you are caught driving at this stage.

World over the average limit is 0.08% which means you can have 2 more beers for sure. There is no logical rationale for Indian law to take such a hard stance when in many other cities of the developed world it is considered safe to drive with levels as high as 80 mg. There is a dire need to revisit the permissible limit for driving under influence in India. But there is absolutely no hope for such trivial amendments when much larger social and relevant laws like child labor, divorce etc are still lingering in their pre historic days.

One more aspect that can screw your happy ride is that breath analyzer tests are not perfect. The analysers are highly prone to errors, malfunctioning due to maintenance issues and you could end up shown as drunk just because the normal mouth alcohol content screwed up the analyzer or its settings are effed. All analysers make certain assumptions about the people being tested which may or may not be true. Besides, breath analyzer tests are based only on your alcohol content without any respect to whether or not you are feeling the effects of drinking. Rumour has it that sometimes to make an extra buck the straw in which you are asked to breathe through to the analyzer is pre-dipped in alcohol and then you are unnecessarily harassed.

Your Rights :

World over the cops are supposed to mention to you in advance that breathing into the analyzer in optional and you may choose to go to the station and give an actual blood test. I do not know if it’s practiced diligently. In India, there is no such provision. You are almost at the mercy of the cop. If you refuse to breathe into the analyzer, he has rights to arrest you quoting reasons to believe that you may have been driving under influence without any regard whatsoever to the fact that your driving skills are impaired or not..

So guys, the govt has decided that thou shall not drink responsibly and drive like they do not allow alcohol to be served beyond 1130 in Bangalore and like they decided that you shall not shake a leg at your favorite disco for having good time and fun is crime.

Till such time as the perception of responsible drinking changes in our social ethos, here are a few tips that I gathered over my discussions with various groups, on how to counter cops in namma Bengaluru while driving under no influence:

1. The IT professional try: Always wear your company id card on you with your laptop next to you posing you are a late night worker from one of the IT companies. Chances are you won’t be stopped.
2. Get aggressive: What the F? When I am going back home from a hard day’s work, you stop me and ask these silly questions???
3. Army trump card: Kya Sir, Aaj kal army walon ko bhi rokne lag gaye kya?
4. Avoid them: Avoid any streets or roads where there is a traffic police station as all barricading and testing is done right outside the station for its convenient for the cops to compound vehicles if required.

Some better tips:

• Designate a person in the group as the driver for later and he shall not drink
• Do not drink and drive :) hahahaha. I am practicing this on Wednesday, Friday & Satday.
• Use party driver services. Spot Drivers - +(91)-(80)-66498863. They send drivers to wherever you are to drive you in your own vehicle after you night at the bar. Charges Rs250 for 4 hrs plus rick fare for the driver to get back. You have to book these guys in advance though.
• Use Easy Cabs or Meru Taxi services
  
  
  
  ALRYT!!! SO DRINK RESPONSIBLY!!!!
  

Flambe at Ambrosia

Food is not my cup of tea. Nevertheless, this one time I had to make an exception as the food involved alcohol. Ambrosia, on 100 ft road, Kormangala is an international cuisine restaurant and is celebrating a 2-week flambé festival. If you have not heard the Ambrosia’s jingle on the radio yet, Flambé, is a French style of cooking where along with great culinary skills, there is certain importance given to the visual delights of cooking as well. Food is half-cooked in the kitchen and the final touches are given tableside on movable cooking stations. Generous amounts of alcohol, mostly wine or brandy are dashed out to set your food on fire along with delectable sauces, selected cheeses and an assortment of spices.


Winter chill in the air, a festive mood around, the flames from Chef Vinod’s working station near the neighboring table and I knew I had a perfect evening in the making. A menu created especially for Ambrosia’s Flambe festival with an impressive lineup of options made the choice difficult. Zeroing in on Beef Burgundy for the main course I left the choice of starters to the chef, to serve their best. And as we devoured the Bruchetta, Chicken Wings, Mutton Sheekh & Prawns Gamboroni, I couldn’t stop wondering how the kitchen at this restaurant was bringing forth different cuisines to such perfection. Known for its international cuisine the menu is the dream of any food lover with delicacies from France, Jamiaca, Spain and more countries across the globe. There is a lot of Indian in there as well. The small little country flags on the menu help you know where the food is from. The starters made me determined to go back for more over the next few weeks.

And finally came the part I was waiting for most, I could feel the juices flowing as the trolley was pushed next to my table. I watched Chef Vinod adding in the flavors and flambéing my beef with red wine. Only liquors and liqueurs with a high alcohol content can be used to flame foods, and those with a higher proof will ignite more readily. Beer, champagne, and most table wines will not work. Spirits with 40% alcohol are considered the best choices for flambé. If the spirit is pre heated a little before adding to the food, it works really well. Ambrosia uses brandy and dark rum for some dishes apart from using red or white wines in some dishes.



I knew why preparing food was an art when I saw my beef on fire. I think apart from the flavor flambe technique adds to your meal, the process also works on building your appetite, atleast it worked wonders on mine. Served with Herb rice the meat was tender, the flavor right and the aroma inviting. White wine is suggested with white meat and red wine with Red meat. Big Banyan has done well with pairing their wines for the flambé festival. A glass of wine is complimentary with the flambé menu.



As I did justice to the entire helping on my plate I planned to skip the dessert until my partner read to me about the Drunken Banana – a Jamaican desert. Cinnamon flavored strips of banana tossed with butter and brown sugar, flambed with dark rum. Caribbean to the core. Back was the trolley at our table, this time to churn up a rich in calories, but irresistible serving of this very unique dessert which makes you want to forget the damage it may cause to your waistline. Vowing a stricter workout session at the gym the next day, I pushed guilt aside to commit the sin.



Food for two during the festival or otherwise is priced very reasonably and is not likely to set you back by more 1000 to 1200 including a glass of wine.

Close Encounters with Mixology of another kind

I’d like to write about all the great gigs I have been doing this holiday season. The sheer number of events and distractions are the cause for me being away from the machine all these days. But to be honest, I am thinking of posting something different this time.

Cocktail Nirvana, as I like to believe, is less about alcohol and getting drunk and more about a certain passion. Its passion, that drives most of us to take alternate paths at various times of our life. Allow me to talk to you today about someone else’s passion; a passion for mixology of a different and rather popular sort.

The best company a good drink could always use is a nice chat. But then music is a good competitor to a nice chat too. I generally prefer tippling to Jazz and occasionally like to swear by Pink Floyd when I hold my drink. But Martin influenced me to listen to house & progressive trance with his sheer passion for that genre of music. Martin & Aniket, good friends of mine, are a DJ Duo, pursuing their thirst for playing good electronic dance music. And I write about them today only because I like their passion for what they want to do with music.

Professionally known as II Guys, they are an interesting blend of Delhi & Mumbai. They started talking together a year back only to discover that they have a lot of beats/second (bpm) in common when it had anything to do with music. When they got together, they spoke a lot about music, listened to a lot more and they decided they had to be making a lot more people jump to it. They happened to meet Ashim, resident DJ at fBar, New Delhi, through a friend and got him excited about doing something very different from the regular hip-hop & commercial music. What followed did a lot of good for them, few clubs in Delhi & a lot of good reviews, which sent their morale high up in the air.



Another reason I got rolling about them today is that I have been teaming up with them for lot of parties that I have been doing of late. Bangalore is an absolute Cosmo city and needs international music to go with its cosmopolitans. II Guys have been pumping the private party scenes in Bangalore, complimenting greatly the flashy drinks from the bars managed by Cocktail Nirvana. 2 CDJ CD players, 1 DJM mixer & some good speakers splashed in good measure, is all that II Guys need to start dropping the latest tracks from all around the globe and make people go bonkers over music they don’t get to hear everyday at a good party with the most delicious cocktails flowing till the wee hours !!

The II Guys are here to do something crazily electrifying, and I’m glad they are a part of the gigs I do. Aniket & Martin, with their CDs of course, are people I would definitely recommend, at any place where people know what exactly they want, be it top notch cocktails or unforgettable musical experience.

I will be back soon writing more about alcohol in general and about Mekhong, Bacardi O & Bacardi Gold in particular. But I intend to use this blogspace occasionally also as a platform to introduce to you, people with fabulous talent who are pursuing their passion with great zest and lot of lime!!!

Bacardi "O" Media release

Here is the media release of Bacardi`s latest orange flavoured rum into Indian market. Its called Bacardi "O".

"BACARDI ‘O’ joins the growing family of fabulous flavored Bacardi rums in India - allowing for a wider range of mix ability across its portfolio

Bangalore, Dec 09: Bacardi, the world’s most popular premium white rum, is proud to introduce to India, for the first time Bacardi ‘O’, the first orange flavored Rum ever to be seen in the market. The flavor has been introduced in the Karnataka region and is priced at Rs. 620 per 750 ml bottle. The power packed launch saw Bangalore’s young sensation, Rachel Byros, vouching for this crisp, intense, juicy bite.

At the launch, Mr. Krishnan spoke about the special focus that the Bacardi brands are giving to the markets in the South, and about Bacardi O being only launched in Karnataka for now, given the strong preference for flavored white spirits that the state has come to demonstrate in recent times. Mr. Krishnan also shared plans of the imminent launch of their premium golden rum, Bacardi Gold, that would be launched in India close on the heels of Bacardi O.

With Bacardi O, the Bacardi flavor portfolio now boasts of four exciting alternatives for consumers, with the Limon, Apple and Razz variant already present in the market. With citrus-based flavors already having been a proven success among consumers in India, especially down South, Bacardi O is bound to be a runaway hit with the consumers in Karnataka. Bacardi O’s refreshing taste, derived from the choicest of oranges and tangerines, is the perfect base for any cocktail and is expected to be a popular order at bars. The BACARDI ‘O’ bottle design is equally tempting, with a distinctive orange-coloured “O” on the label and a bright orange cap signaling the tart, tantalizing taste within.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Arvind Krishnan, Controller – Marketing, Bacardi Martini India Limited, said,

The Flavors category has been the fast moving one within the white spirits segment and the introduction of Bacardi ‘O’ perfectly fits into our growing portfolio of premium, international offerings to the experimental consumers of today. Its enormous popularity across international markets showcases its strength of quality, making it one of the most appealing flavor introductions so far.”

Bacardi O rum goes well with a surprisingly large variety of mixers and has several preferred ways of consumption, leading among which is over crushed ice with an orange peel garnish, or mixed with tonic and Sprite."