Cocktails and Records

The Andrews Sisters
Rum and Coca-Cola

A left-over bottle of coke, the sole remains of a recent dinner party, is currently languishing in our fridge. Since the other half only drinks Irn Bru and beer it is up to me to save it from undrunk misery. Unfortunately I don’t like coke much either – unless it is mixed with ice-cream or rum that is.

I suspect that my taste for that rum and coke cocktail classic, the Cuba Libre, stems from my equal fondness for this Andrew Sisters tribute. Close listening to the song though reveals that ‘Rum and Coca-cola’, far from a being a happy ditty about GIs enjoying a drink or two, is actually about women prostituting themselves ‘for the Yankee dollar’.

Be that as it may, it’s still a top tune – perfect for swallowing down a Cuba Libre and getting you into the summery holiday mood. Speaking of which, I’m off on holiday this weekend (yes, again) so see you in a week or so.

Cuba Libre
1 and 3/4 white rum
juice of one fresh lime
coca-cola

Pour the juice, then the rum into a highball glass and finish with coke. Bung on a wedge of lime if you can be bothered.

‘Rum and Coca-Cola’, The Andrews Sisters, 1944

Last week, thanks to some work colleagues, I had a nasty flashback to my youth. Back, back I went to the dark, dingey dive that constituted the one nightclub in our country town. Think painted up young women dancing around handbags, blokes leering over lager, blaringly distorted top 40 music, couples snogging in darkened corners, people passing out on sticky floors by 10pm and 2-for-1 offers on the sort of cocktails where you go straight from a sugar high to feeling strangely queasy as soon as you stand up, and you’ll know the sort of place I mean.

If I was being cruel I might describe this as a typical Australian night out for people of a certain age. It was definitely something I hadn’t experienced in quite some time.

So it was with bemusement that I witnessed this same scenario taking place again just last week. This time the location was a  dark, dingey bar in the City of London (known as ‘the financial centre of the world’ until last year), and my town’s shop girls and army jerks were replaced by corporate lawyers and management accountants. And as I sipped on my 2-for-1 Pina Colada, which tasted more like sugar than rum, and watched my 19 year old colleague get her bum pinched to Beyonce whilst a man did ‘amusing’ things with his tie, I reflected on the universality of horrible bars and nightclubs.

Mostly, however, I was snobbishly greatful that I now knew that there was life beyond drinking Sex on the Beaches and Slow Comfortable Screws to bad over-loud music.

The next evening, safely installed at home, I made us our own garish pink cocktails (but ones which actually tasted like alcohol), switched on Frank Sinatra (at a reasonable volume), got out the olives and sighed contentedly. Like Five-Centres says, it’s called ‘getting older’.

The Pink Lady

1/4 oz lemon juice
1 egg white
1 -2 dashes of grenadine
1 1/2 oz gin

Shake well over ice cubes in a shaker.
Strain into glass and enjoy.

The Martinez cocktail is yet another nice twist on the martini that I’ve recently discovered. I think that it might even be better than the Bijou I posted a couple of weeks back.

The Martinez

- 3/4 oz dry vermouth
- dash orange bitters
- dash triple sec
- 1 1/2 oz gin

Stir well in a mixing glass filled with ice cubes, and strain into a martini glass. If you’ve got any lemons to hand, squeeze a slice over and use as garnish.

Goes particularly well with Dean Martin, Chris Montez and Martin Denny records…

There has been a serious lack of cocktails around here lately; partly because I haven’t been partaking much and partly because I’ve just been a boring drinker. But tonight I indulged and made us Bijous.

This drink is great if you want a twist on the martini type theme. It’s got the classic gin and dry vermouth combo, but with the added delight of green Chartreuse and orange bitters.

The Bijou

- 3/4 oz dry vermouth
- 1/4 oz green Chartreuse
- 3/4 oz gin
- dash orange bitters

Stir over ice, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

OK, it looks a bit wee coloured, but it’s a fine drink to enjoy the last of the sunny days with.

It’s saturday evening and I find some spare oranges in the fruit bowl. It’s perfect for a Bronx (a.k.a martini with orange juice) and easing us into an evening watching one of Woody Allen’s finest – Bullets over Broadway – set in 1920s New York.

The Bronx was apparently the third most popular cocktail in the world in 1934 (with the martini and manhattan in top place), after having become wildly successful during the Prohibition era. Although I suspect that all the vermouth and orange juice also conveniently covered the taste of poor bootleg gin, the Bronx, like the martini, still retains a feeling of sophistication about it – despite this great clip from 1933.

The Bronx (perfect style)

- 1/4 oz vermouth rosso
- 1/4 oz dry vermouth
- 1 oz gin
- 1 1/2 oz orange juice

Shake with ice cubes and strain. If you like it drier, skip the vermouth rosso.

Q. What could be better than a blue drink?
A. Why, a yellow one of course.

This week I have discovered the joys of Advocaat, the vile looking liqueur made with brandy, sugar, egg yolks and more sugar. Generally a fan of short crisp cocktails and bitter (i.e. drinks which actually taste of alcohol), I have been avoiding Advocaat for years – the association with tacky sweet drinks and giggling grandmas was just too strong.

But something posessed me in the supermarket last weekend. Innocently wandering through the booze aisle, I found myself strangely drawn to the yellow bottle on the top shelf and before I knew it, I was furtively smuggling it into the trolley. As I explained/justifed to the Significant Other after, you can never have too much alcohol in the house and isn’t it good to push the boundaries and try something new…?

And it tastes great!

I recommend trying the Fluffy Duck (as modelled in our loungeroom to the right):

• 1.5 oz Barcardi rum
• 1.5 oz Advocaat
• fresh cream
• lemonade

Bung it all into a glass and stir.

It’s sweet but it’s refreshing, a nice Easter drink…

It might be the first and last time that I ever say this, but thank you Queen Elizabeth II.

Why?

Because she has given me the Dubonnet cocktail.

There I was a few weeks back bored and half watching an episode of recent BBC documentary series The Monarchy when I noticed one of the royal staff giving a very detailed and specific rundown on what exactly the Queen likes to drink pre-dinner. My ears pricked up.

She will only drink the Dubonnet cocktail. The cocktail is equal parts gin and Dubonnet (a French wine-based aperitif), stirred over ice and served in a pre-chilled martini glass.

Obviously because I do everything that the Queen tells me I rushed out and bought some Dubonnet to try this myself. Or rather, I tried to rush out because hardly anyone stocks the stuff.

But I have finally located some and boy, is it great. In fact, here’s one I made 5 minutes ago just to illustrate this entry:

The Queen is right – it is a great drink. And the pleasing red colour (poorly illustrated by our red wall) makes it even better.

Long live the Queen (until the next top cocktail tip). Wonder what her favourite ale is…

It’s that time of the year when everyone does their end of year list/retrospective thing looking at the best and worse of the year. I suspect that these lists are often intended to make the lister look really cool and on the case. I’m nowhere near cool or on the case but that’s not going to stop me…

THE CRUCIAL STUFF

Cocktails

The cocktail of choice this year, apart from the superlative martini, is the bitter (yet sweet) Negroni. That’s equal parts:

• Campari
• gin
• sweet vermouth

Ice. Stir. Bitter. Pink. Nice.

Records

Midlake have probably been my band of the year. The Trials of Von Occupanther was a fantastic album which although released in 2006, I only really got into this year.

I seemed to have missed the boat in 2007 in terms of live music. Last year was superb (Steve Reich, Konono No. 1, Amadou & Mariam, Nicole Willis, Teenage Fanclub doing Bandwagonesque) but little has cut it this year other than well, Midlake, Orchestra Baobob (at the Jazz Cafe last month) and The Bad Plus (at the ICA in July).

Staying on the stereo from this year:

• Japan’s super kick ass jazz group, Soil and Pimp Sessions (which was probably was the gig of the year, but I sadly missed it)
• Laura Nyro’s Eli and the Thirteenth Confession
• CSS’s Lets make love and listen to death from above 7″
• Art Blakey’s Mosaic
• East Kilbride’s finest, The Pearlfishers’ Up with the Larks
• The very best of ethiopiques – excellent compilation of 70s Ethiopian soul and jazz
• the Carousel soundtrack. Obviously.

EVERYTHING ELSE

Good things

• The excellent dream I had where I went drag car racing with Bill Wyman. We ran into Morrissey at the track and he bought me an icecream. A nice time was had by all.
• Getting sunburnt in Scotland.
• John Howard, former Prime Minister of Australia, losing his seat to Maxine McKew, pinko former ABC journalist. Poetic justice.
• The rise and rise of Charlie Brooker.
• Leo Hickman’s The Final Call: In Search of the True Cost of our Holidays - a really well researched and well written book about how tourism is destroying the world. Sadly, I read this whilst on holiday in France.
• The fact that I managed to start writing this blog after many years of procrastination.

Bad things

• 99.9% of all primetime TV output. Will we ever be free from reality TV?
• Richard Dawkins managing to put even me off aethism.
• BBC Radio London shunting Norman Jay’s excellent music programme to digital, only to replace it with Heckle and Jeckle style presenters and lazy talkback radio; something that there’s not nearly enough of on BBC Radio London…
• The number of people I keep encountering who hate current London mayor Ken Livingston so much, that they would seriously consider voting for professional buffoon Boris Johnson instead.
• Having to pretend to care about Madeleine McCann.

Merry Christmas everyone – see you on the other side.

1. I put on a Digitalism 12″ the other day and didn’t realise for a good few minutes that it was on the wrong speed.
2. Ice has found its way into my martinis recently.
3. A brochure called Music & Memories, which offers such mail-order delights as Liberace boxsets, DVDs with titles like Irish Lighthouses: Folklore, History and Beauty! and Working with Tractors, as well as Dickie Valentine and Connie Francis CDs, has popped through the mailbox and I am loving it!
4. I can’t stop listening to bloody Whitney Houston.

It has come to my attention that for a site entitled cocktailsandrecords there has been little mention of either. This has been largely due to the serious lack of either in my life recently. For the past few weeks our house has had no:

• gin
• vodka
• malt whisky
• blended whisky
• cointreau

A truly awful situation.

I have attempted to remedy this sorry state of affairs over the past couple of days and was planning on celebrating this Friday evening with both a cocktail and the new Von Sudenfed LP.

Well, I’ve got the cocktail, a martini (that’s a proper martini with gin and just a smidgeon of vermouth + necessary olive) but Rough Trade have failed to deliver on the music front. I went to the Dray Walk store this lunchtime and they have, in the words of the strangely helpful guy behind the counter, “suddenly run out of Von Sudenfed records”. A rush on Mark E Smith? Unbelievable.

I am instead basking in the early 90s with Monie Love…