Old Fashion Bar

What a view, and cute deckchairs with an outlook onto the Guangzhou Opera House, astro turf, a cooling fan and even more cooling cocktails. 

Potential new hang - Old Fashion Bar. Perfect place to drown your sorrows when lamenting your decision to let a bunch of Germans steal your dog. I can recommend the Singapore Sling and the great company c/o my friend on the 19th floor.

Now the dog has returned, I can see this being to type of place to celebrate with your canine friend. I'm not sure of opening hours or address, but head to underground part of the Guangzhou Opera house and head towards the square.

Pop Bar

For me in Guangzhou, instagram is the source of all things excellent. And thank you to those patient GZ hipsters who answer my never-ending questions, pleading for addresses and specific directions: no... where exactly is it?

Pop Bar was one such find. A neon space of all things cool. Different crowd. Different vibe. No menu. Complementary shot provided in a tube?!?! Much fun.

Pop bar: Shop 408A, 4/F, Lijing Duhui, 28 Jinsui Lu, Zhujiang New Town, Tianhe District 地址 天河区珠江新城金穗路28号丽晶都汇4楼408A

Basil smash

So this drink is appropriated from a friend who I think appropriated it from an *actual* recipe. Like other recent posts on this blog, I made this a few months ago...so the memory is hazy, but let's go with:

Juice some lemons

Make some sugar syrup

Get some basil

Have some ice handy

Oh and gin...

Muddle the basil with equal proportions of lemon juice, gin and about half the same proportion of sugar syrup. And by muddle I mean beat the crap out of it with the end of a wooden rolling pin - like you were smashing something in a mortar and pestle.

Strain into a glass with ice and top with a splash of soda.

Christmas fizz (mandarin cocktail)

Mandarins are plentiful in G to the Z so I'm often trying to find ways to use them, and what better use than a seasonal cocktail. Though I should fess up...I made this at Christmas time and forgot to write the proportions down. BUT I'm nearly certain it was about:

150 mls sugar syrup

Juice of around 2 lemons

A crap load of mandarins juiced

About 200 mls campari

A half bottle of sparkling wine

I juiced the mandarins in a blender and mixed them in with the water and sugar syrup and boiled them until the sugar dissolved.

Once that cooked I ran through a sieve and mixed in lemon juice and campari and chilled. 
To serve, top up  jug filled with sparkling wine. Pour, and squeeze a strip of orange zest over the top and drop the zest in the glass and top with a little more sparkling wine.

Copenhagen - what I did and how I did it (part 3 Fiskebar)

Turns out that Copenhagen is an excellent city for solo diners. Fiskebar made me feel right at home, offering me a choice of a table or a seat at the bar and then plied me with the freshest seafood I've had in a very long time. Refined flavours started with the beetroot cocktail, which was earthy as you'd expect but delightfully refreshing. Such attention to detail was mirrored through the entire meal, from the oysters, fresh bread with a seaweed butter foam, to the calamari and crab dish. Heavenly. 

Fiskebar is in a great part of town filled with interesting restaurants. Definitely an area to go back and explore: Kødbyens Fiskebar, Flæsketorvet 100, 1711 København V

http://fiskebaren.dk/fiskebaren/

2016 - the cocktails

It's beginning to feel a little, kinda, bit like Christmas.....

What better way to celebrate than with cocktails and friends. 

The Canton Christmas Cocktail has around 100 ml of lemon juice, 200 ml of mandarin juice (great for those spare tubs of peeled mandarins you have lying around), 100 ml hot water and 100 grams of sugar to make  sugar syrup. 

Mix all those things together with 200 ml campari. Put in the fridge.

To serve go with a half half ratio of campari mandarin goodness, with half sparking wine. Top with some grated orange zest.

Hope and Sesame

When a speakeasy comes to your city, you know the next few years are going to be alright. Secret location. Great cocktails. Bad photos (sorry)

Staycations are for...

Sleeping in, drinking expensive wine on your own, making cocktails, baking, going on road trips, forgetting what day it is, drinking coffee, eating fruit that someone has chopped up for you, shopping, drinking tea, chatting with friends, getting your nails done, catching up on your blog, getting your hair blow dried, walking through parks, seeing some art, neon lights, snacky dinners, riding bikes and listening to records.