Beijing Boyce

Ex-First Cafe, ex-Midnight bartending buffs George (GZ) and Echo (EC) are now free at nights to indulge in the intoxicating concoctions they customarily create for others, so we met at my pad last Saturday for creative cocktail-making with three people who have helped this e-newsletter - Agent Red Wolf, M-Dawg and Pony.

Eat before drink, I always say, so we started with M-Dawg and Pony’s Waldorf-style salad, Red Wolf’s famous three-cup chicken, and my BB pasta, accompanied by Catai Cabernet Sauvignon 2004. This is a decent and affordable local wine made by an Italian-Chinese venture, distributed by Summergate, recommended to me by several people, and sold at 48 kuai a bottle by, among others, Jenny Lou’s (last Saturday it was buy two, get one free; thanks to Summergate’s Linda for her help).

Our light repast complete, EC got the martinis started by mixing Stolichnaya vodka, hot chili pepper brine, and the body (including the seeds) of one pepper, which was pleasantly translucent as a garnish. This drink begat grimaces and coughing fits from M-Dawg and Red Wolf, an “okay” from Pony and GZ, and a big thumb ups from EC and me. We tried two derivatives: one with a splash of tequila and a second with both tequila and three drops of Tobasco. These were tasty all. (Note: M-Dawg suggested the name, “Acid Reflux.”)

GZ then got busy with: a grape Cosmopolitan, which had a strong citrus nose, but taste identity issues (is it grape, is it orange, is it groinge?); a lychee liqueur, Taiwan peach schnapps and vodka mix M-Dawg called “The Monkey King,” though he noted it lacked a banana garnish (I respected the integrity of its name by sweetening it up with maple syrup, which comes from trees, where monkeys spend most of their time); and a dependable lychee liqueur, grape juice and vodka.

Next, we turned to fun garnishes. The first martini, by EC, had three shots of vodka and three blue cheese-stuffed olives. It tasted like a plain old dry martini, so EC tried to marry the brie and alcohol, with cloudy and chunky results (pass). (Meanwhile, GZ made a “Maple Collins,” which included lemon, soda, gin and maple syrup. This was extremely refreshing and was immediately added to my list of drinks to sip while relaxing in a hammock on a hot, sunny day.)

I jumped into the fray with a martini garnished with sun-dried tomato and an anchovy. “It’s got a little oil slick on top,” said M-Dawg. “It smells like fish,” said EC and Pony. Visual and olfactory factors aside, this drink initially tasted like a dry martini and then slowly, and unfortunately, absorbed the anchovy flavor. I made a martini with three smoked salmon-stuffed olives, with similar results.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, Red Wolf scribbled in my notes: “Good Lord, why hath thou forsaken me? When will these people leave me in peace?” (Uh, did I miss something while I was in the bathroom?), followed by, “11:37 PM, seven-pepper martini invented.” That drink was mine and was a powerful concoction, reminiscent of that Szechuan dish with popcorn-sized bites of chicken hidden among hundreds of red chili peppers.

(Note: At this point, Agent Red Wolf did some multi-tasking, both fixing my fridge, which had mysteriously risen to 13 degrees from 5, and making a seven-pepper Bloody Mary described by Pony as “like an old spicy hot pot.”)

We were now in the home stretch, our final cocktail containing vodka, three drops of Canadian Club, grape juice, Thai lime juice and maple syrup. I dubbed it “George 318” and we all collapsed on the sofas. A long trail of glasses, ice and squeezed lemons lay behind as, exhausted, we looked out past Worker’s Stadium at Beijing’s skyline. After a 30-minute breather, we decided one more concoction was in order. With that, Agent Red Wolf raided my fridge, gathered up the produce and made some hearty vegetable soup.

(From Beijing Boyce XIII, first emailed on March 24, 2006)