We were staying at Hotel Avenida Palace (
http://www.hotelavenidapalace.pt/en/hotel-overview.html) whilst we were in Lisbon for a week for holiday recently.
They do daily cocktails so I tried all 7 cocktails every evening before we went out for dinner!
We arrived at the hotel on Saturday, so it started off with Saturday's cocktail.
Saturday - Hotel Avenida Palace cocktail: I asked Tiego, the bartender, what was in the cocktail however he said that it's hotel's secret recipe so he can't tell us what's in it. When he brought this cocktail over to our table, he said, "just imagine yourself in Caribbean and enjoy tropical fruits...". I guess that was the clue. I could taste rum and pineapple. What else ...? The cocktail had two tone colours - light lime green at the top and pastel pink at the bottom.... I am not a cocktail drinker but whatever it in, it was tasty.
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| Hotel Avenida Palace Cocktail |
Sunday - Pineapple Mojito: it was meant to be a strawberry mojito but they run out of strawberries. I was about to have an ordinary mojito and then quickly changed my mind and ask if they could make mojito using a different fruit. The bartender on the shift that night (Tiego was on holiday) went in to a wee kitchen and came back with this lovely pineapple mojito. There were lots of pineapple bits at the bottom of the glass, mmmmmm, yummy.
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| Pineapple Mojito |
Monday - Dry Martini: I forgot to ask for my martini to be
'shaken, not stirred' like Mr Bond, hahahaha. Does it really matter? According to Somerset Maugham, "a martini should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously on top of one another." I would not know the difference! 'Dry' means very little vermouth and gin based. If it's extra dry, it may be only the slightest splash of vermouth or even just a glass-coating wash! Wikipedia also informs me that a dirty martini contains a splash of olive brine or olive juice and is typically garnished with an olive.
It's a classy drink, clean and simple that comes in an elegant cocktail glass. There is something sophisticated about it. People drinking it look good with it and the drink looks good with olives in it! Unfortunately I don't have coolness to look good with it. I just wanted to eat olives soaked in the simple cocktail of gin [and vermouth....] as I had never had one with olives in it!
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| Dry Martini |
So, how was it? It was too strong for me ... basically gin.... before even giving olives chance to be soaked in the cocktail, I just finished off olives and gave the rest of the drink to my husband. Just as well as I don't think I get it, this simple but beautiful refreshing drink ... my husband would appreciate this much more than I would anyway. Apparently the best part is eating those olives AFTER they've soaked in the gin for a good long time! See, I did not get this drink after all!
There seem to be different versions of how this drink originated. I like the versions of that in 1910, in a New York hotel when John D Rockefeller asked the bartender John Martini for a simple cocktail and he came up with the one being dry with a mixture of gin and vermouth in a shadow of a glass with an olive in it.
Tuesday - Blue Lagoon: Again the internet informs me that this is made of vodka, blue curaçao and lemonade. I have never tried this before and the blue colour makes anything really artificial however I enjoyed this cocktail: it was very refreshing and summery. Yeah, I get it. The colour does look like a tropical blue lagoon .... also reminded me of an old movie, 1980 American movie
The Blue Lagoon starring Brooke Shields, then only 14 years old. The movie was about two young children marooned on a tropical island paradise in the South Pacific. Wow, such a long long time ago. I doubt Emily and Maria wouldn't even know who Brooke Shields is, never mind about the movie.
It also reminds me of the beautiful blue sky we had in Lisbon. I love summer in Lisbon - it is hot but dry and you always get lovely sea breaze to cool you down. When you look up, all you see is an eternal blue sky, not even a cloud, beneath of this you see beautiful red roof tiles and white buildings with lush green trees lining avenues.
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Looking out from Rossio train station.
Castelo de Sao Jorge is on top of the hill |
According to the internet, this cocktail was developed in the 1970s and its key ingredient is Galliano (a sweet herbal Italian liqueur of vanilla-anise flavour with subtle citrus and woodsy herald under notes with its vivid yellow colour symbolising the Gold Rushes of the 1890s) and creme de cacao. It is more of an after-dinner drink, digestif or a dessert cocktail that pairs nicely with almost any sweet dessert, especially those with chocolate. I really enjoyed this cocktail, with some chocolate shavings on top. The cocktail was never too sweet, just perfect.
I was wondering why this is called Golden Cadillac so I did more research on internet. According to www.cocktailhunter.com (
http://www.cocktailhunter.com/cocktail-story/a-dash-of-cocktail-history-2/) this cocktail was originally created at Poor Red;s Bar-B-Q in a gold rush town of El Dorado, California. A newly engaged couple came to the bar to celebrate their engagement and the bartender, Frank Klein created this cocktail to match their newly purchased golden Cadillac. Ah, that's where the creamy golden colour came from....
I thought this cocktail had rather sophisticated taste and in fact it went down as a lovely treat to go with the piano recital we had at the Palace lounge where we were having evening drinks.
I got to enjoy this lovely cocktail whilst a pianist played wonderful renditions of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Debussy.
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| The Recital Programme by pianist, Joao Romeiras |
Thursday - Mai Tai: This cocktail is based on rum, curaçao liqueur and lime juice, associated with Polynesian-style setting. According to Wikipedia (and what do we do without internet!!!), this cocktail was purportedly invented at the Trader Vic's restaurant in Oakland, California in 1944. The Trader created it one afternoon for some friends who were visiting from Tahiti, and one of them tasted it and cried out, "Maita' roa ae!", literally "Very Good" or figuratively "out of this world, the best!", hence the name.
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| Mai Tai |
I have just remembered! When I was in college, I had a weekend part time job as a PA to a General Manager of
Trader Vic's restaurant within Hotel New Otani in Tokyo, Japan. I think his name was Mr Miyake or something and he was a Japanese-American. His full time PA works weekdays and I did some weekend and holiday cover to look after some admins for his office. I now remember, there were some female college students working as waitresses wearing fancy Polynesian-theme flowery dresses as uniforms at the restaurant, I used to think how glamorous they all looked, whilst I was wearing a very conservative dark blue dress with a red scarf around my neck as uniform, working in the back office. Mr Miyake liked watching sumo wrestling on TV during his break and used to tell me to practice typing as I could not type! It was rather a wonder how I even managed to get a job as his PA to begin with despite my lack of typing skills back then. I guess my English language probably helped as Mr Miyake did not speak Japanese that much.
I have just checked Hotel New Otani's website and they still have Trader Vic's!!! They also have their cocktail menu (
http://www.newotani.co.jp/tokyo/restaurant/vics/menu/drink.html) and I have found their Mai Tai for 1,900 yen. Wow, I never thought I would end up going back to a memory lane through a drink of Mai Tai cocktail I have had in Lisbon, hahaha.
Friday - Cosmopolitan: And finally, my last cocktail of our week in Lisbon, which is made with vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice and freshly squeezed lime juice. Is this the drink further popularised by the TV programme,
Sex and the City where Carrie Bradshow, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, used to drink when out with her girlfriends? Anyway, this cocktail became my most favourite one and I think Maria, my younger daughter, likes this too.
Would it be nice to have this when you come home after hard day's work, whilst preparing dinner to wind down? It would be even better if someone else is making one for you. (Maria, are you reading this, hint hint ...).
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A picture hang just outside of the entrance to the bar
I think it summons up my cocktail experience - a bit of decadence, luxury in relaxing atomosphere! |
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| Hotel Avenida Palace - daily cocktail |
Anyway, I have tried all 7 daily cocktails which Hotel Avenida Palace was serving while we were staying there and I really enjoyed all. It's not something I drink back home but there was something of a bit decadence about having a different cocktail to try every evening before dinner.
That's all forks.
