South Beach Food and Wine

What a zoo!  I had the wonderful opportunity of going to the SoBe festival today.  Yes, it was under false pretenses, but who cares?  I got in!  Anyways, I was inspired after sipping on a number of horrid cocktails and one or two good ones.  There was even one made with a sparkling vodka.  

Imagine, vodka with club soda which masks any sort of presence on the vodka.  And, it eventually goes flat!  That cocktail was the most creative, but it started with the worst ingredient.  Anyways, I wanted to mention that so many people were using fresh fruit in their cocktails which brought out a tear of joy.  But, they didn't taste what they were making....  which left me with an upset stomach.  Oooooh and there was this one guy who made cocktails and insisted on grating lime zest into the cocktails at the end.  It really didn't impart any flavor, just left people with funny stories when talking about their teeth!

So, there was this one bad cocktail made with a great ingredient, Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur.  It's ginger with cognac, vanilla and honey and it begged to be mixed into one of my margaritas. Here goes:

ingredients

1/2 of an orange

1/4 cup fresh pineapple

2oz agave nectar

1oz domaine de canton

2oz decent tequila

method

muddle the fruit and agave.  Add ice and the alcohol.  Shake and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with some crystalized ginger if you want or some dehydrated pineapple chips.  Add a dash of some fancy sea salt and a pinch of pepper if you want to add some real interest.  

Marmalades

Fresh fruit, no sour mix and decent tequila.  Simple mantra, right?  but what would you say if I said that using marmalades were ok?  Would you think any less of me?

Here's this simple Cabana Cachaca recipe from a few years ago using marmalades.  While intrigued with this new fangled liquor, I had to think, why not make my own marmalades and really do something great with tequila?  First you need to start with a recipe for marmalade.  This one seems to work just fine.  Anyways - start with the fresh fruit, sliced thin.  Then add sliced citrus (orange, grapefruit, lemon, lime) and bring to a boil with equal amounts of orange juice.  Once at a boil, add 2 cups of sugar and cook down to a thick viscous liquid.  Allow to cool and you're good to go.  Throw it in a jar and add pectin to preserve or if you're like me, just invite some friends over and start to crank out some drinks.

My favorite seems to be starting with a blueberry orange marmalade.  I admit though that I used fresh blueberries, orange juice and equal parts lime and orange slices....  I really laid the sugar on thick so when it was time to do the cocktails, it was as simple as 1-2-3.

Tequila, ice, marmalade.  Shake and serve....  Easy!

You know, I heard of this one cachaca company touting their 5 second caipirinhas....  they used sprite, cachaca and ice and figured that'd be enough to fool the american consumer.  can you imagine if I said, use sprite and tequila and its almost like a margarita???  Blasphemy, right?  But, I swear, by using artisan marmalades, you can do the 5 second margarita.  

Try it, I dare you.

Margaritas in Thailand

After a long hiatus, I've been able to escape and make my way back to reality, oops there goes gravity....  Can you imagine the shock when I was searching the web for interesting spots to enjoy a fresh fruit margarita and found this?  Apparently  Holiday-Rentals.co.uk is a really cool place to find homes in Thailand to rent for short periods of time.  I clicked through a few and found one just outside of Bangkok, which seems to be home of the only Margarita Bar in Thailand

I immediately clicked on the site and before I knew it, I was on my way to a fantastic adventure.  My trip started in Bangkok where I took advantage of a wonderful 3 bedroom house.  I took advantage of some traditional cooking classes and ............  BOOORING!!  Where's the margaritas, you ask???

Ok, here's the scoop.  I met up with this 6 1/2 foot dutch guy and his wife.  We quickly bonded and I explained my dilemma.  He nodded in complete understanding, and voila! his wife pulled out a bottle of don julio!  HEAVEN!  We scrapped up some citrus thingie called yuzu, some crazy fruit and a muddler.  He had no sugar or agave, so we used honey!  Man that was good.

The next morning we set out to a small village where we heard that we could ride elephants!  Of course, we put together a flask or 3 of our margarita concoctions.  I wish someone though would have told me about local law.  I had no idea that it was illegal to drink and ride elephants.  And, so I landed in jail!  Phuket to be exact.  I just got out last week.

And, anthony bordain I am not....  My butt is staying put for the next few years!  (especially since its a condition of parole!)  GOOD NIGHT