Maroued on a Dessert Island is a decadent rum based cocktail featuring premium Vietnamese cacao from my friends at the artisanal chocolatiers, Marou. The cacao nibs from Ben Tre province are pressure-infused using an ISI siphon into 7 or 12 year old Flor de Cana rum (depending on how flush I’m feeling) which helps release all the deliciously rich chocolate notes without any bitterness or the need for sugar. [Read more…]
Vietnamese Basil Daiquiri
The Vietnamese Basil Daiquiri is a blatant rip off of Dave Arnold’s masterpiece the Thai Basil Daiquiri, developed for his New York bar, Booker and Dax, but we’re hardly going to be using that Thai stuff around here, eh? It’s a relatively simple drink (if you happen to have liquid nitrogen knocking around your house) but is just so fresh, intensely herbacious and tasty that it packs a punch well above it’s weight class.
The problem with using delicate herbs like basil in cocktails is [Read more…]
Plasma Mary
So why a Plasma Mary?
I love a great Bloody Mary. They are delicious. But they’re filling and can quickly turn into hard work. I’ve never found myself able to drink more than about seven at one sitting…
What I wanted to do with the Plasma Mary was to bring all that wonderful savoury, umami deliciousness but make it lighter and cleaner on the palate. By pressure-infusing vodka with fresh horseradish and using a centrifuge [Read more…]
Passion Hot / Passion Not
Inspired by the Hot Frozen Gin Fizz served up at Ferran Adria’s El Bulli restaurant, the Passion Hot / Passion Not features one of Vietnam’s natural flavour heavyweights – the passion fruit.
This layered drink consists of a frozen gin, centrifuge clarified passion fruit juice and simple syrup mix, topped with a hot foam of the same flavours and stabilised with egg whites. [Read more…]
Clarified Lychee Martini
The Clarified Lychee Martini is a simple recipe but a great cocktail for demonstrating the transformational abilities of the centrifuge. With this drink the difference really is night and day. Most lychee martinis are milky white affairs with plenty of flotsam/jetsam and not a lot going for them in the flavour department. Either taste the fruit isn’t pronounced enough or the gin is diluted down to the point of sadness…and who needs that?
Seoul Drifter
The Seoul Drifter is a ‘drink’ that I developed for a string of ‘Molecular Nights’ at the French Grill restaurant at the JW Marriott Hanoi. The intended pairing with fine de claire oysters was foremost in my mind when developing the menu and to serve a [Read more…]
Peach Shampagne
A glass of fizz always goes down well, but wait? What’s this?? It looks like champagne and has the characteristic finish of champagne on the tongue but there’s clearly something else going on here… [Read more…]
ASEAN Pride Festival VIP Bar
The Mood Therapist was delighted to serve up a selection of modernist cocktails to a great crowd, including the Ambassador to the United States of America, Mr. Ted Osius, at the ASEAN Pride Festival 2015 held at the American Club in Hanoi on 20 June 2015. [Read more…]