What is Tequila ?
Posted on August 7, 2008 -- By: Johnny Walker
Its the name of a town, its also a kind of drink. Is there a connection between the two, well there is. And the connection is ‘Blue Agave’. ‘Blue Agave’ is a plant whose juice is used to make drinks. Tequila is one such drink. The other important thing to note is that this town is in Mexico and till date Tequila is only brewed in Mexico. The usual alcohol content is about 40 % but you can find one which has as much as 46% alcohol.
Blue Agave
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‘Sake’ - Rice wine from Japan
Posted on July 7, 2008 -- By: Johnny Walker
“Sake” means alcohol in Japanese and is pronounced as ‘Sa-ki’ or ‘Sa-kei’. In Urdu, Saki is someone who is your host for alcohol, a cup bearer. How on earth these two are linked only God can tell but in this post I would briefly trudge upon ‘Sake’.
‘Sake’ in day-to-day parlance is mostly used for the ‘Rice Wine’ but in reality ‘Sake’ could be used for any alcoholic beverage. Sake is produced by multiple fermentation of rice, which is more similar to how beer is produced.
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What is cointreau or Triple-Sec
Posted on July 4, 2008 -- By: Johnny Walker
Cointreau (pronounced [kwan'-tro]) is a kind of triple sec liqueur. Its actually a brand name of the company by same name and this is produced at Saint-Barthélemy-d’Anjou, near Angers, in west France. So, first lets find out what is ‘triple sec’. In most simplistic terms, a triple sec is a concoction of bitter and sweet oranges with alcohol. ‘Sec’ means ‘dry’ in french, which in more general terms means a ‘lack of sweetness’. Here it means ‘triple distilled’.
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What is Baileys Irish Cream
Posted on June 3, 2008 -- By: Johnny Walker
I am sure most of you have had Baileys at one point or the other and some of you, like me, must have wondered on the name, esp the cream part and would have often tried to think for a while on the cream connection and would have often stopped thinking about it, more so after having a couple of servings. Well, if that sounds like deja-vu then read on. In this post, I would try to give you a simple dossier on this particular drink including the process, the history and everything else.
First, the name. Well, the alert readers would have noticed that there is no apostrophe and thats because there is no apostrophe in the trademark as well. Baileys was created in 1974 in Ireland by Andrew Bailey of the R. A. Bailey & Co. of Dublin, Ireland. As the name suggests it has Irish Whiskey and Irish Cream.
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Pearl’s Regency, Noida - Bar Review
Posted on May 12, 2008 -- By: Johnny Walker
Sector 29 in Noida is one of those old sectors which are struggling to keep that charm intact. Sector 29 has a mall road, has STP (Software Technology Park), two decent size market complexes viz. ‘Ganga Shopping Complex’ and ‘Brahamputra Shopping Complex’ and other small markets, an Hospital (Bhardwaj Hospital) and would also host a station for ‘Delhi Metro’. The eating joints are all old and popular.
In this post, I would talk about ‘Pearl’s Regency’ which is a resto-bar and is located in ‘Ganga Shopping Complex’ in Sector-29. Pearl’s has two restaurants and a bar. Bar is really small and even though they have tried to make it more trendy and new world, I still prefer to have my drink either at their main restaurant which serves Indian Mughlai food or at ‘Chinastix’ which serves oriental food. Since this place is for piyakkars (Drink’ers) I would focus on alcohol.
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Eden Kitchen Bar, Sector 61, Noida, India
Posted on May 9, 2008 -- By: Johnny Walker
Shoprix Mall in sector-61, Noida (India) is now have two Bars. The other one is “Strings” (though they dont play any live music) and click here to read a review of that. Eden was the first one to operate and I have been there not many times.
So, here’s a review. The interior is black-n-blue-n-dark and I dont like it since its not that classy-spanky-rich dark but its more of a side-town poor dark. The problem with that kind of ambiance is that it can get a little depressing if the music is not right or if the mood is not up and peppy. The air ventilation system is poor so all the smoke adds to agony. If you are allergic to cigarette smoke then it can get really bad. The seating is on chairs so no sofa-lounges but chairs are comfortable. Loos are ok, just like at most of places. So that was about overall look and feel. If you are a small family with kids then I would suggest that you look for another place but if you are group of punters wanting to have a good time then you might like it.
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Strings Bar, Sector - 61, Noida - Avoid
Posted on May 8, 2008 -- By: Johnny Walker
Noida, the small and happening suburb of Delhi is catching up fast with its big brother Delhi for its night life. Infact it has the only all-night club in India, The Elevate. But still it would be a while when it really surpasses Delhi in its offerings. One area where Noida is coming up well is that it has lot of these new age Malls. In this post, I would briefly write a small review of a Bar in one such Mall. The mall is called ‘Shoprix’ and is in sector-61. Incidentally the first Bar which opened here was about 10 months back (Eden). The only other eating joint where you can get wet is called ‘Strings’. Its on 2nd floor, just outside of ‘Bowling Alley’. I have been there few times before but we only had Beer so we really didn’t venture much to know enough to write a review. I was sort of satisfied on those occasions. But here’s a review with more details and some pics.
Strings is a well lit, clean and airy place and serves Indian and Chinese cuisine. The Bar is right in the centre and acts as a good divider between the two sections. The seats are comfortable, no high stools for the bar though. The color profile of the interior has been kept light and that is definitely helpful for those who dread going to dark-n-blue bars. Now comes the main thing. Here’s what the Bar Menu looks like.
If you look hard, you would notice that enough creative juices has been put into the designing the menu, especially the names. The one called ‘No Idea’ is actually a pun on one of India’s leading telecom service provider called ‘Idea Cellular’ and their slogan is ‘An Idea can change your life’. So far so good.
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Maamouche restobar in Noida, India
Posted on May 5, 2008 -- By: Johnny Walker
Noida enjoys the benefit of being very close to New Delhi, capital of India. This industrial town has seen tremendous growth over last 10 years, most of which could be attributed to the rapid increase in the number of IT companies operating from here. Some of the world’s greatest companies like Adobe, CSC, Cadence, ST, Freescale have their office located here. Courtesy all this, Noida has also lots of new age malls and great dining-n-drinking options.
I would write a short review of one of the resobar which is in Centre Stage Mall, Sec 18. The bar is called Maamouche and thats the first thing which I liked. I do not have a specific reason but somehow saying this name few times makes you feel good. Try it. Its located on level5 and level 6 of the mall, so away from the din and the has very quiet interiors. They do not play loud music, lighting is not very bold and seats are very comfortable. I have been there multiple times and mostly as part of large group. We have been able to negotiate a good bargain up-front (20 % flat discount on every thing) so if you are a large group, its good thing to know that these guys would be open for such a discussion.
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Screwdriver and driverscrewer
Posted on April 22, 2008 -- By: Johnny Walker
One of the very popular Vodka cocktails is called ‘Screwdriver’. The name sounds so much of non-russian though the cocktail involves Vodka. To me, it would have been more apt to have some Australian drink be called ‘Screwdriver’, especially after watching those ‘Australian for Fosters’ advertisements. Probably the only other cocktail which would come close to the popularity of Screwdriver is ‘Bloody Mary’. I would rather say that Screwdriver is much more available then other cocktails because it may not be very popular among bar-goers. Screwdriver is actually a healthy concoction of alcohol since it has lots of Orange Juice.
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Background So enough of beating around the name. Lets find out the reason behind such a name. I searched on internet and the only thing which I could find was that ‘American Oil Workers’ in Iran used to utilize the ‘Screwdriver’ to mix Orange juice in their vodkas. The first reference of the word has been documented in ‘Time’ magazine in 1949. |
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Bloody Mary - The morning cocktail
Posted on April 17, 2008 -- By: Johnny Walker
Probably, all of us had ‘Bloody Mary’ sometime or the other. While this is truly a morning drink, its not very uncommon to see people enjoying their bloody mary in evenings or nights. The cocktail is very simple, vodka and tomato juice but try mixing these two at home and it just wont taste as good as you have it in the bar few blocks away. I have even tried putting salt on the brim of glass but to no great effect. So lets find out the secrets behind making this cocktail as good as it can be.
Bloody Mary
History
First some facts or legends behind the history of this cocktail. After researching on internet, what I could conclude was that the initial vodka-tomato drink was created by George Jessel. You can read more about him by clicking here. He was a great actor and a very popular man at gatherings. He would often be called the ‘Toastmaster General’ (which rhymes with Postmaster General) as he would usually end up with being the master of ceremonies. He has a star to his credit in that famous Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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