bar-log = blog

Previous “world best bar” Barasti

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:52:55 +0400

Today I am doing it, against all my anxiety against my pride, against sanity and reason; I am “coming back” to Barasti.

The story: Barasti is I_don’t_ know_how_long Time-Out Dubai’s best bar. Also they were on the first place of worldbestbars.com. And I came here before - quite some time ago - and I didn’t understood. It was a greasy, rundown place- with no sense of any quality [service, beverages - well the food is ok...].

Now - the new chapter: we came in - there was no obvious entry to it [but this is not a quality standard - some of the best bars, are hidden behind unmarked doors or behind phone-booths].
Well then we still saw it - a small sign with a A4 laminated paper with Barasti written on it.

Barasti is incredible full; people standing, leaning and sitting almost everywhere. So first of all to the bar. Sarah ordered a Pimm’s: frosted plastic Libby glass with no garnish whatsoever - only Pimm’s and ginger ale; I was carefully for the moment - Bulmer’s - the glass [yes - no plastic here] was not properly polished - no probs - I was drinking out of the bottle.

It is quite cold now in Dubai - so it was a bit difficult to understand, that of around 10 heaters, only 3 were switched on.

We were finding a place [obviously nobody helped us] and ordered some food. The menu - again laminated [this time A3] is totally worn out, a bit greasy - not really a great standard...
Anyway - we ordered grilled Salmon, some onion rings, buffalo wings and pizza Margherita.
Chicken wings were sticky sweet - however tasted like old oil - n ot too bad... the onion rings had a quite thin crust - good tamarind dipping sauce - and again tasted like old oil - also quite ok [except of the grease]. Sarah like her salmon - it was indeed very crispy and still juicy - I found it much too fishy! My pizza was... very average [and average is not my taste]; bready, chewy - hint of orregano and processed mozzarella.

Our stay was “accompanied” by the olé-olé-olé by a guitar-playing and singing entertainer. And the audience [except of us] apparently liked it.

Staff was... effective. Not especially friendly, but also not unfriendly [maybe except of the Chinese girl, who hammered the drinks on our table without even looking at us].
And she brought the second Pimm’s this time in a highball glass with a flimsy strip of cucumber and some suspicious looking fruits and mint - at least...

The cocktail menu [the design is quite decent - it might be not much in use]- is a time-travel into the deep 80’s, heavily branded drinks [Bacardi, Jack Daniel’s and alike], which are all a bit Long Island Iced Tea or Alabama Slammer. I take the recommendation: To be honest - I have no clue, how this drink was named - in the menu stood something like vodka, orange curaçao and some more ingredients - however it came as turquoise colored drink to the table and was since a long time the worst drink I tried. Not bad in execution but in concept.

Lets wrap it up. Barasti is a beach bar and the food can be quite enjoyable [but is everything but stellar]. The drinks are inconsistent and plain poor. The staff is hurried, not especially friendly and definitely not attentive. Entertainment has to be your taste.
It reminds me on a college dive, or a Kneipe in Germany. The guests are though quite decent - most expats without any “wrong” people around [no professionals] - which might be the trigger for most guests, to come here.
 Can be Barasti enjoyable? Definitely - if your alcohol-level is high enough [I would suggest that you are staying with some beers/ciders from the bottle - Bulmer’s was a small surprise - this cider is more than decent]. The food was also ok. This venue has a dive quality, which is apparently super popular in Dubai.

Can Barasti be seen of one of the best bars in Dubai / of the world?

Before answering think about another question: which car would you say is one of the world best:
a Toyota Corolla [or you can say VW Golf] or lets say a Nissan GT-R [or Bugatti Veyron]?
I am sure, that most of you would choose the latter - however the Corolla or Golf are the most popular and most sold cars ever.

Barasti is one of the most popular choices in Dubai, if it comes of going out and have some drinks.
But as we have seen, this doesn’t make it better. The service is sloppy and inattentive, the quality is questionable, price/value isn’t that good either.

Nothing would really qualify this bar, to become only close to “a best bar”.

However this gives us an indication, what people really like in Dubai. All super glamour and glitzy design, might bore most people here. Ok - Club Roberto Cavalli as well as Buddha bar are still popular places here - but I would say, they still cannot compare with Barasti.
People want to relax, like to go to neighborhood bars [which there are non in Dubai] - and they like to go outside - all make Barasti successful.
However again: the same reasons are no reasons to call a bar [I would not even consider Barasti bar a bar] the world’s or city’s best!

So I am very disappointed - not so much about Barasti, which I just wanted o give another shot - but more about the great in local publishings, like Whats on or Time Out. Sure, Whats on is only going after guests nominations and we see, that even in a still crisis-shocked society this place is packed - means they have no problem to win any competition, if it comes to number of votes alone.
However Time Out [or nominations of Worlds best bars or the international bar professionals magazine Drinks] is more questionable - why are they saying, that it is good? Or why are they not nominating McDonalds or Burger King as best restaurant [if it comes to popularity, no other restaurant would have a chance]?

I would really love to discuss in the comments section...

Another Surprise - this time... sugar

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:22:30 +0400

From time to time, you just experience surprises in the trade. Despite the fact, that I am working around 15 years behind the bar - it seems that even fundamentals are not written in stone - sometimes it is something earth shaking, like that ice shape and shaking style doesn’t matter the outcome - sometimes it is, that you just have to use the right [but eventually not classic] ingredients, to make better drink.

Today I had guests ordering a Virgin Strawberry Margarita.
Well, after I withstood the temptation to kill myself and after that come back as Poltergeist to kill the guest [it is just, that there is no Virgin Margarita- until now - a Margarita is made with Tequila, Bitter Orange Liqueur and Lime - take two ingredients out of the equation, and it would be the same, to call the Mars earth-like] - I still tried to do the best drink I could do.

I bought a couple of weeks ago the widely interesting book Heston Blumenthal at home.
There Heston promotes quite often the use of fructose instead of sugar, if it is about fruit.

Fructose is as sucrose a simple sugar, however is sweeter - further my impression is, that it has a different mouthfeel - it is more edgy and acidic than full and treacle-like.

So I used fructose, not super-ripe strawberries [it is winter in Europe- and the Middle East doesn’t have the most strawberry-friendly climate], and half a lime - blended it and after it became a sweet puree, I added ice, to make it liquid/half-frozen.

I didn’t expected much, when I tried it [usually I need to tweek it further, as most of the time you get a quite water result], but the drink was very “strawberr’y”, not watery at all.

No, I won’t put this drink on the menu anytime soon. I also called it Strawberry Mocktail and not Virgin-S***-M... . But the result really surprised me; since so long years, I used either way simple/rich syrup or caster sugar.

Now the heat is on, I am sure, that fruit driven cocktails would widely benefit of the fructose substitute.

Is fructose healthier? Who cares?
[well, apparently not - there are studies, which compare rats which were fed with fructose vs rats which were sucrose junkies, and the fructose rats became more obese]

Fructose doesn’t change the insulin-level, sure - but you should drink water, if you are really health conscious [fruit juices are also not as good as they sound for you - and everything alcohol is the devil].

...one more request: if you see e.g. Mr. Morgenthaler or Mr. Boudreau to ply with fructose, please remember, where you have read it first...

Cohiba Linea 1492 Siglo VI

Sat, 7 Jan 2012 17:34:27 +0400

I am absolutely honest with you- I might actually never buy a Cohiba for myself.
However there was Xmas and I got this cigar from one of my colleagues: Thank you Hassan!

Why I wouldn’t buy a Cohiba? In my eyes, Cohiba is a big brand nowadays; however due to this fact, they are much more expensive than comparable sized cigars - they are usually very young to the high demand - and they are pretentious.

Well - never look a gift horse into the mouth...

Lets now focus on the cigar, shall we?

Cohiba Linea 1492 Siglo VI
Size: Cañonazo; ⌀52 x 150 mm

Appearance:
The Siglo 6 has a beautiful look - color would be a nice Colorado [with a hint of claro]: light brown with a hint of yellow. Construction is solid - thin dusty wrapper, the rougher tobacco underneath the wrapper is barely visible [this strikes me - while this construction is more than acceptable for a “normal” premium cigar, I doubt, that it is really acceptable for the “best cigar brand of the world”. I think Arturo Fuente, Litto Gomez, Padrón or even Davidoff are doing better looking cigars.]

Prelit:
You can directly make out the [for me] typical Cohiba aromas. Some say that it is beany... for me the smell reminds me on natural manure [don’t think that I mean it negative. I like actually stable aromas and alike]. The aromas are very bright and enjoyable.

I am lighting the real classical way - first of all toasting the front with a match stick and turning it over the fire and waving it until the end is in a consistent glow. Only after it is properly lit, you are cutting it.

Body:
Medium to medium-strong.

Smoke Impression:
The aromas are strong at first. Quite sweet manure [I never tried manure, however it is just my closest impression to it]. Impressing is the smoke experience: the puro creates effortless a lot of smoke, the draw is perfect for anyone: it has enough resistance for me [I am a sucker for smoke resistance] to keep me satisfied, but also is a great smoke [if it comes to resistance] for smokers who like it easy -well done Cohiba.

Also unusual is the effect of this cigar - I don’t know what it is, but you have the effect, that you mouth [especially the tongue] gets a bit numb - this is not negative or positive - it is just unusual.

Not so satisfying is the bitter aftertaste, which you get. This is very odd, overall the cigar has a slight creaminess, which isn’t cut through by the bitterness - rather accompanied with it.

There are also nutty aromas with a hint of heavy Madagascar vanilla, which entries your nose; nutty and sweet... very pleasant aromas.
In fact, the aromas are so alluring, that you keep on sniffing into the smoke...

The facets in the smoking course also impresses - in one moment, there is an impression of cough syrup, which directly disappears, but then appears some menthol, which again disappears - always carried on the nutty manure character.

In the last third, flavors and especially the body intensifies and shift towards medium-full to full bodied. There is more roughness noticeable as well.

Thoughts:
The ash is very dark grey and black - this cigar is still very young [as I got one as present, I could not name the boxing date].
While I am absolutely not a Cohiba fan, I do understand, why this cigar is so popular. It is simply good! It clearly is an after-dinner smoke - not suitable too early in the evening and it is not casual at all.
Give it some time, and a good cigar becomes more than great - it will be a classic. Unfortunately this will only be kept for real cigar nuts, with a big humidor and a big collection [or the friends of those aficionados].
If you bring the price into consideration, it shifts this cigar into “special occasion” territory. Not a cigar for every day - both the price and its character suggest, that you should keep it. But then, I can only recommend this smoke...

la gloria cubana Inmensos - shortly noticed

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:44:48 +0400

I was the first person in Dubai, who smoked the La Gloria Cubana Inmensos. No magic here... I was not preferred of the cigar distributor - no sample... I was just lucky and went today on my off day to La Casa del Habanos.

So there it was waiting for me [a short check with Felix Hartmann revealed, that he was also anticipated the Inmensos - but last time he visited the store, they weren’t available yet/].

It is an imposing cigar. Besides of the beautiful La Gloria Cubana band, it has a great middle-oily wrapper in a colorado claro; it comes in the shape of a Sublimes.

I cannot do here a full review - as I smoked it without having the review in mind - however the draw was a bit too loose [but then I am a fan of more dense draws] - the flavors are nice subtle, floral - it reminds a bit on the typical character of La Gloria Cubana - but on the other hand are quite different.

It had an aged Medaille d’Or No.1 [sorry cannot say how old as there were no age stamp on the box] after that, just to confirm my impression. And the slim cigar was not only much stronger [with a resistant smoke resistance - exactly how I like it]. It was earthier, toastier - overall a much greater cigar for connoisseurs.
However the Inmensos surprised with one virtue - while it was only boxed in February 2011, it had no traceable ammonia taste, no harshness - nothing at all. This is very unusual for such a young cigar. Considering the age, I thought it was similar to “normal” Dominican, Nicaraguan or Honduras cigars, which, even in young age doesn’t have the typical harshness of young fermented tobacco leaves.

It reminded me also on the cigar I had a couple of weeks ago: the Bolivar Edición Regionales UAE Sublimes. If you know a bit cigars, you might be intimidated by a large cigar like a Sublimes, made by for one of the strongest brands in Cuba. But even this cigar was totally untypical for Bolivar - medium-mild with rather floral notes, than earthiness and leatheriness.

Seems that the Sublimes goes a bit into the direction of a poser vitola de galera. Everybody around is notifying that you are smoking a serious big and impressive cigar - however at the end it is a velvety and rather easy smoke...

MxMo LXIII: Scarlett O’Hara arrived in the 21st century

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:37:09 +0400

Welcome again to a Mixology Monday. There were a dozen or so Mixology Mondays which were skipped of the opinionated alchemist... not this time!

The topic was chosen by Jacob of Liquidity Preference and I have to say, it is not really an exactly easy one. He called it Retro Redemption.

Here are the details:

Contemporary cocktail enthusiasts take pride in resurrecting forgotten cocktails of the past — unless “the past” refers to the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s. We sometimes refer to these decades as the Dark Ages of Mixology, eras not yet recovered from the violence Prohibition and a World War inflicted on American cocktail culture. The classic Martini, a flavorful blend of gin and vermouth, had morphed into a glass of cold, diluted vodka. Other drinks were just too sweet, too fruity, too big, too silly.
But still, it wasn’t all bad. People ordered these drinks for a reason. Despite the now annual “burial” of a disfavored drink at Tales of the Cocktail, not all of them deserve to die. Perhaps, as they said of the Six Million Dollar Man, we can rebuild them. We have the technology. So the theme of this month’s Mixology Monday is Retro Redemption! Your task is to revive a drink from mixology’s lost decades. Perhaps you feel one of these drinks has a bad rap; tell us why it deserves another shot. Or maybe the original concoction just needs a little help from contemporary ingredients and techniques to make it in the big leagues. If so, tell us how to update it.

To be honest known or not known, I normally deprecate these drinks. Sex on the Beach, Kamikaze, Harvey’s Wallbanger, nowadays even the Cosmopolitan - these are no drinks I do promote.

What to do know - the direction of Jacob was very clear...

Well - in my search in typical 60’s - 80’s drinks I found a couple of drinks, which were basically good [especially from the 60’s] but also usually badly prepared. There was a Manhattan and Old Fashioned, or a Sloe Fizz or a Julep. Choosing these drinks would be an easy fix... but it is also not really honest: this drinks were popular then, but they were not invented in the dark age of cocktails.
Then the Cosmopolitan. We had this already to often... Yes a Cosmopolitan can be made properly. Yes, you should use a citrus infused vodka, a quality orange liqueur [try it with Cointreau], only fresh lime and only a hint of cranberry. B-O-R-I-N-G.

But then I found in my research a drink, which looks on the first sight disconsolate - but on the second sight, it shows some good potential.
 The Scarlett O’Hara.

This is usually a simple long drink, made from Southern Comfort, cranberry juice and lime.
In my pursue to make a proper drink out of it, we have to eliminate the low quality ingredients and substitute them with an appropriate produce...

Lets start...

First: fresh lime can stay... no objections [but it has to be fresh].
Second: Eliminate Southern Comfort! Yeah - SoCo started as decent drink - an infused and honey-sweetened liqueur made from Bourbon. Nowadays- the glory days are over - the bourbon was substituted with neutral grain alcohol, the honey with high fructose corn syrup and lets not speculate about the flavors - they won’t be very natural either.
This was the reason, why I started my homemade SoCo - named after the original name of it: Buttons and Cuffs. I have used Elijah Craig 12 years old as base, infused it with orange & lemon peels, cinnamon stick, cloves, vanilla, peach pits and dried cherries and sweetened it at the end with honey. It is just amazing!

Well - drinking it just like that with the bit of lime, would be one solution know - but this would be also cheating.

So lets see the third ingredient: Cranberry Juice.
Lets face it: Cranberry juice is not at all a juice - it is a juice cocktail, which contains a bit of cranberry [usually around 3%], lots of water and lots of sugar [if you are lucky - otherwise you get as well HFCS.].
Doesn’t really look like a quality ingredient...
That is why we are replacing it with Cranberry juice concentrate.
This is made 100% out of cranberries - it is really tart and fruity and really cranberr’y.
And it is really deep red. It is perfect to balance out the fruity sweetness of the Buttons and Cuffs.

Instead making a long drink, I would make it in a short drink glass - a sour glass would work - but it is quite out of fashion and the least people will have it - so we better use a Cocktail glass [you might want to call it Martini glass].

And here we are - a sweet, tart and fruity Scarlett O’Hara, which doesn’t need to hide before the “more serious” drinks.

The opinionated Scarlett O’Hara
5 cl Buttons & Cuffs [homemade SoCo]
1/2 bs Cranberry concentrate
1 cl fresh squeezed lime

celery tonic water - better than ginger ale...

Wed, 9 Nov 2011 22:55:00 +0400

I really love Alton Brown’s Good Eats; it is informative as entertaining.
Especially good was the episode about celery.

And as I neglected you long time, not showing any videos; I found this episode on youtube for you... see below:

Alton Brown suggest to make a celery syrup and to drink it with soda [we are talking about the celery tonic, not about celery salad or celery as vegetable].
While this is already a nice beverage, it doesn’t really beat some commercial brews.

You would not read this page, if you would not expect a tweak, which makes this drink better and more appropriate with a bar.

This time it is an easy fix: just add sour syrup!

What is sour syrup? There you can find the recipe!

I had not celery seeds, but found ground celery. This is not as elegant [I hate straining through coffee filters, as it is time consuming and messy] - so please, if you can get your hands on celery seeds, coarsely ground them and you have a more attractive looking result.

Recipe is pretty simple:

Celery Syrup
2 tsp Ground Celery [preferable coarsely crushed celery seeds]
100 g Sugar [a combination from brown and white sugar gives more body, without being overpowering]
50 ml Water

Add celery powder into hot water and let steep for 1 hour. Strain through a coffee filter.
Add sugar and strain until dissolved.

Alchemist’s Magic Celery Tonic [you name it]
10 ml Celery Syrup
15 ml Sour Syrup
Rich syrup to taste
Fill up with Club Soda

Again - the magic behind it is the balance between intense sweet, delicate sour with the refreshing fizz.

I will pursue, what to do with it.
As it has a similar taste profile as ginger ale, it seems to be great with brandies and off course American Straight Whiskey [Bourbon, Rye, Tennessee] - or even Scotch.

It makes also a magnificent alcohol-free option for drivers or teetotalers.

Stay tuned, I will definitely dedicate a post to this “old & new” exciting beverages very soon.

P.S. For my friends in Dubai: where did I got the ground celery seeds? I won’t post it here - some trade secrets have to be preserved. I will however disclose it on a case to case basis....

really? a pumpkin spice margarita???

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:49:14 +0400

Look what my newsreader found today...

But wait - a Margarita with cream?

Ok - sometimes the RSS reader mixes up things... I have seen this with pictures off my own website.
So I went on www.drinksoftheweek.com to check it out...

And there you have it... it was not a mistake. I don’t want to excuse this, by the fact that you can find this recipe on different sites [guess it was a mail to some bloggers from Sauza].
Well everyone is able to judge and think him and herself!

What is a Margarita then?
This is pretty straight forward. For me a Margarita contains tequila, lime and bitter orange liqueur. A fruit Margarita has some addition of fresh fruit in less successful recipes some syrups.
I still would call it a Margarita, if you are substituting the orange liqueur with another sweetener.

But overall a Margarita is a fresh and cold drink. What you have here is a Tequila & Pumpkin Spice Spiked Coffee. Something like an Irish Coffee with Tequila!

And before you want to say, that Tequila is made from agave not from cactus: I know! But I thought that the cactus chewing El Gato is quite matching to this topic!

But there is also reason for being positive here...

Without that I have noticed before, Sauza also introduced an affordable 100% Agave tequila.
This is great news! I thought until now, that Sauza Hornitos is already quite affordable [as 1800 of Cuervo] - but the companies are really serious churning out some house-pour tequilas which are in a price segment no controller can really complain about. But fact is: now it is up to the bars, to implement this - to change from a lowly mixto to an affordable 100% agave tequila.

So what do we have?

Off course you do have also the more premium tequilas [some brands just have premium - like Padrón] - but I guess, to just offer some standard tequila and mix in “normal” cocktails, these new basic 100% de agave Tequilas are great.