Making Cocktails in Shanghai: Manhattan, Negroni, Margarita

There's not many places that mix a decent drink in Shanghai. Clubs and bars will mostly give highballs - a soda, juice, or maybe a tea, mixed with an alcohol. It's tough to go wrong, but it's not very exciting, neither. Higher-end places are good but not great, with a tendency towards seriously sweet drinks involving vodka and frou-frou things mixed in.

As a cocktail fan I find it all a bit tragic. If I want a good cocktail I have to make it myself. However it's not as easy as in the US: there's some Shanghai-specific issues I'll bring up in making my favorite cocktails. I won't go into details on the actual mixing, as I think it comes down to personal preference, although I'll say you should used bottled water for the ice! Click on the titles for a recipe, and this video of a Negroni being made is fun:

The Manhattan

Made correctly, a Manhattan is the best cocktail.

A Manhattan is basically two parts rye whiskey, one part Italian (sweet/red) vermouth, and a dash of Bitters. There's the caveat that the amount to use in the recipe depends on matching the strength of the whiskey to the sweetness of the vermouth - balance is key. While each combination definitely has a unique optimal blend, being a little off still results in a very good drink. The picture is a CC shot taken from flickr.

Even though bourbon is usually used, it's a bad idea. It's just too sweet to make an interesting drink - there'll be no contrast in the final product. Rye is the way to go - unfortunately Rye isn't available in China!

The best alternatives are Wild Turkey Bourbon, which has a substantial percentage of Rye, or Canadian Club Whiskey, which also has some. Neither is perfect: Canadian whiskeys are mixed with neutral spirits to make a seriously wimpy product, and Wild Turkey Bourbon just doesn't taste quite right with the drink. I'd go with Canadian Club, which can be found at various superstores and foreign groceries around Shanghai. Also a CC Flickr picture.

Martini & Rossi vermouth is relatively easy to find in Shanghai, and goes great with rye, but overwhelms any bourbon - matched together, it tastes sickly-sweet, gummy, and frankly a little gross. The Lawson's Market, near Huangpi Lu, stocks the mellower Cinzano vermouth. It's a lighter vermouth, but one still needs to go easy when matched against the light-flavored Canadian Club. It costs 100 kuai (about $13) for a 1 Liter bottle. This is more vermouth than anybody needs, and vermouth will start tasting not as good a couple months after the bottle is opened. But smaller bottles aren't available and there's no choice.

Angostura Bitters are the Gold Standard. They're available at the same market, a 200mL bottle for $15. It's a rip-off, but that's enough to last a number of years, and it keeps perfectly even without refrigeration. There's no orange bitters available, which isn't a surprise, although Orange Bitters used to be a de rigueur ingredient. There's a few versions occasionally available in the US, and I understand Suntory sells an authentic pre-Prohibition style, but only in Japan, and it's hard to track down.

The Negroni

The Negroni is actually a much easier drink to make in Shanghai. It's definitely an acquired taste, but I've come to enjoy them very much. It's one (or more) parts gin, one part Campari (an Italian Bitters), and one part sweet vermouth.

So although Rye can't be found in the US, and there's not much selection of Bourbon, Rum, or tequila, gin really isn't a problem. I think Shanghai alcohol importers just follow the lead of Hong Kong, and import what's popular with English people. Not every popular brand is available, but most of them are, including the more expensive gins like 10, Plymouth, or Bombay Sapphire. But these gins are not very good in a mixed drink. The way to go is a more traditional, stronger flavor, like Beefeater's (which is sporadically available at Carrefour), Tanqueray, or the easily-found Gordon's. They're all slightly cheaper than what they cost in the US.

Campari is also not a problem. It's sold at at most places that import alcohol, at Carrefour it's 100 kuai. My friend likens the taste to "carpet cleaner." So be prepared to not be a big fan, right off the bat.



Finally, sweet vermouth, the same type or vermouth as used in a Manhattan. Either brand I mentioned will work fine, although one would want to slightly up the amount of Cinzano to make up for it having a mellower taste. Be careful, too much vermouth (especially Martini & Rossi vermouth) is really a terrible thing with this drink.

Margarita

This drink is widely available but seldom tastes right, and there's good reason for this: the ingredients are hard to find in China. It involves one part lime juice, two parts Orange Triple Sec (hopefully Cointreau), and three parts tequila.

The good news is Cointreau, it's a definite necessity for a decent Margarita. In local alcohol shops, it can still be found for 120 kuai, about $17, compared to about $35 in the US. Unfortunately the Carrefours and so forth have raised the price to $23 or so.

There's no real reason to experiment away from Cointreau, but for slightly more, Grand Marnier is also available, it's sweeter and has a brandy base. Lejay-Lagoute is recently available at City Market, a foreign grocery. It's more expensive, lighter in proof and taste, and comes in a small 500mL bottle. But I had a free sample and it seemed usable.

Lime juice is a tough one. On very rare occasions, Key Limes are available cheaply, it's always worth getting them even if there's no intention of making a Margarita, they're awesome. Usually, though, it's normal-size limes, for a very expensive price, maybe a dollar a lime. And usually these limes are some weird kind I'm not familiar with: stuffed filled with seeds, a nice fragrance, but a very astringent taste. I haven't devised a means to tell them apart from better limes, and they're sold under the same names at various stores. It's easy to buy Lime juice concentrate, and while the taste is there, using concentrated fruit juice will result in a boring drink. I've tried mixing it half and half with the concentrate, and while it's really not satisfactory, it's better than nothing. The sweetness of the triple-sec should be matched against the sourness of the limes, so if using weird limes, it needs a taste-test to make it properly.

Finally, the tequila. There's some easy-to-find brands - Olmeca, Jose Cuervo, Sauza Gold. All sell for $12-$18, and all of them are more suited towards frat parties than a nice mixed drink - still that's probably as good as it gets for making a Margarita.

Tequilas are sold as gold (crap), silver (unaged, stronger tastes, although from cheap brands it just means it's gold without caramel coloring added), Resposado (slightly aged), and Añejo (aged). All good tequilas are 100% Agave. Silver and Reposado are best suited to a Margarita, by the time it gets to Añejo the tastes are too different, it doesn't really work with a Margarita. That said, there's some decent Añejos available in Shanghai - some foreign groceries sell Jose Cuervo 1800, a peppery 100% Agave Añejo. The actual best tequila available in Shanghai is Don Julio Añejo, going for a ridiculous 650 kuai ($90) in Lawson's.

You're allowed to bring two bottles of alcohol into China: a cocktail fan should take advantage of this. And on the positive side, Shanghai has Havana Club 7 relatively easily available at foreign groceries. Even if it's not quite as cheap as it was a couple years ago, it's about as good as rum gets. Also there's some surprises- Rhum Agricole is available at the Japanese Groceries, various absinthes of wildly different qualities, and low-grade Maraschino Liqueur, which still makes for a top-grade Aviation.

Update 4/22/2008 - I ran across Delish, a small import store and bakery at 98 Yanping Lu, a little North of Jing'an Temple. There's a small and overpriced but definitely interesting selection of alcohols. Patron Silver is the standout, at an expensive $65 - Don Julio Añejo is the better tequila, but Patron Silver makes the better Margarita. They also have Marie Brizard alcohols and Orgeat (for a Mai Tai), grappas, Rhum Agricoles, and other exotica.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

The picture above says it all - it's snowing in Shanghai! My god! I realize it's nothing compared to living in the American Midwest or something horrible like that. It's actually a little hard to even see the snow here, without blowing up the picture. But I've only seen it snow a handful of times in my life, and never to the point that it leaves anything on the ground.

There's not much remaining on the ground - on the street it just melts right away, so I have to search down parks to take pictures. In a few places there's dirty slush, it's difficult to walk on. Really it's pretty miserable - temperatures are already stuck somewhere around freezing, and for the past few days, when it hasn't been snowing, there's been rain or sleet. And it's supposed to stay that way for another week!

That brings it up against the start of the Chinese New Year's, when everybody jumps on a train and heads back to their hometown in the country. Right now trains are being delayed by the snow. If that situation doesn't improve by Chinese New Year's, wow, things are going to be ugly. Also, vegetable prices have spiked while availability has lowered - my friend estimates the prices are twice as high as normal, although I don't know if it's that much. Either way, it's coming on top of the already-existing Food Inflation.

In conclusion, I've decided that snow is kind of fun for fifteen minutes, after that it is a pain and we should get rid of it.

Update February 25th: It got much worse over the next week or two, here's a couple more pictures:

My Part in the State Propaganda Machine

I was tickled pink to see myself quoted in the English Language edition of China Daily, the Chinese equivalent of Pravda. The article was kind of ridiculous, being a borderline plagiarism of Sinosplice and an article discussion. I am the witty commentator "Jeffrey D," quoted at the end.

In related news, I haven't updated this blog in far too long - I haven't quit on it, and I hope to have articles posted very soon. I don't think I'm going back to the once or twice a week pace, but I'll still be updating.

And I'll once again plug my translation/subtitling of "Scenes of City Life." It's free, it's cool like a fool, check it out!

A Street Vegetable Market

Vegetable markets are very interesting, and yes my standards of excitement have been lowered by living in Shanghai for more than two years! But this market is more than that: who wouldn't be interested in markets selling live ducks, chickens, and pigeons! If nothing else, being in Asia and in close contact with poultry violates several US Government recommendations for citizens abroad - I like to live life on the edge.



The particularly keen-minded of my readers may note that ducks, chickens, and pigeons are not actually vegetables. However I still call it a vegetable market because it was about 95% vegetables for sale, aside from a couple places with poultry and one with the local crab (it's basically all shell). Most places just had the basic vegetables, however some of the vegetables were rather exotic, at least for the time of the year.



Most of the vendors were selling right off the street, actually "on" the street would be more accurate. Often the vegetables were in bags, although sometimes they were just laying on the ground. This goes a long way in explaining the Shanghai taboo against salads and raw vegetables - you'd want to wash the vegetables thoroughly and then cook them thoroughly, before eating them.



The vegetables sellers are side to side with each other, the streets are narrow and winding, second stories look like they're about to tip over the first story, and laundry is hanging everywhere. It gives the area a very cool, somewhat hectic feel to it. This is made even more so by the area it's in, the neighborhood is a very scenic collection of old style brick houses and winding alleys - the picture on the right is a of a nearby brick house of about the same era and style. For me it's a good opportunity to look around such a neighborhood without feeling like I'm trespassing private property! This picture is near the entrance where there's a little more room to maneuver. It all gets a lot tighter, farther into the market.



This vegetable market is behind Zhongshan Park south of Suzhou River, a little off Wanhangdu Lu, and I'm guessing only operates on Weekends.

Scenes of City Life, Redux

Half a year ago, I wrote on this blog about "Scenes of City Life", a 1935 Shanghai movie. As a huge film enthusiast, I thought it was a very enjoyable movie, with an interesting look at a pre-war, pre-Communist Shanghai, and a bizarre madhouse take on some of the conventions of older movies, to show the tragicomic lives of its main characters.

Since then I've subtitled the movie, and I've made the movie and subtitles freely available online - Chinese movies become public domain after 50 years. I'm using archive.org to host both the movie, and the subtitles - the subtitles are separate, and stored as a normal text file, with time sync codes included.

The movie is in xvid format, it can be opened with lots of players, including bsplayer 1.37 at filehippo (newer versions of the player aren't freeware and I don't recommend). While playing the movie, right clicking takes you to the menu, where you can choose a subtitle file to display.

I thought it was kind of fun - I've never translated anything similar before! The principle translation just took a couple days, but refining and checking the subtitles was a huge process, and there's inevitable compromises between natural speech and sticking to the Chinese text as much as possible.


Anyone with enough interest in Shanghai to browse this blog should enjoy the movie, and I'd really appreciate comments, either as responses on the blog or as an e-mail.

Click Here to Download ScenesofCityLife.avi (734 MB)

Click Here to Download ScenesOfCityLife-EnglishSubtitles.txt (44K)

A Chinese Zagat's, Decent California-Mexican

Feeling guilty about not updating my blog more regularly is pretty low, maybe a little pathetic even. But that's exactly how it is. So now that I've got my SLR set up, a mental list of what I want to talk about, and a stockpile of photos, I hope to come back with a vengeance!

But not quite yet. In this update I'm just passing on two recommendations - first is a Zagat's type site, dianping.com. It's a review of many of the restaurants of Shanghai, and while it mostly concentrates on restaurants on the expensive side (whereas I mostly eat just normal street-side restaurants), it's introduced me to a number of great places and I recommend giving it a try. Like Zagat's, it rates restaurants from one to thirty in three categories, first on taste, then environment, then on service. The listings divide into sub-sections, by type of food or district of the city.

The site is Chinese only, but is usable (if a little weird) run through machine translation into English, from Babelfish or Google Translate.

Here's what they had to say about Thai House, Lao Kele, City Diner, and, uhh, Burger King.

Also, I've resolved to not write anything more about Western Food, at least not for a while. But I very much enjoyed Cal Kitchen, the Cal is for California. So, I'll mention it in passing, and maybe I'll talk about it in the far future if it's still around. Here's a menu:



There's only four things on the menu: Burritos, Quesadillas, Chili, and (oddly enough) Corn Dogs. But the Burrito is in the San Francisco style and actually they do a pretty good job of it - you choose the type of meat, the type of beans, and it all gets wrapped up in tin-foil.

The menu mentions that it's based off instructions and recipes from Los Hermanos, a restaurant in San Francisco. I looked it up, and it's in the yuppie-ish Marina. Cal Kitchen's burrito tastes almost exactly like what you'd expect a burrito purchased in the Marina to taste like, for both better and worse. The chili is decent, and I'll say this is my favorite casual Western restaurant in Shanghai - with the caveat that Western food here is terrible.

It's on 376 Dagu Lu, a street of high-end bars, restaurants, and wine shops, a little South-East of the Nanjing Xi Lu station.

Update 4/28/09 - It moved to Jing'an District, right upstairs from exit #7 of line #2 of the Zhongshan Park Subway station - kind of off to the side as you go up the escalator. It's a small mall-court location that seems to specialize in doing deliveries, and they now also serve Japanese-style dessert crepes. But despite a recent influx of Mexican restaurants to Shanghai, it pains me to say that Cal Kitchen is still the only place in town to get a burrito anywhere near authentic.

Oh, and by a wild coincidince, some friends and I found ourselves by the Marina in San Francisco, and we stopped by Los Hermanos for a burrito. Not very yuppie, but not very good and not very similar. It didn't look like the sort of place to branch out to Shanghai. I didn't ask about it, but I should have.