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New York is not my favourite city, but it's the city that hosts my favourite cocktail.
I cannot even remember the name of this heavenly creation, but I remember how it's made and where to get it from. But I reckon it must have been called something like Tomartini... the list of ingredients is nice and short: tomato water, vodka, pickles.
Alright, it sounds revolting. I admit, it was sheer curiosity that made me order this cocktail and I rememer even enquiring about the degree of its revoltingness with our waiter, who just replied: "Very good choice, it is lovely". And so it was. The place to get it from is the Savoy in Soho. Or my place, if I ever find out about how to make tomato water. Trust me, try it. You will not regret it (like the Olive Martini in the Soho Grand Hotel which basically consists of nothing but cheap olive brine and vodka. Yuk.)
It's a big hype in South and Central Europe, in the UK however it hasn't had much success among the bar crowd yet: Aperol. In London, you only find it in the most Italian of all Italian cafes, bars and shops.
The bitterness of this orange liquor reminds of Cinzano and Campari. Two drinks that haven't made it big on the British Isles either.I came across it last time in Austria where literally everyone sitting outside in a beer garden is sipping on an Aperol Spritzer: white wine, soda and a splash of Aperol. The perfect refreshment on a hot summer's day.
Which could explain the lack of enthusiasm about it in the UK: so far, we haven't had a summer yet.
Still, I was excited to see that my favourite Italian Deli had a dusty bottle of Aperol tucked away in the corner of the drinks section. The shop owner was delighted when I asked for it. It brought me one step closer to being Mrs Shop Owner one day (he IS cute ;-).When I served prosecco with a glugg of Aperol to my guests recently, I got basically two kinds of reaction: content faces from the Southern/Central Europeans and the request for a spoon of sugar in it from the rest. I like it. Prost!
