Sun Diego Eats
Sun Diego Eats -
The Manhattan – mostly bourbon, a splash of vermouth, a couple drops of Angostura bitters and a cherry – was my first grown up drink order. At 21, and at that point freshly graduated from college, my experience with ‘drinks’ was mostly limited to room temperature Natty light (often ensconced in red Dixie cups at a beer pong table for extra I-went-to-college-in-America vibes) and the sugary, unnaturally coloured concoctions knows as ‘jungle juice’, that often contained Tampico and invariably contained bottom shelf spirits, the kinds that don’t merit glass bottles (Popov anyone?).
Every now and then when I went home to Brazil (where the legal drinking age is 18) where I would get to order drinks like an adult (mostly with my parents at dinner). But not often. And at that moment, I was 21 and I was in New York and we were at Momofuku Ssäm Bar and we had another 30 minutes to wait for our table. So I was going to order a real drink like a real person. Of course I had zero knowledge of what real drinks entailed so when I went to the bartender alone (my other dining companions were not 21) and he suggested a Manhattan, I went with it, nodding along like I had a clue as to what the heck was in a Manhattan.
Spoiler alert: I hated it. The first sip almost made me spit out my drink, like in the movies. And 30 minutes later when we got our table I had barely made a dent in it. During the meal I would take tiny sips of it and then chase them with the food (pork belly baos and mussels – that I did not hate) or long gulps of ice water. Soon enough I was proffering it to my sister and her friend who came to dinner with me. Whenever the waiters looked away I would egg them on, as they tried to surreptitiously gulp it down. Sadly, by the end of the meal there was still 1/4 of the drink left. My sister’s friend, martyr that he was, decided to bite the bullet, took a deep sigh, and just threw it back in one shot. We nodded in admiration as his eyes watered. And then we hightailed it to Momofuku Milk Bar across the street to chase it all with copious amounts of cereal milk soft serve.
All in all, it was clearly not love at first sight, but now more than a handful of years later I quite like the Manhattan and my sister, who could barely drink a full sip before, finds them too sweet and prefers her bourbon neat. How the times have changed.
Either way, whether you like your whiskey neat or not so much, this Manhattan milkshake is quite palatable. It has all the ingredients in a regular Manhattan, which are then blended with good quality vanilla bean ice cream and swirled with Luxardo cherry syrup. To make it even more appealing to the youths, I went ahead and made it extra Instagrammable with a Valhrona caramelized white chocolate dipped and chocolate pearl studded cup, Luxardo cherry whipped cream, and a matching croissant donut hat. It’s what the kids* want these days.
*not like kids kids.
The best part is if you have a reasonably well-stocked bar and minimally stocked freezer I think you will have all the ingredients on hand! And if you don’t have any Bulleit in stock you can, like I did, order from Drizly! It’s an alcohol delivery service that is available in 21 cities across the US and Canada and has no mark ups, you pay the same price you’d pay at the store. If you live in one of these neighborhoods San Diego, you are in their delivery range and you can use the promo code WELCOMESD for $10 off your first purchase ($25 min. order).
It was super handy and I was beyond happy when Drizly offered I try our their services as I hate going to the grocery store more than I already do and we were having guests over that weekend. The delivery guy literally walked up to my front door and then waited until I rooted around in my purse for my driver’s license and then ran to the garage because I thought I had left my driver’s license in my car, and then ran back to check my purse again because turns out it was in my cardholder. YAY. So in short, you order it online or via their app, and if you know where your driver’s license is at most given times you don’t even have to set foot outside your front door.
MANHATTAN MILKSHAKE:
Makes 1 large milkshake or 2 small ones
INGREDIENTS:
Milkshake:
- 2 oz of bourbon whiskey (I used rye whiskey because there were enough sweet vanilla-y notes from the ice cream also ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
- 1 oz sweet vermouth
- 3 dashes of Angostura bitters
- 2.5 cups of vanilla bean ice cream
- 2 tablespoons of Luxardo cherry syrup
Toppings:
- 1/2 cup of heavy cream, whipped
- 1 tablespoon of Luxardo cherry syrup
- 1 cup of Valhrona ‘dulcey blond’ feves chocolate, melted (dark chocolate would be fine too)
- 1/4 cup of chocolate pearls
- 1 donut (or cake. or cookie.
or melon loooking thingha it’s a basketball. i am an idiot.) per cup
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Chill the cups for the milkshake.
- Melt the chocolate feves for the topping and then let cool for 5 minutes until it is still liquid but not hot to the touch.
- Dip the chilled cups into the semi-cooled melted chocolate. Spoon over more to create a drizzle effect. It should run slowly, if it runs too fast let the chocolate cool more. Once done stick in the fridge for 3-4 minutes until it has a matte appearance but is still tacky.
- Stick on the chocolate pearls. Return to the fridge until set.
- If you want dip, the donut into the remaining melted chocolate and top with chocolate pearls to “match” the cup.
- Swirl the 1 tablespoon of the cherry syrup into the whipped cream. Chill in the fridge.
- Blend all the milkshake ingredients together with the exception of the Luxardo cherry syrup.
- Pour into the serving cup (or cups) and swirl in 2 tablespoons of the cherry syrup.
- Top the milkshake with the whipped cream, put in a straw, and loop the donut onto the straw. Serve immediately before it melts!
I also spray painted the donut gold with edible gold spray paint (Ace of Cakes brand?). Because clearly the theme is not exactly restraint. This is a mess to eat, you can sip the milkshake thru the straw, chew the chocolate pearls off the cup, spoon the whipped cream off the top or take a bite oft the donut – at the same time. Unlike a 21 year old having their first big girl drink, you do not however, need to chase it with anything. Except maybe some time on a treadmill.
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