Simply red - MCV - Melbourne Community Voice for Gay and Lesbian Readers

Written by S.M. King

Thursday, 16 October 2008 00:56 - Last Updated Monday, 22 December 2008 13:44

S.M. King takes a bloody good look at a bloody marvellous tipple.

The Bloody Mary has a history that, if argued, can end in bloodshed. There are a few
establishments vying for the title of First to Mix the world’s finest hangover cure. One story has it
that Harry’s Bar in Paris devised the drink for Ernest Hemingway and those other butch writers
with dormant homosexual tendencies. Another account gives the honour to long-gone
vaudevillian George Jessel.

Whatever the case, of one thing we can be sure: the original Bloody Mary involved more than a
nip of spirits. Back in the 1930s, it was half vodka and half tomato juice. These days, a single
jigger is lost in a sea of vitamins.

When did our drinking culture lose its way so badly?

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Simply red - MCV - Melbourne Community Voice for Gay and Lesbian Readers

Written by S.M. King

Thursday, 16 October 2008 00:56 - Last Updated Monday, 22 December 2008 13:44

Happily, there are still establishments that respect the basic building blocks of a great drink.
The artisans of Hairy Canary honour tradition and offer a fine drink that includes Absolut,
Tabasco, celery salt, Worcestershire sauce and fresh chilli. It’s a satisfying combo. There will be
no arguments here that the mixologists have lost their way in the preparation of a grand old
drink.

Some places offer their “spin” on a drink that kept Hemingway and his mates soused from very
early in the AM. I’ve seen and drunk some appallingly bad experiments.

Why are there evil bastards intent on ruining perfectly wonderful things like martinis, Thai Food
and Bloody Marys?

It takes a bright spark to improve on perfection.

Remarkably, the good folk of Ginger have done just that. Proprietress Deb Paez comes over all
misty as she recounts the ingredients in her Breakfast Bloody Mary. This thing almost qualifies
as a meal. Find, along with the trad components, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, basil, lime and a
bracing dash of sake. She uses an ounce of, mmm, Smirnoff Black and wasabi. I’ve come
around to wasabi as a Bloody Mary condiment. This delicious little root, as you know, is the
horseradish of the naughties. Horseradish, I suppose, being the Keen’s Mustard of the eighties.
Anyhow, it’s a bloody good Bloody Mary. And for those, like myself, who enjoy pain with their
cuisine, Paez offers a One through Ten spice scale. Ten, she says, “Being a real tear jerker.”

Partner refuses to have a Bloody Mary without a virtual bunch of celery sticking out the glass.
Partner’s eyes mist over when she recalls the fetching Kim, a raven-haired witch who left
bar-tending in favour of kinesiology practise. Spoil sport.

Back in the nineties, Kim made a nonpareil BM with plain old Stoli, tomato juice and, rumour
had it, sauerkraut brine. This spice rhapsody played out on her palate every other afternoon at
Sydney’s Dugout bar on Oxford Street. The bar has changed and, alas, the song does not
remain the same.

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Simply red - MCV - Melbourne Community Voice for Gay and Lesbian Readers

Written by S.M. King

Thursday, 16 October 2008 00:56 - Last Updated Monday, 22 December 2008 13:44

However, Partner was very pleased with a Manhattan version of the classic drink. When the
Aussie dollar recovers, head to East 76th Street. In Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle Hotel it
seems that Kim’s spiritual twin, Tommy, has evolved a savoury spice mix so secret that the
KGB has repeatedly failed to secure it.

And this is how your own experimentation with the drink should proceed. Keep it spicy. But,
above all, keep it secret.

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