11 July 2017

Tuberose from Sharmila’s garden

I grew up in India calling this “Rajanigandha”. Without doubt, one of the most fragrant flowers one can ever be around. This flower almost always carries a symbolism of marriage in my mind since every wedding ceremony in India (certainly the parts that I come from) would have this as a must-have item. This, those ever-flickering tubelights in the wedding halls and those dratted small green insects that rejoiced in walking sideways around those flickering tubelights (Bengalis help me – “shyamapoka”???).

My dad – who is not exactly conversant with everything America – could not be more glowing of this country when I told him this morning that Sharmila has grown “Rajanigandha” in our garden. It has almost made up for his disdain towards those American socks sellers for selling me socks that barely came up to my ankles. (He figured for the money I paid – once multiplied by the exchange factor, I should have gotten socks up to my knees. Or even more!! 🙂 )

Anyways, going back to the picture, this was taken with an iPhone in the evening. I could get one stalk in an angle such that there was nothing behind that gave a great depth of field perception.

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9 July 2017

From the bartender’s corner – Not Your Dad’s Gin and Tonic

This is perfect for my Bengali friends who typically like their drinks a little on the sweeter side. And the lychee-like aroma of elderflower is bound to win the noses of them.

If you do not use Uncle Val’s gin, use Hendricks. You will need the cucumber to interplay with elder flower. If none of them are handy, just gently muddle a couple of cucumbers and stir after you have poured the ingredients. (Do not shake though, it will become too frothy).

The ingredients are the gin and elderflower liqueur and tonic water. The original recipe calls for tonic syrup and sparkling water but tonic water is good enough and less hassle.

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5 July 2017

From the bartender’s corner: Gin #15 – Uncle Val’s Botanical Gin

Everyone is aware of wine from Sonoma, California. Now get this – this gin is made in Sonoma too! If any one of you have ever like Hendrick’s (a favorite of Sharmila’s and mine), you are bound to like this gin.

This gin derives its name from the company’s chairman’s uncle – Uncle Val from back in Italy who had a penchant for great cooking. And the nephew focused on his uncle’s favorite ingredients to create this gin.

The base alcohol is made from gin and is distilled as many as five times. The botanicals used includes juniper, cucumber, lemon, sage and lavender. This gin is difficult to categorize. It is not a traditional London Dry gin in the sense that the juniper is far more understated. In fact, I would say this is closer to the American style gin. But the strength of cucumber leaves a strong hint of Scottish kind of gin (like Hendricks).

The nose is clearly very floral with the citrus making its presence felt a little later. As I said, not much of juniper strength. The palette almost makes it feel like a weak gin. What it is – is that the lack of juniper is made up by the strong floral effects (especially lavender) and the cucumber makes it lot more cool and soothing as it goes down.

Highly recommend to anybody who is looking for a nice and mild gin but can hold its own with some tonic water.

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