beXnlog

Revised Top 5 Beverages

Happy Birthday to Dude!

Last night i had dinner with be and Florence at Madras in the East Village. It's one of my favorite Indian restaurants; not only is the food really good, but they serve a lot of South Indian dishes, too. For drinks, be and i both ordered the Ginger Lemonade. After a few minutes, we were informed that they only had 1 Ginger Lemonade, that the 2nd glass would take a long time to make. A long time for Ginger Lemonade? we thought. How could that possibly be? Before we said anything, the waiter explained that fresh ginger is first ground up, simmered for a long time with sugar, made into a syrup and then finally mixed with lemon juice and water. They only had enough ginger syrup for 1 glass, so i opted for mango juice instead.

After trying some of be's Ginger Lemonade, i realized i made a grand mistake and should've had be get the replacement beverage! It was absolutely delicious - really gingery and refreshing. It beats plain old lemon-lemonade anyday. I'm going to try to make some ginger syrup myself, but meanwhile be sure to check out this great drink.

In other great drinks news: be and i got another carton of apple juice from Japan via his parents! I haven't seen the Takanashi brand of apple juice anywhere in New York. It comes in a "clear" version, which looks like American apple juice, and another version that's opaque and lighter yellow. Both of them are amazingly, salivatingly delicious. I know you must be thinking i'm a nut for raving about apple juice, of all things, but don't question until you get a chance to taste it. It's exactly like the freshest, sweetest apples. The only American brand that comes close is the old skool Elliot's Amazing Apple Juice, when they used to come in brown glass bottles - but even then, both Takanashi brands win hands down.

I must revise the Top 5 Beverages of All Time list:

OLD: Thai iced tea, horchata made with pumpkin seeds, Vitamin Water "Multi-V" old grapefruit flavor (discontinued), Gatorade "Orange Ice" flavor, homemade apple/carrot/ginger juice.

NEW: Thai iced tea, horchata made with pumpkin seeds, Vitamin Water "Multi-V" old grapefruit flavor (discontinued), Ginger Lemonade from Madras, Takanashi brand apple juice.

posted by beXn @ 9:12 PM