Having recently been given a copy of David Embury's 'The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks' I have been experimenting, this is my first, hope you like it!
Ingredients;
Juice of half a lime
Juice of one small orange
one teaspoon simple sugar syrup or just sugar
One jigger cuban white rum
Ice
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Place all of the ingredients in a blender and blitz, pour into a Collins glass and decorate with a twist of orange peel, if you don't have a blender you can shake all of the ingredients in a cocktail shaker and pour over fresh ice.
Yes, we kept our booze license as a memento. As you say Carol our booze shop was a sort of blockhouse hidden behind a little shopping centre in Jumeirah. It's probably been knocked down to build a 1000 room 10 star hotel now. The amount you were allowed to buy monthly was based on your salary and every purchase was recorded carefully in your license. The cost of booze was pretty high but it would have taken some considerable effort and a touch of cirrhosis to ever hit the limit. In Sharjah, the emirate just north of Dubai, booze is banned (I believe they were bailed out by Saudi many years ago and that was a condition) EXCEPT in the cricket club where one could have a nice lunch and get happily pickled. Very civilised. I liked Bahrain Norman. I had some good pals that lived there and spent a fair amount of time there. I guess the causeway from Saudi was opened after your time so you might have missed weekend influx of parched Saudis. My favourite country in the region is Oman. We found the people very friendly.
In Dubai there are licenced sellers...the shops have a doorway, no windows..literally like cellars. If you have applied for and been granted a booze licence you can buy your grog there. The shops are not open during Ramadan. The restaurants that serve booze, away from the seafront, dont serve booze during Ramadan either. We ate at a lot of dry restaurants, but the alcohol free cocktails were so good, it wasnt a miss. You are also allowed to take 3 litres of booze each through customs on arrival.
Ditto John, I lived in Bahrain there and worked the whole Gulf Region (producing the regional telephone directories would you believe,)for about two years back in the early '80's and even then I only knew ONE teetotaller, of any ilk.
I used to laugh my socks off when Ramadan and the usual religious hoilidays came round, Eid etc., to see the pickups lined up outside the Gulf Cellars (do they still exist?) loading up with huge amounts of grog to be privately imbibed!
Not surprised John! however...a lot of the restaurants dont serve alcohol....I can take it or leave it....and frankly the mint and citrus drink did it for me!
We have just tried your recipe James - (with the addition of the juice of one more orange and a drop of left over cognac!)
Sitting up in the summer house looking out over the hills of Provence it went down a treat.
For anyone who is tee totaler....we tried this cocktail in Dubai....fabulous.
Juice and zest of one lemon and one lime. Large bunch of mint leaves, handful of ice, cup of fizzy water. Blitz in a blender, top up with fizzy water and sugar syrup to taste...perfect on a hot day. If you like some alcohol....add Vodka or Bacardi to taste.
