Thanksgiving Bellini

                  Bellini-shakes with a beautiful Potato Dauphin

American Thanksgiving in London is very much a do-it-yourself, home-made, ‘let’s pull it together, and celebrate anyway!’ kind of effort, squeezed in this year between a Christmas street fair, and lots of math homework.

While everyone else is already thinking Christmas (don’t even mention Hanukkah, Jews don’t exist in England as far as the shops are concerned), we Americans here in London are thinking Turkey! Stuffing! Apple Pie! And, of course Bellinis!

Hot off the Press...the Puccini

Lulu just sent me this, from today's Daily Telegraph:

"At the recent opening of the Galvin brothers' new restaurant, La Chapelle in Shoreditch, guests including Gary Rhodes and Giles Coren sipped Puccinis, a mixture of mandarin juice and champagne. It was a long way from a rainy Spanish citrus grove."

I might add that Galvin on Baker St. is one of our favorite restaurants in London. The question is, do they serve Bellinis? We will investigate and report back to you soon.

Prosecco East

Flora
Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)
c.1515-1520. Oil on canvas. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

My friend Sofia grew up with her extended family, in a fabulous house on the Grand Canal in Venice. With her fair complexion and luxuriant red hair, she could easily have stepped out of a painting by Titian or Tintoretto, or any of the great Venetian painters of the Renaissance.

Sofia and I have known each other for twenty years, and even though you can know somebody for so long, sometimes it is easy to forget what they are actually like. Sofia has always called the shots in terms of food, where we should eat. Usually, I don’t mind because I know how much she loves Asian food, for example. But when I asked her to join me for a Bellini, I assumed she’d understand it would have to be a restaurant that actually served a Bellini.

Words to Describe Prosecco

Okay, so I got a little carried away in my last post, waxing poetic about nature, and so forth. It turns out that Prosecco, when drunk on its own, should be merrily enjoyed, drunk quickly, and not sipped at all. In the form of a classic Bellini, which is 5 parts fresh peach puree and 1 part Prosecco, it can be consumed either way, swigged, downed or sipped.

The words and phrases used by various wine writers to describe the taste of Prosecco are inspiring. You might really believe you are drinking the nectar of the gods, with Pliny the Elder on the banks of the River Tiber, in Ancient Rome. Apparently, the grapes that Prosecco is made from are that old.

Why a Bellini and not a Mojito?

Why a Bellini and not another drink, you may ask. I’m not sure why. Something to do with a summer I spent in Venice when I was 27 years old, and the fact that it is essentially a wine and fruit based drink. Could there be anything more pure? More natural? More of this earth? Grapes and fruit, the vine and the tree, the cluster and the single fruit. Need I say more? Perhaps…

How Not to Make a Bellini

http://www.barschool.com/drink-recipes/bellini
My friend Lulu sent me this link from the 'American Bartenders School' as a joke, and I thought it was worth posting, as a clear, and uninspiring demonstration on how not to make a Bellini.

I must give him credit for his description of a fluted glass, and for economy- a bottle of Champagne and what looks like a tin of a Goya fruit juice, a staple product of every Latin American bodega in the US.

Vive Gringolandia!

Gastro Pub no. 1

It was in a gastro pub in lovely Primrose Hill that the unexpected happened- a gorgeous looking drink appeared, complete with decorative strawberry, hanging on the rim of the glass, perched like a bright Sunday hat with a green bow.

First Date with Emma

 

Emma is my good friend who has very kindly agreed to help me with the Bellini Project, as I am now calling it- my endeavor in finding a well-priced, delicious Bellini in London. This all started because of a £14.00 Bellini, which I thought was ridiculously over-priced. I was outraged, and perhaps a little naïve, to find that one of my favorite cocktails should cost so much, and so I guess I am trying to find out why. I realize that there are other significant causes around the world and in this city, where I might better direct my energies…. and maybe one day I will fight against the urgent crisis of poverty and hunger and ignorance, but right now, I am consumed by the injustice of an overpriced cocktail, and will fight my battles in the bars and dining rooms of London’s swankiest (and some not so swanky) restaurants. All for the good of my beloved Bellini.