When these menacing mugs arrived in the mail the other day—a birthday gift for Brian from his brother, Greg—we knew a tiki post was imminent. After all, sharing them with the rest of the world is half the fun of owning such cool vessels. The other half? Uh, that would be mixing easy-drinking tropical cocktails and sucking them down while  A.) watching TikiBarTV or  B.) chilling out to ukulele classics via Vegas Vic's Tiki Lounge (because if you're going to go tiki, you may as well go all the way).

For our drink, we chose the Suffering Bastard, which, according to Wikipedia, was invented many years ago at Cairo's Shepheard's Hotel  by a bartender named Joe Scialom, who originally dubbed his concoction "The Suffering Bar Steward." Joe also spoke eight languages and had a degree in pharmacy. I'm not promising this cocktail will cure you of anything (except your inhibitions, of course!), but at least it doesn't require a cabinet stocked with exotic coconuty liquors and hey, it even tastes pretty good—especially if you give it a little extra kick by swapping in spicy ginger beer for the ginger ale.

The salad in the photograph, by the way, is Poisson Cru—a sort of Tahitian ceviche. If you're a fan of Anthony Bourdain's show No Reservations, you may remember it as the dish that popped up at practically every meal in the Tahiti episode. Click here for a great recipe.


Suffering Bastard (Recipe adapted from Tiki Bar TV)

1 1/2 ounces gin
1/2 ounce bourbon
Juice of 1/2 lime
Ginger beer
Mint sprig for garnish

Shake gin, bourbon, and lime juice with ice in a cocktail shaker. Pour into an ice-filled tiki mug. Top with ginger beer and garnish with mint. Drink through a straw.


Categories: Drinks
Technorati Tags: tiki, suffering bastard, poisson cru, tahiti, cocktails, mixology monday

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