1939 The Gentleman's Companion volume II Beeing an Exotic Drinking Book

THE EXOTIC DRINKING BOOK

Into a bar glass put r pony of fresh ripe strawberry juice after being strained. Add 2 dashes of maraschino, r dash of orange bitters, then r Yz jiggers of good cognac. Stir and pour into a thin crystal goblet– not too large-filled with shaved ice, stir once and garnish with r dead– ripe strawberry teed up in the precise center. GABY des LYS COCKTAIL, ONE from OLD NEw YoRK PRE– PRoHIBITION DAYs 1 when DIAMOND ]IM BRADY WAs ALIVE, & the WINTER GARDEN WAs NEw YoRK's only SMOKING THEATRE, and the IMMORTAL GABY WAS PLAYING with AL JoLSoN & HARRY PILcER Gaby the lovely, Gaby the delightfully mad, Gaby the free soul– who died too young and gave a fortune in pearls to the Paris poor! Gaby is gone, and Bustanoby's old Beaux Arts is gone, and the first Rector's is a memory, but her memory marches on-and this cocktail named in her honour. It is very simple, crisp. Tor jigger of good dry gin add Yz pony of orgeat syrup and r tsp of absinthe, or a trifle less. Frappe very cold indeed or it will tend to over-sweetness, and serve in aManhattan glass. Why on earth this stroke of genius stands unheralded and unsung in this fair and allegedly free land of ours shall, to us, always be a mys– tery like who it is that designs expensive radio cabinets, why all cinema stars long to ruin themselves playing highbrow roles, and why good prize fighters want to write fiction.... Throughout the whole swing of the Far East, starting with Bombay-down the Malabar Coast to Colombo; to Penang, Singapore, Hongkong and Shanghai, the Gim– let is just as well known as our Martini here. The main thing in its favour is that, unlike most cocktails, it is not "warming" in hot weather, and in fact is a good cooler. It is simple, without fancy fizzings, and is one to experiment with until the precise amount of lime cordial is found, to taste. . . . This last is a British invention based on a similar essence to Rose's Lime Juice-which THE FAR EASTERN GIMLET, CLASSIC Now ALL over the ORIENT-from BoMBA Y to HoNGKONG, & FuRTHER