Cocktails based on food have long been in the limelight, but in Asia, instead of farm-to-fork (or, sometimes, chopstick), the drinks standing out are more street-to-glass
From Agra to Zhangjiajie, street food in Asia has a long legacy, with clanging woks, oil-splattered meat spits, bubbling cauldrons and steaming baskets some of its boldest motifs. Transcending class, generation and ethnicities, street food culture is as fundamental to the makeup of many Asian cities as hospitality is to the bar industry.
Bartenders have long been heading to the kitchen for inspiration but now they’re looking to the streets. They’re making liqueur with duck blood and hoisin sauce; extracting the essence from beef satay jerky; even making tinctures with wok hei, the distinctive flavour of a well-seasoned wok, the idea being to elevate unpretentious cheap eats and transform them into cocktail stardom, one dram at a time.
Meet the meat
In a nod to Taipei’s back-alley food carts, Under Lab serves You Got Beef?, a clever interpretation of Taiwanese beef noodle soup – a hangover remedy rite of passage. To match the broth’s depth, beef jerky and tomato are seasoned with Taiwanese liquorice and Sichuan peppercorn before being sous vide with whiskey. Finished with a spritz of soy sauce, a jigger of peated Scotch and a pinch of brown sugar, the drink finds a companion in Fernet (which lends requisite herbal notes), while a beef fat-wash mimics the soup’s robust flavour and texture.
Taipei's Under Lab is secreted behind a hidden door
The first-ever bar to be awarded the No.1 position on Asia’s 50 Best Bar list three times, Coa’s most ordered drink – the Bloody Beef Maria – is the lovechild of the iconic Hong Kong roadside cart noodle soup and a Bloody Mary. Covering all the bases of the three S’s (sour, savoury and spicy), mezcal and tequila combine with clarified beef stock and tomato cordial, plus a nip of layered spice from chipotle chilli and lip-tingling Sichuan peppercorn.
Coa's Bloody Beef Maria is one of the bar's most popular cocktails
The halo that surrounds Coa translates to sky-high confidence in the same team’s Savory Project (No.19 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2024). The bar’s lofty position as a beacon of savoury, earthy and umami flavours via punchy drams represent Hong Kong’s polyglot culinary heritage. For instance, the Thai Beef Salad – clarified peanut rum blended with beef essence, coconut water, bird’s eye chilli and kaffir lime – is a tip of the hat (and the shaker) to the city’s Thai immigrant population.
The Savory Project champions unorthodox ingredients
At The Best Bar in Nepal 2024, visitors to Barc (No.39 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2024) experience a genuine taste of South Asia’s mountainous region with the Spicy Sukuti, a drink that mirrors its namesake Newari dish of spiced buffalo jerky. Doubling down on the savoury cocktail trend, it’s garnished with smoked sukuti, acknowledging its link to the gastronomic tradition.
Barc's atmospheric, mid-century interiors
So fresh, so clean
Neatly capturing Bangkok’s street food scene in a glass, Nuss Bar’s Som Tam Fizz is named after papaya salad, one of the country’s national dishes. A zesty assortment of green papaya, palm nectar, tomato, lime, fish sauce, pickled long beans and shrimp-infused coconut oil come together with Dechita rice and coconut nectar spirits and rum for a mouthful that is separate from the street but still very much a part of it.
Across town, Mahaniyom Cocktail Bar (No.19 on World’s 50 Best Bars 2023) pays homage to a collection of local flavours, each drink homing in on just one ingredient, but in many derivations. Tart green mango is the centrepiece of the Mango, a riff on a gimlet that salutes the street snack mamuang nampla wan – unripe mango spears slathered in palm sugar-laced fish sauce. Young mango leaf-infused gin and bourbon are married with a green mango syrup and ripe mango acid, tempered with Fino sherry and garnished with caramelised pickled onion.
Mango leaves add tartness to the cocktail at Mahaniyom Cocktail Bar
In the street food mecca of Penang, Backdoor Bodega (No.52 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2024) is doling out glasses rather than bowls of assam laksa, courtesy of its Georgetown Gimlet. An aromatic bouquet of fragrant laksa leaves, galangal, lemongrass, Vietnamese coriander, tamarind paste, plus a hint of pungent belacan (fermented shrimp paste) are simmered to make a laksa broth-based cordial. Together with torched ginger flower-infused gin and bright citrus extract, the result is both refreshing and unmistakably Malaysian.
Backdoor Bodega's Georgetown Gimlet balances sweet and sour, with a spicy kick
Seoul’s Bar Cham (No.20 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2024) is all about honouring Korean spirits and seasonal produce through offerings such as the Chungju Gimbap, a play on Korea’s seaweed-wrapped rice rolls customarily sold at markets. Soju takes centre stage, lending a subtle rice sweetness, while a wasabi and makgeolli (an effervescent rice wine) shrub parallels the pickled radish conventionally found in the rolls’ middle. Cucumber and toasted sesame oil further narrow the gap between cocktail and cuisine.
Bar Cham is modelled on a hanok, a traditional Korean home
Sugar and spice
With drink names that include Green Curry, Chicken Dinner, and Caesar Salad, F*nkytown’s eclectic roster could easily be mistaken for a dinner menu. With a focus on ingredients typically found in the pantry rather than poured over ice, this Bangkok establishment ranks its concoctions with a funkiness factor of one to five. Yuzu-brined gin plays second fiddle to the Tom Yum Highball’s homemade hot and sour tom yum broth, a five on the funkiness scale. Lemongrass, galangal, and kaffir lime leaves enhance the blend with bonus sweet heat owed to nam prik pao chilli jam.
Over at Bar Us – Bangkok’s newest entry to Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2024 list debuting at No.21 – Satay sees a vodka masala spice distillate fat-washed with Thai chilli oil. Stirred with a pickled ginger brine, macadamia syrup, red shallot, and cucumber salt solution (emulating standard satay accoutrement), the coupe is speckled tableside with chilli oil droplets. A single sip transports imbibers to Bangkok’s backstreets where ringlets of smoke emanate from skewered meat-covered charcoal grills.
Drops of chilli oil add heat to the Satay cocktail at Bar Us
Where street food is a pillar of daily life, India’s bar industry is paying heed through drinks like The Lab at Amaraanth’s Goan Curry. Made up of coconut milk fat-washed tequila infused with leek, tomato, coriander, ginger, and tamarind, this transparent tipple brims with bona fide flavours from Goa. Patrons leave with the fragrance of anise in their hair, cinnamon on their tongue, and fennel on their fingertips.
The Goan Curry at The Lab at Amaraanth celebrates the region's distinct flavours
Union Trading Company’s (No.90 in Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2023) Shanghai Breakfast is an ode to co-founder Yao Lu’s childhood, spent in his grandparents’ home in the ‘Paris of the East.’ Here, morning meant starting the day with the obligatory zhimahu or black sesame soup, a staple at breakfast stalls across the country. The acidity inherent in Chinese huangjiu (yellow wine) mellows cognac in this dessert-like drink, while black sesame paste, cream, a touch of honey and banana leave lips sticky and satisfied.
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