The IBA Project: Quick Intro, Between the Sheets

For a (lengthy) background of this project: check out  this post from back in 2013 <shy>. If you read or watch movies, this is akin to the Julie & Julia project. Except instead of French food, I'm learning to make cocktails, my name is not Julie and and I'm not following recipes created by Julia, and I have no plans to create a book .... or a movie. So .... wait, actually... it's actually.... NOTHING like the Julie & Julia project, hehe.

TLDR:  I'm on a quest to re-create a bunch of cocktail recipes.

I've been wanting to do this for ages but never really gotten around to doing it because of 1) the amount of research I have to do 2) the effort it takes to experiment with the different variations tfor each cocktail and finding one that I personally liked 3) just getting the ingredients for the whole list of 77 cocktails is a huge obstacle in terms of cost and - Eg: recipe calls for rum? what brand? what age? dark or light? where do I buy it? Can die right?

<cue: this is where you, my kind and generous good Samaritans, come in offering to donate me some bottles for a good cause!>

But enough of excuses. I'm gonna embark on this right now. A journey of a thousand steps begins with a single step. So here is the single step:

Between the Sheets

Osipseju

Korean food is delicious. The Kimchi, the ramen, the bbq-ed meat. Deeelicious. And frightfully expensive. But there's definitely one thing which may numb your senses a little bit when the bill comes: Osipseju.

Osipseju in a small kettle

Osipseju is an equal serving of Baekseju  and Soju. It is usually served very cold in a small metal kettle, and you drink it off tiny cups (like shot glasses, or teacups). Let's quickly explain what Baekseju and Soju is.

Once Upon A Milkshake

Tuck in a little corner of Tanjong Pagar, Singapore lived Once Upon a Milkshake. My friends introduced me to this shop during my trip last year and said I HAD to try it. I wasn't sure why at first, but went along anyway.

The shop itself has a totally so-cuddly-cute-can-die-dot-com design concept. Clean, minimalistic, with its mostly white furnitures punctuated with some purple-coloured walls, and it really was a warm, sweet, cozy hang-out joint. I know it was cozy because an angry, heavy thunderstorm took us all by surprise and we were stuck there for nearly an hour. I can't get over how cute the ambience was in this place - it's like it popped out of an Enid Blyton book cute, not the annoying Hello Kitty cute. Just to get things straight.

DIY Pina Colada (Cheat One)

L to R: "Pina Colada", Bacardi, Pineapple Juice, Malibu

The mere mention or even thought of the name of the drink always reminds me of this cute oldie by Rupert Holmes' called Escape. Oh, you know... the one that goes like:

"If you like Pina Coladas
And getting caught in the rain
If you're not into yoga
If you have half a brain
If you'd like making love at midnight
In the dunes on the Cape
Then I'm the love that you've looked for
Write to me and escape".

.... and I always remember how it had this really funny but totally weird ending because the singer finds out that his blind date was....[SPOILER ALERT: SKIP THE NEXT LINE IF YOU LIVED IN A CAVE ALL YOUR LIFE OR ARE TOO YOUNG..AND THUS, DON'T KNOW THE LYRICS TO THIS SONG]....