TASTE: CHAWABUNGA, Milas
Chawabunga at Milas, Schenectady. By Andrew Patterson | Photo: K.D. Odhiambo/The Dishing
In Schenectady, Milas’ Bar Director Andrew Patterson taps into the flavors of SouthEast Asia to craft the Chawabunga for The Dishing’s TINY Talk.
Words: Susie Davidson Powell
Photos: K.D. Odhiambo/The Dishing
Location: Milas, Schenectady, N.Y.
The cocktail: Chawabunga
The Ingredients: Plantaray coconut rum, red curry cordial, light brown sugar syrup, Thai tbili tinture, lime, chawanmushi foam, cured egg yolk for extra umami pop.
TINY Pairing: Shrimp toast — by Milas Executive Chef Devin Ziemann.
The inspiration: “I spent some time living and traveling throughout Asia so I knew I wanted to have a drink that correlated with that and made a Japan-Thailand connection for our talk. A dish that came to mind was Haw Mok Pla, a Thai seafood red curry topped or steamed with chawanmushi, traditionally a Japanese savory egg custard.
The build: In this drink we made a Thai red curry cordial. We started by cooking down red curry paste in a pan with lemongrass, sugar, Thai chilis and coconut water. We added a splash of aged coconut rum and reduced it to develop the flavor and darken. This was put in a vacuum sealed bag with cilantro-based spirit and into a sous vide for 2 hours to fully infuse flavors before straining. A chawanmushi foam is made with dashi, miso, mirin, rice wine vinegar and soy sauce. The idea was to drink through the foam to get into the curry base just as you would spoon through the savory chawanmushi custard into the actual dish.”
Meet Andrew in our tastemaker interview here.
View Patterson’s OG Tropical Tzatziki cocktail here + the Panda Panda here.