peculiar pairings
Miso meets whiskey: Miso Mule at Bar Congress named to Tasting Table's BestCocktails of 2011
There is nothing like a bowl of miso soup to begin a sushi feast, or sea bass and salmon with a salty miso glaze. But miso—a fermented paste of soybeans and grains—paired with whiskey? Peculiar.
But apparently it’s good. Better than good. So innovative and tasty is Bar Congress’s Miso Mule cocktail that it made Tasting Table’s Best Cocktails of 2011 list.
"I'm intrigued and excited that such an offbeat drink made it onto Tasting Table's best cocktail list,” says Adam Bryan, the cocktail's creator and bar manager at Bar Congress and Second Bar + Kitchen.
“I think it shows people that you can be somewhat random with your ingredients—that cocktails don't have to be so serious all the time."
Bryan, a cocktail genius who made a name for himself with his creative libations at East Side Showroom and Lambert’s Downtown Barbecue, mixes honey, Yamazaki 12-year-old whiskey (handcrafted at Japan’s oldest distillery), chunks of red radish, miso paste and San Pellegrino Limonata soda to create the Miso Mule.
"I wanted to take a simple drink, in terms of the amount of ingredients involved, like the Moscow Mule [lime juice, vodka and ginger beer], and invert it to cram as many flavors and aromatics into it as possible while keeping a balanced flavor profile at the same time."
Try a Miso Mule, or any one of Bryan’s innovative offerings at Bar Congress.