I was shopping in China-town the other week and needed a specific tea off a high shelf. Another woman shopping with her young daughter noticed my predicament and called her husband over from the other side of the store. He reached up and retrieved the elusive vessel for me with one hand.
“Thank you!” I exclaimed, gratefully.
“You’re welcome,” he chuckled. “No one’s ever asked me to get anything up high before.”
Wriggling out from behind him, the little girl suddenly reappeared, proclaiming proudly, “That’s ‘cause you’re such a big, strong man, Daddy!”
From the first time he picked me up and threw me in the air above his head, only to catch me safely on the way down, my father, too, was my hero. He was a draft-era war veteran whose volunteer second tour in Vietnam saved his brother from doing one of his own, and inspired many of my nightly dreams in which I also played the hero.
In her 2011 novel, The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom, author and Yale law professor Amy Chua, ascribes what she calls “tiger parenting” to a highly involved style of parenting that is stereotypically attributed to Chinese mothers, but it can really be adopted by any parent. The term “tiger mom” has since become mainstream in the media, but even after trolling the inter-net, I couldn’t find any mention of the most popular term among my own high school classmates growing up: the “samurai dad.”
According to my classmates and me, “samurai dads” embodied the traditional Japanese male authority figure, one whose performance-based affections are earned through obedience and adherence to a specific set of rules and morals, the breach of which was the ultimate disrespect, and demanded strict disciplining. But like the tiger mom, the samurai dad’s exacting parenting style is tempered by a deep and profound love.
Since Father’s Day and National Martini Day both fell on the same day last month, I think it was only appropriate to celebrate our nation’s independence with a cocktail that has been equally as misunderstood as my teenage self once felt.
Cocktail aficionados will argue that a true martini is composed of gin and dry vermouth with a couple dashes of orange bitters and a lemon twist. Sweet vermouth was developed first in Italy, while dry vermouth was a distinctly French invention. Produced from wine, and fortified with sugar, herbs, alcohol and bittering botanicals, vermouth can oxidize and turn to vinegar just the same, so if your bartender grabs a half empty bottle from off the backbar shelf, take a hard pass.
Though many establishments will shake the driest of the dry martinis without so much as a glance at the vermouth, I endear you to try your next martini stirred instead of shaken, with the original 2:1 proportions of gin to dry vermouth, or if you’re feeling adventurous, as a 50/50 martini, with equal amounts of dry vermouth and gin, for an experience in silky, textural transcendence. The gentle stirring will eliminate oxidation of the spirits, lending a more luxurious mouthfeel. While the original martini calls for dry vermouth, a “dry martini” is defined as having little or no vermouth at all. Try subbing out dry vermouth and orange bitters for sweet vermouth and Angostura bitters. Add a quarter ounce of Luxardo Maraschino cherry liqueur, and you’ll have yourself a Martinez: a darker, richer martini variation.
As I reflect on how my father’s demand for perfection both inspired and propelled my accomplishments — while inadvertently setting me up for challenges along the way, which I still work with tenacity to overcome — I come to an irrefutable truth: I am, my father’s daughter.
Perfect Martinez
• 1.5 ounces Hayman’s Royal Dock Navy Strength gin
• 0.25 ounces Luxardo Maraschino cherry liqueur
• 0.75 ounces Dolin rouge vermouth
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• 0.75 ounces Dolin dry vermouth
• 1 grapefruit peel
Directions:
Build all ingredients in a mixing glass. Fill with ice and stir. Strain into cocktail glass. Express grapefruit peel oil over top of cocktail and place the peel gently inside as garnish.
Alicia Yamachika is a bartender and craft mixologist, who currently is the key account manager at Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits on Oahu. Follow her on Instagram (@alicia_ yamachika). Her column will appear every second Wednesday in Crave.
