I’d like to raise my glass and make a toast to Los Angeles. The glass I raise is filled to the brim with a passion fruit cocktail we’ll call a mojito. Los Angeles is a lot like a passion fruit cocktail. Exotic and muddled– always brimming. You have to be a passionate person to love Los Angeles. Actor. Model. Movie Star. Whore. Temperamental Genius. She takes a bit of work. But once she gets under your skin you’ll be constantly amazed by this great city.
Sure I get sick of the traffic, the $14 cocktails, the hipsters, the vegans, the valley– all of that and more. But 9,962,789 people can’t be wrong.
Still, the people who visit Los Angeles once or twice in their lives usually hate it. The people who’ve never been here love to hate it. Los Angeles doesn’t have the visual punch of San Francisco. Its energy is different than New York or Miami. It lacks the romance of Paris or Rome. It has no real history. All its history is make believe.
The trouble LA neophytes have is this: they simply don’t know what to do or where to go. There’s no real center like most of the great cities in this world. Our centers are far flung: the beach, the mountains or somewhere in that vast space between. The best parts of LA are behind closed doors.
I live in Los Angeles and I love it. But when friends visit from out of town and ask me what they should do I often draw a blank. Sure we have the Hollywood Sign, but it’s no Eiffel Tower. When they ask, I usually say, “it depends”. So then they ask, “well where should I eat?” Again I say, “it depends”. Most get irritated but some folks get it and start opening their own doors.
Passion Fruit Cocktail
Los Angeles is a mosaic made up of so many pieces you could never examine them all. But 8 or 12 in the palm of your hand are a beautiful sight to behold. Taken all together in their great multitude they make a helluva a great place to live.
One tiny piece in this mosaic I enjoy is wandering around old neighborhoods like the one I live in. I often find inspiration for these posts, and this passion fruit cocktail is no exception. Passion fruit vines grow along neglected wood fences all over the hills where I live. Some are behind closed doors– but some are right there, ripe for the picking. GREG
You may substitute good quality store-bought passion fruit nectar for the fresh juice called for in this recipe.
Ingredients
- 2 fresh, ripe passion fruit (lilikoi)
- 2 tablespoon fresh squeezed lime juice (about 1 lime)
- ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
- 5 large mint leaves (torn)
- 2 ounce white rum
- club soda (to taste)
- 1 sprig mint (for garnish)
Directions
Cut the passion fruits in half then scrap out the seeds and pulp into a small mesh strainer set over an old-fashioned or similarly sized heavy bottom glass. Use a long handled cocktail muddle or the wrong end of the wooden spoon to scrap the seeds and pulp against the mesh of the strainer to extract the juice from the fleshy seeds, the juice will collect in the bottom of the glass. You should have about a generous 1 ½ ounces. Reserve the seeds as garnish.
Add the lime juice, sugar and mint leaves to the glass with the passion fruit juice. Muddle the mint, using the sugar as an abrasive until the leaves are bruised and the sugar in mostly dissolved. Fill the glass with medium ice cubes and pour the rum over the ice. Stir gently to combine, taking care to distribute the mint leaves throughout the glass. Top with an ounce or two club soda to taste.
Garnish with mint sprig and a few reserved passion fruit seeds. The seeds are tasty. Don’t be afraid to crunch them in your mouth as you enjoy the cocktail.
Passion fruit aka Lilikoi, is delicious and smells absolutely DIVINE! My daughter lives in L.A. (three years now) and so far loves it. I love visiting. The last time we were there, we rented a fabulous house in great location of the city. In the backyard, there were passion fruit growing in abundance and I the smell reminded me of living in Hawaii. I will definitely try this drink recipe with some frozen passion fruit that I got at Whole Foods (it’s not easy to find fresh, here in Maryland). Thanks so much for this recipe!
I enjoyed my visit to LA quite a bit although it was a million years ago. Okay, it was the late 80s so ALMOST a million years ago.
Loving this cocktail, Greg. And Toronto is much better. Same traffic and people issues. At least this cocktail would help me forget, albeit temporarily.
I LOVE lilikoi so I know I would love this cocktail. I grew up in Santa Barbara, the getaway for the stars from the hustle and bustle of LA. I lived next to many, grew up with many’s kids and grandkids, even babysat for a few. I couldn’t blame them for wanting to escape LA. I visited often, having both sets of grandparents in the vicinity ( well Long Beach and Pasadena as well as other relatives scattered throughout LA and Orange counties) and while I never cared for LA itself — I loved the beaches the of Southbay; Manhattan, Hermosa, Redondo. My dad grew up there. The 40s-60’s was probably the best time to grow up in LA. At least according to my dad it was. I now live in Las Vegas and try to visit Southern California as much as I can. I miss it terribly, the beaches especially. But not the traffic or the taxes. Especially the taxes.
I too used to live in Santa Barbara. I thought it was perhaps the best place in the world to live. In those days we came to Los Angeles to hit the bars and buy cool clothes, then we drove back to SB. Then I grew up and realized if I wanted to be relevant to the larger world I needed a real career. Not a job, but a way to make a living that was vital and exciting. So I moved to a “real” city. The city I chose is the city I smirked at when I lived in SB. I chose Los Angeles. Yes I got to have a big, real world career in show biz. I found opportunities that didn’t seem possible before I moved here. Before long I realized that just like the song I love LA (and always will). I’ll even love it after I move away. Which I’m sure I’ll do one day because I am no longer that kid who wants more, I am at a place in life when I want less. GREG
I enjoy visiting LA, but I’m not sure if I could live there 😛 SD is definitely more my style. This cocktail is also my style — I’ve been obsessed with passion fruit this year! Especially since I discovered a local source for passion fruit puree. Cheers!
So true. I love to complain about all the things lacking in LA and yet here I am and I have to admit I like it regardless!
You are a true LA-aite! It’s there such a term? Hate the traffic though. In fact, hate it so much! lol!!
But I’m LOVING this cocktail for sure 😀
Awwww, I love this post. I love LA and being that I lived in NY for 12 years, LA is SO much better. I’m a valley girl and I would live there forever. And this cocktail — yes, please! The analogy is just perfect.
I love LA — it’s a really special place for me as it was the first city I landed in the US when I came here as a tourist when I was in high school with my family. Something about LA is very appealing. Not sure why I chose the Bay Area to go to school after, but I still love to visit LA (minus traffic — reminds me of Japan…). Love your passion fruit cocktail! Never had passionfruit in a drink but always enjoy eating it!
You’re PASSIONate about LA 🙂 Looks like a refreshing cocktail.
I am so jealous that you live somewhere where passion fruits actually GROW. I always thought they were a figment of my imagination.
This is beautiful, Greg, a masterpiece of mixology. Bravo!
Nice! I think people who say they hate LA simply haven’t found the part they like.
I love the way you describe LA. I’ve never been and don’t hate it, but I’ve heard people say they do…people like me who’ve never even been!! I actually think I’d like it, but you never know!! haha
Also, lovely cocktail, Greg. I want your savory cocktail book soooo bad! Can’t wait for the release!! xo
Nice post — I know how much you love living in LA and it really comes through here — cheers.
Ha! The vegans lol. That made me chuckle. I love passion fruit and had it recently in a beer. Sheeshy but I liked it.