Memorable Drinks

Luci, Michele, and Billa
May 25
3 min read

By Billa

I generally avoid alcoholic drinks but I also dislike mocktails. It’s not just that they’re unhealthy and often contain high-fructose corn syrup, many grams of sugar, and artificial colors and flavors, I also just don’t find them tasty.

Instead, my go-to drink, the one I have almost every day with lunch or dinner, is water with fresh lime juice squeezed into it.

But sometimes when I go out to dinner, I explore the second drink menu, the one without alcohol. Every once in a while, something does appeal to me.

For example, a couple of weeks ago, we dined in a new Mediterranean restaurant in Manhattan called Florentin. I ordered something called a limonana. It was basically a very minty, not too sweet, lemonade. It was so good, I knew immediately that I would want to duplicate it at home. So, I did with the help of the Internet.

Here’s how to make it:

Limonana

For 2

Ingredients

2 lemons

20 mint leaves

4 teaspoons sugar (or less)

1 cup cold water

Preparation

Remove peel and pith from the lemons and separate sections. Discard membranes and place lemon flesh in blender.
Add mint leaves and sugar and pulse until mint is well chopped. Add water and pulse to mix.

Many years ago, while dining in my favorite Manhattan restaurant, Perry Street, I had their homemade grape juice. I normally don’t even like grape juice, but then I’ve never had it freshly made before. It was so good, I can still remember the pleasant surprise upon tasting it. So, after having good luck reproducing the limonana, I thought I’d give fresh grape juice a try. It turned out to be an extremely easy and delicious recipe.

Fresh Grape Juice

For 2

Ingredients

1 pound seedless red grapes

1/2 cup water

Preparation

Remove grape stems and place grapes in blender. Add water. Blend to puree.
Strain, pressing the pulp with a spoon.

That’s it. It took less than 5 minutes. I used organic red grapes and they were very sweet, so no added sugar was needed. Next time, I’ll try it with seedless green grapes.

Mello Bistro is one of our favorite places to eat on Staten Island. (See: https://www.dazzlingdinners.com/post/dinner-at-mello-bistro) The first time we went there, I asked if they had tomato juice. The waitress said they didn’t. A minute later, she came back and asked if I would be interested in fresh tomato juice. “Sure, that would be wonderful,” I said.

When I was growing up, my mother often made us fresh tomato juice. In those days, In Israel, there was no other kind. I don’t remember how she made it, as she didn’t have a blender or a juicer. But I remember how much I loved it. It was so different from the canned or bottled version you buy in the supermarket. It’s like biting into a ripe, delicious, juicy summer tomato.

The Mello tomato juice was almost as good. There seemed to be more than just tomato - maybe water or sugar.

Here’s how I made it at home this week.

Fresh Tomato Juice

For 2