Salted Lemon Vodka Smash

Does anyone remember ChaCha Moon? That Chinese restaurant that opened in Kingly Court….   The one that offered all the dishes for £3.50 during the soft launch and it was packed. Then they tried to up the prices to what should be market value prices and people stopped going?  The one that closed and made space for Pastaio and The Meh! Egg.   Those are all things that I remember about it.

I cannot remember a single dish that was amazing. Maybe that’s why it closed. It was an amazing space and carry on concept from Wagamama. But the food was pretty average. Great for £3.50, not so great for £10-£15 per plate.

One thing that I do remember was a drink… The Salted Sprite. Funny that it’s not a traditional Chinese Drink, it has a Thai origin. It’s a drink that really resounded with me as I love sweet and salty together.

I completely forgot about this drink till I wanted to make a lemon vodka smash…. But I had no fresh lemons.   Yup, you guessed it. I had a jar of preserved lemons. The rest is a fuzzy-headed hangover.

Salted Lemon Vodka Smash

Rather than using fresh lemon or lime to make my smash, I’m using preserved lemon.

Preserved Lemons
Lemonade (Sprite is my go to)
Vodka
Ice

Preserved Lemon

Freeze a bottle of Vodka (I prefer Smirnoff for mixing like this)

Plop a preserved lemon in the bottom of a tall glass and muddle it a bit.

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Muddle

Muddle the preserved lemon

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Vodka

Pour 50ml of Frozen Vodka into the glass and muddle it around a little more.

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Ice and Lemonade

Fill with ice almost to the top.

Fill about ¾ with chilled lemonade (If you want to use soda water, add a teaspoon of sugar to the preserved lemon before you muddle as you will need some sweet to balance out the salt of the preserved lemon)

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Stir and Top up

Give a little swirl with a spoon to mix, then top to the rim with more lemonade.

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Drink. Enjoy. Repeat.