The Bloody Mariko Comes to Emervyille

The Bloody Mariko Comes to Emervyille

It’s a Japanese version of the Bloody Mary at The Periodic Table.

The Bloody Mary was already the original anti-cocktail—a bizarre combination of decidedly uncocktaily ingredients (Worcestershire sauce? Horseradish? Tomato purée?) usually only ever drunk as an alleged hangover cure to counteract everything else you imbibed the night before. But The Periodic Table, a sake bar, has deconstructed the Bloody Mary and reassembled an even more startling variant: The Bloody Mariko, composed almost entirely of Japanese ingredients.

Husband-and-wife team Jake Freed and Hiroko Nakamura opened The Periodic Table in September, next to their already-popular Shiba Ramen noodle house, and specifically as an East-meets-West fusion bar, offering up both artisanal sakes and local microbrews. The Bloody Mariko is one of just a handful of cocktails completing the drinks menu, all based on shochu, the only hard liquor indigenous to Japan.

But why reinvent the Bloody Mary, of all things?

“There are Japanese analogues for many of the ingredients in the Bloody Mary, a classic spicy, umami drink—and we thought substituting them for their Western equivalents would make a great variation,” said Freed.

The Periodic Table, Public Market Emeryville, 5959 Shellmound St. #11, ThePeriodicTable.bar.

 

The Bloody Mariko

3 ounces custom-made tomato mix (see below)

1.5 oz. shochu

1 bar spoon pickle pepper juice

 

Combine all ingredients in a glass. Stir to mix over ice. Garnish with cucumber and pickles.

 

Tomato Mix (one full pitcher):

27 ounces tomato purée, blended and strained

2.5 teaspoons shichimi togarashi

1 tablespoon wasabi paste

2.5 tablespoons usta (Japanese-style Worcestershire) sauce

1 teaspoon white pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon horseradish

3 tablespoons lemon juice

 

To re-create the recipe at home, it’s best to visit a specialty Japanese store such as Berkeley’s Tokyo Fish Market, as the ingredients can be otherwise difficult to track down.