The Bloody Cæsar

A Canadian peculiariy. In 1969, Walter Chell, a Calgary (my hometown) bar manager, invented the drink to celebrate the opening of a local restaurant. It is now the most popular cocktail in Canada.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The home the Caesar

• Clamato juice (a concoction of tomato juice and mashed clams -- how did someone think to mix these together?)
• Vodka (min. 1-2½ US fl. oz.)
• Tabasco (or other acceptable pepper sauce)
• Worchestershire sauce
• Celery salt
• Lime wedge
• Celery stalk
• Ice

Find a glass. A clean one. Wet rim of glass with lime. Coat rim of glass with celery salt. Add ice. Pour vodka and clamato over ice. Add Tabasco and Worchestershire sauce to taste. Garnish with celery stalk. Drink liquid. Eat celery. Suck on lime. Lick celery salt off rim. Crunch ice.

Clamato is a trademark of Mott's Canada. The generic term is "tomato-clam cocktail." In Canada, Mott's is to "tomato-clam cocktail" as Coca-cola is to "cola." There was an upstart known as "Sea-Czar"... but it seems to have disappeared into relative obscurity.

There's more to Caesar Garnish than the obligatory celery stalk, lime, and celery-salt rimmed glass. Try these:

• Cherry tomatoes
• Cucumber wedges
• Pickled asparagus
• Pickled green beans (personal fave)
• Fresh basil, fennel, parsley or cilantro
• Olives (the green, pimento-stuffed kind especially)
• More seafood (prawns, salmon...)
• Peppers of all varieties

Tabasco and Worchester are assumed. Here are some other additions:

• Other pepper sauces: habañero (aka scotch bonnet, the hottest on Earth), chipotle (smoky flavour, I use the Búffalo brand), Jalapeño...
• Horseradish
• Wasabe (that green stuff that comes with sushi, known for inducing a feeling akin to a subway train moving through your sinuses)
• Tequilla
• Borscht broth (you know, Russian beet soup)
• Liquid smoke (careful, I heard it's carcinogenic!)

There are many Caesar recipes. Mine involves pain. In a 12 oz. glass or pint mug, take the recipe above, increase the vodka dose to 4-5 oz. Take four different pepper sauces: red tabasco, green tabasco, Búffalo Chipotle, habañero. Add horseradish, juice of 1 lime. Garnish. Drink. Let Holmes taste. Holmes don't dig on spicy stuff. After Holmes finishes moaning in pain, offer him more.

On consuming the Caesar: this will hurt; you're playing with fire here. There are two ways to drink this one. 1) Reeeeal slow with lots of pauses for garnish re-fills. 2) Drink it reeeal fast and pray that it doesn't come back on you. But the flavour is incomparable (which is lucky 'cus you may not be able to taste anything when you're done!)

David Holmes. File photo.