Review of a Cocktail making master class in Apartment, Belfast

I love cocktails. They just are so much fun and each one creates its own drama and adventure.

I was lucky enough to win a cocktail making master class and dinner for six people at Apartment Bar in Belfast through the weekly social media phenomenon that is #BelfastHour. I participate every week but never thought that I would actually win one of their prizes!

First challenge was who to invite. I gave two places to my new pal Ben who writes the blog www.Belfastnewbie.co.uk. I invited my pal Pamela and offered 2 places as a prize on Eating Ideas.

I met with Apartment in advance and they couldn’t have been more helpful, making all the arrangements and agreeing some complimentary Prosecco on arrival.

I was a little bit excited about the evening but also a bit nervous, as you never know how people are going to gel. I had nothing to worry about as soon as everyone arrived, it was clear that they were all up for a bit of fun!

I have to give full credit to all the team at Apartment but particularly Sean, who ran our master class. He was informative, entertaining and put simply, good fun! He paid individual attention to each of us and came up with Cocktails to suit our tastes.

I was up first and got to create a Ginger Lemongrass Commons. Sean took me through all the steps of preparing the ginger, lemongrass, and alcoholic elements and encouraged me to shake my cocktail with gay abandon! It tasted delicious and we all got to have a taste.

Everyone got to have a go and we all got to sample each other’s creations. I apologise that I can’t recreate the recipes that Sean created but its hard to make them, drink them, have fun AND remember!

Once we had all had our turn, Sean then generously demonstrated a few more cocktails for us to sample.

Such was the level of fun that it was quite late by the time we realised how desperate we were for our food.

It was suggested that we share the starters and when they arrived, we barely had room on the table for all the food. We sampled roasted red pepper soup, spicy chicken wings in chili sauce, goats cheese fritters, smoked salmon, lemon and chilli chicken skewers and crispy pork bites. It was all delicious but I have to declare my preference for the chicken skewers.

After all the food sampled, we were struggling but still managed to tackle our mains, which didn’t disappoint. Most opted for Thai tiger prawns, lamb cutlets or BBQ chicken but I chose the spicy red lentil Beef Dahl which came served with chapatti bread and braised rice. It didn’t disappoint.

All in all- this was one of the most fun evenings that I have ever had. I loved it!

My profound thanks to everyone at Apartment for going beyond the call of duty in entertaining us and providing the prize. Thanks also to the nice people at #Belfasthour for organising the prize.