Nate = Nate_Cocktail means “smooth as silk.”
Left = Left_food means “snacks” or “night food.”
All are made-up words.
Since I have a shaker at home, I'm practicing making short cocktails like those served at bars right now in my room.
When drinking alcohol at home, the most important thing is knowing your own limits.
So I think practicing drinking, especially for younger people, is best done alone in your own room first.
I probably don't have a very high tolerance for alcohol.
But I can drink beer steadily (when the beer is at the right temperature and I'm in normal health), and with gin and tonics—more like long drinks (long cocktails) than cocktails—I only start to feel a little tipsy after five glasses. So when I was younger, people thought, “Maybe he can hold his liquor?”
Also, since I like vodka and tequila, people often gave me looks like, “Maybe he really is a heavy drinker.”
So one evening, I wondered: Am I really that good at holding my liquor? If I did drink, how much could I handle? I prepared snacks and late-night food, bought a bottle of gin, got a 1-liter bottle of ginger ale, and started drinking alone while watching TV and movies.
I think it was around 8 PM.
But even by 3 AM, I wasn't completely wasted, I could still stand, and I didn't need to rush to the bathroom. I got scared of myself and stopped.
But two glasses of chilled sake knock me out. Two highballs of whiskey do the same.
A whole bottle of wine is fine, but mixing white, red, and rosé leaves me staggering.
Still, I can pay my bill, stumble back to my room, and sober up by the time I get there.
So I guess I'm not that strong.
Truly strong drinkers don't mix their drinks at all; they drink straight, like tea.
People who can finish five or six large bottles of sake in one sitting – that's probably what you'd call a heavy drinker.
As for hot sake, I personally could only handle hot daiginjo. I warmed the tokkuri three times and drank it all, but I couldn't stand up afterward.
The Left_food that time was yudofu (hot tofu). I practiced in my room, as usual.
So, I think the standard for how much alcohol someone can handle hasn't really survived in the wider world.
I only go to bars and izakayas, so I don't know much about the world of traditional drinking establishments. But they have an atmosphere that makes them look intimidating to enter, so in a way, it's a closed world.
In those places, the measure of how much alcohol someone can handle is probably still very much alive and well.
Practicing at home means you won't get dangerously drunk at a bar. And if you drink too much at home and feel sick, you can just stop without worrying about saving face, so it's safer.
It's common now, but back in my youth, there was still this vibe of “Eating at a bar?!”
Bartenders and owners behind the counter would kindly say things like, “That's unusual, isn't it?”
Maybe I'm weak, but I drink while eating.
You know that thing where drinking makes you hungry, and eating while drinking makes you feel sick? Well, I'd wolf down pilaf, fried rice, and yakisoba noodles, eat salad even though I wasn't dieting, buy cake on the way home, or gobble down ice cream, cake, some dessert, chocolate, potato chips, and Pocky at the shop until I was stuffed, then leave.
I totally get why no one ever talked to a young woman drinking and eating this much alone.
Anyway, let's put aside the story about the young otter with a monocular diving goggle perched on its head.
Before buying a shaker, I need to figure out if I can even handle alcohol in the first place, so today I'll introduce a few Nate_Cocktail and Left_food recipes.
Nate_Cocktail
Gin & Spark
1 Pour about 2cm of gin into a tall glass (approx. 13cm high)
2 Top with ginger ale from 5cm above the glass
Spark can be replaced with cider
Tequila & Fresh
1 Pour about 2cm of tequila into a tall glass
2 Top with 100% fresh orange juice from 5cm above the glass
Champagne&Sweet
1 Pour one glass of sweet Champagne or non-dry Champagne
2 Use shortcake as Left _food
Beer&Yangnyeom Chicken
1 Chill one can of beer in the refrigerator. If short on time, chill in the freezer for 20 minutes.
2 Mix store-bought fried chicken with Sweet Chili Sauce and gochujang.
BeginnersBeer: Budweiser is the lightest and least strong.
White Wine & Opera
1 Pair chilled white wine with Opera cake.
Opera: A rich French chocolate cake
Left _food
Peanuts (roasted)
Walnuts (roasted)
7 Premium Thick-Cut Potato Chips with Ishigaki Salt
Simple Yangnyeom Chicken (see Beer & Yangnyeom Chicken)
Dark Chocolate
Dark Chocolat
So there's no such thing as “wrapping up with alcohol.”
It's just one end of the bar rule: go home and fill your stomach.
Immediately ramen, ramen, wrapping up with something—that's the norm, right?
Don't you know?
Please, just try it once like you're being tricked! Etc.
I've always hated people who interrupt others' drinking time and force their own preferences on others.
There's a rule at drinking gatherings, a rule surrounding drinking itself: never force it on others.
Only teach drinking to those who ask to learn.
Since you can do this right at home, if you think, “Hmm, maybe I'll try drinking?” then please give it a shot.
Well then, have a wonderful Sunday.
















