Darling is a new Chinese-inspired cocktail bar from Brian Callahan and Zimu Chen that recently opened in Cambridge, Mass.’s Central Square. The bar takes inspiration from a number of sources, including the space’s previous tenant, Mary Chung’s, a beloved Chinese restaurant that served Sichuan dishes for 40 years. When researching design for the space, Callahan also looked to the cha chaan tengs of Hong Kong — cafes known for their eclectic menus that combine Eastern and Western comfort foods. Common dishes include macaroni in soup, pineapple buns, milk tea, and an even more indulgent version of French toast slathered in peanut butter and condensed milk.
When planning out the menu, the Darling team made a few visits to Rubato, a local Hong Kong-style cafe in Quincy, Mass. The first time Callahan tried the cafe’s classic HK-style French toast, he was convinced he had to incorporate the flavor profile into Darling’s cocktail menu. “After I first ate the French toast I went home that night and came up with the drink,” he says. “There was something about it that just clicked pretty quickly.”
Callahan instantly knew the drink would be a flip-style cocktail, one that incorporates a whole egg to add a thick texture to mimic the richness of the toast.
For the base spirit, Callahan chose Cognac as a play on the “French” name in the French toast, opting for Pierre Ferrand 1840. “This cocktail could work well with rum, but it would create a rich round cocktail,” he says. “The Cognac works because you get those light orchard fruit notes that contrast the rich flavors. A lot of the feedback we get on this drink is that it’s like a dessert but it has a lightness to it, and doesn’t feel like a full meal like a flip often can — Cognac contributes a lot to that.” The Cognac is pre-batched with velvet falernum to impart a velvety texture.
For the bread component, Callahan makes a brioche syrup. He describes it as a similar process to making orgeat, but with a loaf of brioche bread, blending it with water and amylase (an enzyme that helps convert the starch to sugar). After the mixture is strained, he adds more water, sugar, and salt. Then, Callahan batches a compound meant to replicate the gooey, sweet flavors of the HK French toast, combining peanut butter, condensed milk, coconut milk, and shio koji for salinity. Each of these components is batched separately, then added together and shaken with a whole egg and served up. The result is a rich, creamy cocktail with complex nutty flavors from the peanut butter and Cognac, syrupy sweet notes from condensed milk, and a hint of brioche that ties it all together.
Though flips can be somewhat controversial (depending on your feelings on whole raw eggs), Callahan notes that the cocktail has been one of the bar’s most popular, often ordered in lieu of dessert. While most of the drinks on Darling’s menu are updated or changed out daily in an ambitious effort to keep the cocktails hyper-seasonal, the HK French Toast is one of the few drinks that remains a constant.
