Fun with cachaça

December 8

Last night started with a visit to the bar at Kittichai, where I met the producer of a premium cachaça and his LA publicist, who had heard good things about Kittichai's Caipirinha — made, obviously, with his client's cachaça, which is aged in Cognac barrels. The producer describes it as something like "the heart of Brazil with a French kiss."
On the way in I ran into the restaurant's chef, the always quietly exuberant Ian Chalermkittichai, who was waiting for his girlfriend. We chatted briefly, mostly about his new dog, a Jack Russell terrier.
It turns out that Kittichai's Caipirinha is made with pineapple (as well as said premium cachaça), and the bar also has a maple-passion martini made with the same cachaça instead of vodka. Clearly we had to sample both of them, so conversation meandered onto a variety of subjects, including blogs.
The publicist, you see, also represents Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, one unit of which has been colonized by PerezHilton, the celebrity gossip blogger. Apparently he has claimed the coffee shop as his office (his health insurance card was sent there) and it's starting to affect the service of regular customers there.
There was talk of an impending intervention.
I was sent off with a bottle of cachaça, which I carried with me to Kampuchea Noodle Bar, which was having a casual we're-open-now evening and feeding many members of the media. I sampled the grilled cuttlefish salad and a bowl of noodles with everything in it. I also had a "lychee fizz," which I spiked with the cachaça. I shared it with another food writer who requested anonymity ("don't write about me drinking your cachaça in your blog.")