Suraj Gurung has been on an incredible journey from Nepal to Hong Kong, from a busboy to Head of Mixology at one of Asia’s Best Bars – Stockton, Hong Kong. Recently, he foraged for ingredients with and took over Thirsty City 127 for their first anniversary and we had the opportunity to speak to him about what makes him tick. Safe to say, we came away knowing much more about the cocktail world than we’d expected.
About his journey
I started my career as a busboy at a restaurant by Castelo Concepts for a couple of years and later went on to be a restaurant manager at one of their restaurants. It started to feel mundane so I moved on to nightclubs and started from scratch as a barback. When a bar manager happened to leave, I stepped in to fill his shoes and that’s when I got into the cocktail scene making LIITs and other colourful cocktails. At the time, I really wasn’t interested in being a bartender, I didn’t even know it could be a career option. Once the club closed, I moved to Maximal Concepts where I worked at Blue Butcher and ended up winning the Best Cocktail award from a Hong Kong tabloid. That really pushed me to start buying books and wanting to learn what people across the country were doing in the industry.
Then we opened Stockton – I was asked to spearhead the beverage project in 2014. We didn’t have much social media then so we kept it lowkey. After almost 2 years, people started liking our classic cocktails with a twist. In 2016, I got an email from World’s 50 Best Bars and to be honest, I didn’t even know what it was then! When a colleague congratulated me and I told my boss, I understood how big a deal this was. I wasn’t focusing on awards then, neither am I now. We still want to continue doing what guests love while staying true to our concept. It’s been an honour, regardless.
Cocktail menus at Stockton
We’ve had 3 menus so far and are currently working on a fourth. The second was Minds Undone, named after writer Hunter S Thompson. It’s inspired by famous writers and their drinking habits. Trying to find authors that only drank a specific liquor was a challenge so we took 13 of them and looked at what their partners liked, what their society was like back then etc, and that inspired the ingredients used.
Our current cocktail menu is called the Origin of Species which is an exploration of the journey involved in cocktails becoming the sophisticated drinks they are today. We realised that be it India or China, every culture started off with wines or beers so we went back to the drawing board. We had to look at each era that played a role in how we drink today and looked at their ecosystem to create our cocktails.
Signature recipes everyone should try
Sin Tax from the Origin of Species menu is definitely a cocktail that most people will like. Its flavours, which include young coconut, kaffir lime liquor, citric solution and Pandan Tanqueray Gin, have a mass appeal.
Our other favourite at Stockton is the Old Fashioned, which we make with bourbon, rye, cognac, demerara and bitters. When I was making the menu, I realised most people make Old Fashioneds with only one spirit base, and they all tasted good but we needed a wow factor. So instead of just using one liquor, we blended 3 spirits.
Following Thirsty Trails in Northeast India
This was my very first time in India and we went to parts of Guwahati and Assam to be inspired for the Thirsty Trails menu. I was super excited because in Hong Kong, we only get to work with commercial ingredients, other ingredients are hard to find. I loved the process of making the menu more than reaching the result.
The Assam Rifle was inspired by our first meal in an Assamese restaurant that used Sichuan pepper and allspice leaves. Acid Drop was created because of how frequently we spotted dates and jaggery in the Northeast and the residents’ love for everything sour. It’s an Old Fashioned that blends dates and bourbon, Pectinex that helps break down solids, and a mix of lime skin and sugar that helps recreate the smell of citrus in taste.
While walking through the vegetable market, I happened to see a gnarly bottle filled with a brown liquid. We found out it was a liquid made by sun-drying, burning and then making ash of the bark of a banana tree and adding water to it. This is then strained through a cheesecloth and the liquid is used to break down meats and veggies to make them soft, instead of baking soda. I had to bring it back for the cocktail – Rage of The Ape Men. The water was cooked with black miso paste, let sit for 30 minutes, and then egg white was added making a raft. Then whiskey was added along with marshmallow and jasmine blossom water. The garnish was made from the ash of a tree from Assam.
I’d love to take some jaggery, rice and dairies that I found in Assam to Hong Kong and I’m definitely taking pav from Mumbai to see how we can work with them.
India’s drinking culture
India’s drinking culture is way better than what I’d heard and the community is only getting stronger. Young bartenders are excited and even the customers asked a lot of questions when I was bartending. Bartenders and guests are educated about what they want, they know their spirits. If the customers weren’t educated, it would take a lot longer to progress. Everyone at Thirsty City 127 is so humble and down to earth, it was an amazing experience working with them.
Influences in cocktail making
I mostly follow chefs to see what they’re doing and what flavours they’re using and I also watch tons of cooking shows on Netflix to discover new techniques. I always wanted to be in the kitchen but then I saw what it was truly like – the heat, the pressure and the working hours so I changed my statement from ‘I want to be a chef’ to ‘I like cooking’.
The chefs from Noma, David Chang and the bar staff at Operation Dagger Singapore, Scout London and Dead Rabbit NYC are very inspiring too.
Beloved flavours
My favourite drink to have off-duty keeps changing but currently it’s straight up tequila with a glass of water. The trick is to not shoot it but savour it.
When it comes to my favourite flavour to work with, it has to be sherry. Most people don’t work with it because of how it’s hard to play around with and has a low ABV. But I think it’s very versatile.
Then To Now
After being named in the Asia’s 50 Best Bars list, we see a lot more people from around the world at Stockton. A lot of bar industry stalwarts also visit and is very humbling to read about them and then see them at your own bar. We do tend to get more crowded but we believe it’s important to treat our regulars just as well as we do our new patrons.
My experience in India was truly amazing and I’m hoping to visit Delhi in December for a guest takeover. More details soon!
