A Toast to Modesty Blaise; or Waiter! There's a Goldfish in My Drink!

Have you seen the 1966 film Modesty Blaise? Well it's free on YouTube and it's worth your eyeballs. The title character is a female spy/thief/assasin/bonne vivante played by the delightful Monica Vitti and it also includes Terence Stamp as her partner and Dirk Bogarde as the peculiar heavy.

More than a little trippy, you're watching for the gorgeous clothes and production design more than plot. It's got some wonderful mod eye candy and whimsical touches. The one I loved best was a scene where the Dirk Bogarde bad guy character is conversing with, I believe, his accountant on his Mediterranean island lair. They each have drinks in glasses with exaggerated stems, about 2 feet high. Bogarde is drinking something blue from his and in the last shot his lackey looks at his boss' drink and sees a goldfish swimming in it! Thus my latest drink's inspiration.

Goldfish Goblet

2 oz Pisco

1 oz lime juice

.5 oz John D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum

.5 oz blue curaçao

4 oz sparkling wine

Add pisco, lime, falernum and blue curaçao to a shaker filled one third full of ice. Shake like a supervillain who just found out they were foiled again! Double strain - pour through a fine mesh sieve into a wine goblet and top with 4 oz of sparkling wine. Garnish with kumquat goldfish.

Kumquat Goldfish

For the garnish, carve off three strips of peel from kumquats for the fins. Take a kumquat for the body and cut a small sliver out of one end for the mouth. Slice a deep slit on either side and perpendicularly on the tail end and insert fins. Poke holes above the mouth with a toothpick to make inserting the clove eyes easier. Insert cloves. You can cut another slit on the underside for it to perch on the side of the glass, but I found the one I put in the drink actually bobbed around and swam, so that's what I recommend.