Culinary cocktails have secured a coveted seat in the bar industry limelight for decades, yet instead of farm-to-fork (or, sometimes, chopstick), the drinks capturing Asia’s local food culture embody street-to-glass, bridging the region’s bustling street food scene and bar industry.

Street food across Asia has a long-standing legacy, its clanging woks, oil-splattered meat spits, bubbling cauldrons, and steaming baskets permeating the senses across time from Agra to Zhangjiajie. Transcending social class, generational gaps, and ethnic backgrounds, street food culture is as fundamental to the makeup of many Asian cities as hospitality is to the bar industry.

 Plenty of bartenders around the world already look to the kitchen for inspiration. But in more and more of Asia’s premier cities, they are looking to the streets. They’re making liqueur with duck blood and hoisin sauce. They’re extracting the essence out of beef satay jerky. They’re even making tinctures with wok hei, that distinctive flavour of a well-seasoned wok. It’s all about elevating unpretentious cheap eats to craft cocktail stardom, traversing street-to-glass, one dram at a time.

Meet the Meat

In a nostalgic nod to the clusters of back-alley food carts of Taipei’s yesteryear, UnDer lab serves You Got Beef?, a clever interpretation of Taiwanese beef noodle soup – and a hangover remedy rite of passage. To match the broth’s depth, beef jerky and tomato are seasoned with Taiwanese liquorice and Sichuan peppercorn before being sous vide with whiskey. Finished with a spritz of soy sauce, a jigger of peated Scotch, and a pinch of brown sugar, the drink finds a companion in Fernet (which lends requisite herbal notes), while a beef fat-wash mimics the soup’s robust mouthfeel.

The first-ever bar to be thrice-awarded the No.1 position on Asia’s 50 Best Bar List, Coa’s (currently No. 4 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2024) most ordered drink – the Bloody Beef Maria – is the lovechild of iconic Hong Kong roadside cart noodle soup and a Bloody Mary. Covering all the bases of the three S’s (sour, savoury, and spicy), mezcal and tequila unite with clarified beef stock and tomato cordial, plus a nip of layered spice from chipotle chile and lip-tingling Sichuan peppercorn.

The halo that surrounds Coa translates to sky-high confidence in the same team’s Savory Project (No.19 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2024). The bar’s lofty position as a beacon of savory, earthy, and umami tastes via punchy drams represent Hong Kong’s polyglot culinary heritage. For instance, the Thai Beef Salad – clarified peanut rum blended with beef essence, coconut water, bird’s eye chili, and kaffir lime – is a tip of the hat (and the shaker) to the city’s Thai immigrant population.

 At the Best Bar in Nepal 2024, visitors to Barc (No. 39 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2024) experience a genuine taste of South Asia’s mountainous region with the Spicy Sukuti, a drink that mirrors its namesake Newari dish of spiced buffalo jerky. Doubling down on the savoury cocktail trend, it’s garnished with smoked sukuti, solidifying a true connection to the gastronomic tradition that begot it. 

So Fresh and So Clean

Exemplifying the vibrance of Bangkok’s buzzing street food scene, Nuss Bar’s Som Tam Fizz is named after one of the country’s national dishes, papaya salad. A zesty assortment of green papaya, palm nectar, tomato, lime, fish sauce, pickled long beans, and shrimp-infused coconut oil – all the necessary fixings of a proper papaya salad – are combined with Dechita rice and coconut nectar spirits and Phraya rum for a mouthful that is separate from the street yet still very much a part of it.

Across town, Mahaniyom Cocktail Bar (No. 19 on World’s 50 Best Bars 2023) pays homage to a series of local tastes, each drink honing in on just one ingredient in all its derivative forms. Tart green mango is the centrepiece of the Mango, a riff on a gimlet that’s a salute to mamuang nampla wan – a common street snack of unripe mango spears slathered in palm sugar-laced fish sauce. Young mango leaf-infused gin and bourbon are married with a green mango syrup and ripe mango acid, tempered by fino sherry and garnished with caramelized pickled onion.

In the street food mecca of Penang, Backdoor Bodega (No. 52 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2024) is doling out glasses rather than bowls full of assam laksa with the Georgetown Gimlet. An aromatic bouquet of fragrant laksa leaves, galangal, lemongrass, Vietnamese coriander, tamarind paste, and a hint of pungent belacan (fermented shrimp paste) are simmered to make a laksa broth-based cordial. Together with torched ginger flower-infused Roku gin and bright citrus extract, the result is both refreshing and unmistakably Malaysian.

Seoul’s Bar Cham (No.20 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2024) is all about honouring Korean spirits and seasonal produce through offerings like the Chungju Gimbap, a play on Korea’s seaweed-wrapped rice rolls customarily sold at markets. Soju takes centre stage, lending a subtle rice sweetness, while a wasabi and makgeolli (an effervescent rice wine) shrub parallels the pickled radish conventionally found in the rolls’ middle. Cucumber and toasted sesame oil further narrow the gap between cocktail and cuisine.

Sugar & Spice (and Everything Nice)

Perusing item names (like Green Curry, Chicken Dinner, and Caesar Salad), Funkytown’s eclectic drinks roster could easily be mistaken for a dinner menu. And in a way, it is – a drinkable supper, of sorts. With a focus on ingredients typically found in the pantry rather than poured over ice, this Bangkok establishment ranks all concoctions with a funkiness factor of one to five. Yuzu-brined Tanqueray plays second fiddle to the Tom Yum Highball’s homemade hot and sour tom yum broth, a five on the funkiness scale. Lemongrass, galangal, and kaffir lime leaves enhance the blend with bonus sweet heat owed to nam prik pao chilli jam. The culminating sparkling spirit sings in verses of sips, slurps, and sculls.

Over at Bar Us – Bangkok’s newest entry to the 2024 Asia’s 50 Best Bar List debuting at No. 21 –Satay sees a Kettle One masala spice distillate fat-washed with Thai chilli oil. Stirred with a pickled ginger brine, macadamia syrup, red shallot, and cucumber salt solution (emulating standard satay accoutrement), the coupe is speckled tableside with chilli oil droplets. A single sip transports imbibers to Bangkok’s backstreets where ringlets of smoke emanate from skewered meat-covered charcoal grills.

Where street food is a pillar of daily life, India’s nascent bar industry is paying heed though libations like The Lab at Amaraanth’s Goan Curry – an exemplary tribute to this celebrated dish. Comprising coconut milk fat-washed tequila infused with leek, tomato, coriander, ginger, and tamarind, this transparent tipple brims with the bona fide flavors of Goa. Patrons depart with the fragrance of anise in their hair, cinnamon on their tongue, and fennel on their fingertips. 

Union Trading Company’s (No. 90 on the on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2023) Shanghai Breakfast is an ode to co-founder Yao Lu’s childhood spent in his grandparent’s home in the ‘Paris of the East.’ Morning meant starting the day with the obligatory zhimahu (芝麻糊) or black sesame soup, a staple at breakfast stalls across the country. The acidity inherent in Chinese huangjiu (黄酒, yellow wine) mellows Rémy Martin VSOP Cognac in this dessert-like drink, while black sesame paste, cream, a touch of honey, and banana leave lips sticky and satisfied.

This article was originally written for and published on the World's 50 Best Bars website here.