A Ramos Gin Fizz, A Muskrat Ramble February 21, 2012, 1:20 pm Why am I not in New Orleans right now? One of my closest friends has temporarily fled Brooklyn to spend the winter there; her cheery recent dispatches have prominently featured darling dogs in resplendent costumes, a shimmering heap of boiled crayfish and a luscious-looking muffuletta - that superior sandwich specimen made with many varieties of salumi, cheese, and salty, chewy olive salad. Another friend is there just for Mardi Gras, mostly to take in as much brilliant Crescent City music as he can. Another will be moving there, permanently, next week. What I wouldn't give to join them - at least for a drink or two. The Sazerac may be the city's most celebrated cocktail, and it's an undeniably great one - a heady, aromatic combo of rye, bitters (Peychaud, or Peychaud and Angostura) and a muddled sugar cube, in a glass slicked with Herbsaint (or absinthe), shpritzed with essence from a lemon peel. Its delicious complexity has made it a favorite among many cocktail devotees I've known, on both sides of the bar. I tilt towards brown liquor in the winter, and I'd never turn down a Sazerac. But I've been flirting with gin fizzes ever since I discovered that the Electric Current Fizz is the ultimate hair of the dog. So today, I'm making myself another one of New Orleans's greatest drinks: the Ramos gin fizz, invented in 1888 by Henrico Ramos. Amanda Hesser discussed its fascinating history in when she wrote about the drink in the magazine in 2008, and offered recipes from 1935 and a very updated version. In honor of Mardi Gras, I'll go with a close-to-classic take, but less sweet. It takes some doing (and where did I put that orange flower water?), but the result is worth it: it's like a ginned-up milkshake, a bit reminiscent of a creamsicle. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, and add two ounces of gin (I like Beefeater or Plymouth), 1 ounce of heavy cream, 1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice, 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice, 1 egg white, 1 teaspoon superfine sugar (or more, if you prefer a sweeter fizz) and three drops of orange flower water. Then shake it like mad - a solid two minutes, even more if you can take it. Strain into a tall glass and top up with soda water. And this is exactly what I want to listen to while I drink it.