    "Eating, drinking and carrying on..." -- Adelaide Brennan
Ardent Spirits. Gary and Mardee Regan's latest newsletter is out, featuring bar crawls, the London Bar Show, amusing quips and anecdotes and much more to keep you cocktailily sated. ("Cocktailily?" Did I just invent a new adverb? But is it a good adverb or a baaaad adverb?) Keeping you cocktailily sated this summer. I'm going to use it until someone threatens to make me stop. This week's Los Angeles Times Food Section features the work of some local bartenders (including one who is, um, smokin' hot) and their summery libations involving lots of muddling of cool fruits -- just the thing we need when it's 108°F outside. Check out the fresh Bellini with the addition of thyme-infused simple syrup, Mojito muddled with watermelon and cucumber (although I'd definitely leave out the soju, which I don't much care for, in favor of a good light rum or cachaça), a Prosecco cocktail muddled with grapes and pomegranate and what'll be the latest addition to my roster of drinks for or teetotaling friends, the Cranberry Delicious, which spikes your Ocean Spray with lime juice, mint leaves and Angostura bitters. Non-alcoholic cocktail of the day. Wes and I were bartenders at a barbecue thrown by some friends last weekend, and we were asked to do a little cocktail flight; we had planned on small servings of four drinks, but most everyone was pretty well squiffed by the time we finished three. (Oh well, ya lightweights!) It was a lot of fun, and none of them had ever tasted the first two. We started off with the classic Gimlet -- nice and summery, and managed to win a couple of gin converts in the process. We then moved on to Daniel Reichert's wonderful Jamaica Farewell, because 1) We love it, and b) I wanted an excuse to use my "Pimento dram", a.k.a. Jamaican allspice liqueur, and see if people could guess that spicy underlying flavor. Cloves were guessed at, nutmeg, cinnamon ... well, yes and no. I think only one person came up with allspice, but only after guessing the above incorrectly. I'll be emailing out a bunch of recipes for the dram. We finished up with a classic Manhattan, 'cause sometimes it just doesn't get any better. There were a few guests at the 'cue who don't drink, though, and we hated to see them condemned to soda for the whole night. Our friend Jennifer handed me a bottle of Trader Joe's Dixie Peach, an all-juice blend that really tastes like peaches, and asked me what I could concoct. The result met with enthusiastic approval. No name yet, so I'll just purloin Trader Joe's name for the moment ...
Not bad fo' da sperm o' da moment. Watching Beirut die. Chef Anthony Bourdain writes in Salon: "We went to Beirut to film a TV show about the city's newly vibrant culinary and cultural scene. Then the bombs started falling, and we could only stand on the barricades of our hotel balcony and watch it all disappear -- again. This is a fantastic and utterly heartbreaking article, which seems to distill the essence of this newest war in a way that the American news media has been completely unable to do. Oh, just change the law. (Via Wes.) Our government, once again making us so proud to be Americans.
Because what comment can you offer, other than, "What the fuck?" Quote of the day. Paul Krugman, on rewriting recent history (i.e., four years ago), via Atrios:
When will someone, preferably a reporter on live television, contradict and correct him when he says something like this? [ Link to today's entries ]
"How does the richest, freest country on Earth handle a disaster?" This is the question posed by Oyster, from whom I've shamelessly purloined these links. From Loki at Humid City comes a story from the Advocate in Baton Rouge of an extremely important and underpublicized article about FEMA trailer parks in south Louisiana. "The images described," says Oyster, "are unbelievably outrageous, even for those of us who have practically subsisted on outrage in recent months and years."
Go. Read the rest, all the linked articles and posts, especially this one. I hate to channel Charlton Heston, but ... God damn this government to hell. Soul Kitchen is out today! Okay, all you fans of New Orleans, New Orleans food, wonderful writing and delicious characters ... Poppy Z. Brite's third novel in the Liquor series (fourth, if you count the prequel) hits the shelves today. I got just one word for you ... YEAHYOURITE! Screw all the Amazon shit, and screw your local bookstore too. You need to buy this book in New Orleans. Get it now from Garden District Book Shop on Prytania Street, and call ahead and tell him you want to order an autographed copy; Poppy will be signing on August the 5th. But hey, if you can't wait, order it now! I can't wait to read Soul Kitchen, plus her novella D*U*C*K will be out in later this year. We'll get a nice big dose of Rickey, G-Man and the rest of the cast this year, and this pleases me immensely. Sno-balls on da radio! Promoted from the comments (thanks, Christine!) ... NPR learns about the thing of beauty that is the New Orleans snowball, and profiles the legendary Hansen's Sno-Bliz, now run by the late Mary and Ernest Hansen's granddaughter Ashley. Yes, I know that Tales of the Cocktail was last weekend. I couldn't go, so I couldn't bear to write about it, or even think about it. Those of you did may torment me in the comments by telling me how much of a wonderful time you had. Make it good. The Cocktailian. In the most recent edition of Gary Regan's fornightly column, the Professor, our cocktailian bartender, offers the surprising combination of whisky and beer in the same glass ... and it's not a mere Boilermaker, but a fine peaty Scotch with a strong stout. And bitters! Must investigate ... Wanna buy a used guitar? Wanna practice strumming? Even better, wanna play the blues? Well, you couldn't possibly have a better opportunity for the perfect instrument than this one -- blues master Robert Johnson's guitar is for sale, and is referred to as "The Holy Grail." The price? A cool six million. I'd have to be a record-setting Lotto winner (or I'd have to sell my soul to The Devil) to afford it, and I'd have to have that sucker thoroughly authenticated, but ... oh my Gawd, how cool would that be? I nearly fainted when a friend brought one of Eddie Lang's guitars over to my house once, but Robert Johnson's guitar? Law, shmaw, who cares about the law? Not our President, according to the American Bar Association (and you'd think they'd know). They've just issued a comprehensive report saying that "President Bush was flouting the Constitution and undermining the rule of law by claiming the power to disregard selected portions of bills that he signed."
I wish them luck, because this president doesn't care about the Constitution, or separation of powers, or the rule of law. He apparently cares about this, as he forewarned us long ago: "There ought to be limits to freedom." Weaken his attempts to give further rise to a unitary executive by voting Republicans OUT in November. [ Link to today's entries ]
"Hey," said the email from my sister. "I see you haven't updated Looka! in a while." Yeah, because I'm a lazy bastard. You know that. I had to update today, though. It's July 19! That's a very important day in history, as you know. It's the day Galway was liberated from the Indians, Marathon became Snickers, and most of all, the day the Ice Age ended. I couldn't let that pass. The "new normal" in New Orleans. I'm getting to the point where I want to hit anyone who says anything like "Oh, New Orleans is OK now, right? You had Jazzfest!" Given that I'm generally non-violent, and in fact the last time I struck another human being in anger was in the 8th grade, when a fat bully kid tried to steal my sandwich, I'd probably just hit them with a nerf bat or something soft, just for emphasis. Such a person might probably mean well, but how can any intelligent, aware person, anyone who's paying attention, think that something like that just magically healed in less than a year? Once again the Los Angeles Times does a great job of keeping the city on its front page with this article last Saturday, in which they say, "Sure, Mardi Gras and Jazzfest came back. But everyday life in the city remains shattered."
I think I might just have this article printed on a little wallet-sized pamphlet so I can just hand it to people instead of saying, "No, you idiot, of course it's not all better now." Don't misunderstand -- please go to New Orleans. We need you, and I guarantee you'll have a good time. And to interject some reality, go see all the still-devastated neighborhoods. But don't think for a minute that it's "all better" now just because New Orleanians continue to live their lives as best we can, and celebrate their culture, because that's what we do. It's like breathing. [ Link to today's entries ]
It's not just gin. Thank you, thank you, Los Angeles Times Food Section. If there's any spirit that needs a bit of a boost, because of its intrinsic fabulosity and its wholly unwarranted and unjust overshadowing by vodka, it's gin. The Times has an article today that sings the praises of gin, including a tasting of 16 gins. Oddly enough, Plymouth gin is not included (!), but to their credit the one that comes out at the top of the list is the superb Hendrick's. I've been very curious to try Kensington's, the new barrel-aged gin (and the only one like it), which the article describes as "a cross between gin and aged whiskey." Man, I can't wait to try that in a Martini, especially a sweet Martini. "Napoleon is always right." Mindboggling quote of the day, via Think Progress:
Don't believe me? Watch the video. He's apparently completely serious, too. ('Cause if all these people weren't serious it'd be screamingly funny, not extremely scary.) Atrios wonders about "our new Constitution ... some time while we were sleeping the whole thing was replaced with one sentence. Why do these people hate America?" Next up: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, but some men are created more equal than others." Kneel before Shrub! I look at this 2008 presidential candidacy and sometimes wonder if we don't already have him in office ...
By the way, many members of the current administration will need a place to live after 2008. Can someone please invent the Phantom Zone before then? Marty's Thelma. Here's an excellent "Fresh Air" interview with Thelma Schoonmaker, who's edited every one of Martin Scorsese's films since "Raging Bull." (Thanks, Wes!) [ Link to today's entries ]
Quotes of the day. Visionaries, all of them. (Seen in a message board post.)
Good thing the third was didn't come true, because my backpack would be much larger and heavier now, and it'd be murder on my back. Bush celebrates Gargantuan deficit. (Via Think Progress) You really can't make up stuff like this.
Hey, give the poor schmuck a break. He was only off by $812 billion with the prediction for '06. (Almost a trillion dollars ... *boggle*) [ Link to today's entries ]
Guess what? Congressmen are not above the law. Of course, a good ninth-grade civics student probably could have told you that, but they couldn't find one so they turned to a federal judge, who ruled today that the FBI raid on Rep. William Jefferson's office was legal. Easy, just pick it up and move it, right? (Wrong.) The small Cajun town of Erath, Louisiana -- home to the great musician D. L. Menard -- has had serious problems with flooding over the years, the latest deluge coming from Hurricane Rita. The solution proposed by the outside consultants the town hired? Move the entire town. Predictably, longtime residents are not thrilled with the idea. Radio Bitchslap. You know, I can't stand Adam Carolla -- I find him a useless idiot who's painfully unfunny -- but I have to give him a point for how he handled the situation when a certain frothing right-wing nutjob currently adding to her infamy for dissing 9/11 widows (and whose name shall not be mentioned here) called into his radio show 90 minutes late. (Link to MP3 audio.) I wish more media outlets had handled her this way, instead of letting her on the air to spew and flog her book draw attention to herself (which is, I believe, her only agenda). This is especially true now that she seems to be a plagiarist. The Bush Pilot. This explains everything. It's all the German guy. (Via Crooks and Liars) Where da kid at? Because what this site needs is more celebrity gossip. Our beloved regular poster "baconwrapped" returned from vacation this weekend to pose some important questions via email; namely, "What is up with the alleged Cruise baby? No one has actually seen the tyke, including, apparently, close friends of the Cruise/Holmes clan, who are wondering why they are being put off. Now there is some controversy over the very delayed birth certificate -- no one who signed the thing has actually seen the baby, either."
'Cause I get sick of politics and outrage overload. [ Link to today's entries ]
He's back. The long weekend lasted longer than I expected. Al Gore 3.0 Rolling Stone features a new interview with Al Gore. If only we could get a Democratic presidential candidate that sounds this articulate during the campaign (and why couldn't Gore sound like this six years ago?) ... *sigh* Cheney's hit man. Here's an excellent article in The New Yorker about David Addington, Dick Cheney's chief of staff and longtime principal legal adviser.
I'd add the war to that damage list, and Bush's constant comtempt of world opinion, not to mention that of the American people.
Does this administration sound anything like the America you grew up in? The America founded on a vision of freedom and democracy, even in the face of advsersity? The America that believes in the rule of law, with a government of checks and balances? The America you were raised and taught in your civics classes to love and respect? The America so many have died to defend? The frightening thing is that he has two-and-a-half more years to destroy what little is left. Morford: Bush "dead to me." I haven't posted one of Mark Morford's SFGate columns in a while. This is a good one.
Read the rest. June Looka! entries have been permanently archived. [ Link to today's entries ]
|
| Several of my friends and loved ones (and a few kind strangers) contribute regularly to this weblog, providing links, comments and sometimes lots more. Thanks to Wesly Moore, Mike Luquet, Mary Herczog, Steve Hochman, Dave Schmerler, Nettie DeAugustine, Diana Schwam, Andy Senasac, Michael Yasui, Steve Gardner, Michael Pemberton, Steve Kelley, Barry Kelley, Eric Labow, Tom Krueger, Greg Beron, Sean Burke, Shari Minton and Barry Enderwick. |
chuq's links | the gumbo pages
creole and cajun recipe page | search this site
chuck taggart | email chef (at) gumbopages (dot) com
|
This site ©1994-2006
by Chuck Taggart. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. |
|
This means that you may not copy my writing onto other web
pages or anywhere else without my specific written permission. (Quotes of
short passages, properly attributed, may be considered fair use.)
If you do copy my work and pass it off as your own, it's called "stealing"
and "plagiarism". People who steal my stuff will be étoufféed and served to Dr. Lecter, with a nice Chianti. (I'm serious. Just don't do it. Thanks.) |
