 
 "Eating, drinking and carrying on..." -- Adelaide Brennan
NO ON PROP 8 - Write to Marry Day. I noticed a Yes on Prop 8 sign on my street today. Sigh. Fortunately, that neighbor (who perhaps hasn't thought of how this cruel and heartless proposition will directly affect at least six of their neighbors within half a block) is outnumbered signwise by about 6:1. We have to keep fighting this one until the very last minute. 
Today blogs all over California, America and the world are showing their opposition to Proposition 8 on California's ballot, which will eliminate existing constitutional marriage rights for same-sex couples. It's unfair, it's cruel and it's wrong. (How would you like it if someone voted on your marriage? Oh sorry, you can't visit the person you've been with for years in the hospital anymore ... seeya.) Moreover, the Yes campaign is based on lies, fear and on the exploitation of children. Don't let them win. Equality for all, and equal protection under the law, is what this country is all about. The Cocktail Spirit, with Robert Hess. It was great to get a chance (albeit an unfortunately brief one) to knock back a couple of great cocktails with Robert at Seven Grand when he was here last week. I've gotten behind on links to his excellent series of cocktail videos, so let's get cracking. We're going to delve into Tikiworld, beginning with a great concoction by the late, great Ray Buhen, whose son and grandson still run one of the best tiki bars in the universe -- Tiki Ti (a mere 10 minutes from my house, yay!). Here's Robert:
Ah, fond memories of The Fog Cutter. Several years back two good friends and I would regularly visit a now-gone Chinese restaurant in Pacific Palisades called The House of Lee. It was frozen in time in the early 1950s, with that era's Americanized Chinese food on the menu (rumaki and Crab Rangoon too!) and oddly enough really good hamburgers, served by Albert, The World's Most Expressionless Waiter. (Not entirely true -- he was very sympathetic to me when my car, which I had just paid off two weeks before, was demolished by a drunk driver while parked in front of the restaurant. We miss you, Albert!) It also had a great bartender named Tommy, who ran a little tiki bar in the corner and made fantastic tropical cocktails. My usual drink of choice was the Navy Grog, and Chris' was the Fog Cutter. (Michael always got, and still always gets, a Screwdriver. I've given up trying to convert him.) I miss the House of Lee. Good, good times. Cocktails of the day. The reason Robert Hess is in town is for some huge Microsoft event (in case you didn't know, that's his day job). My friend Marcos Tello and his cohorts are doing the cocktails for one of the Microsoft events, and as Marcos knew Robert would be in attendance he headed up the evening's cocktail menu with a drink that Robert first brought to most people's attention (including mine). It's a great drink too, perfect for the season, as summer turns into fall, the air becomes crisp and we start getting the jackets and sweaters out of the closet. (Well, except where I live, dammit, where it's going to be 90 frakkin' degrees today. Can we not have some seasons?! I ask you!)
Marcos and I were also talking about one of Robert's originals, which he created for a Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Dinner, and which is quite lovely and perfect for the season as well.
Here's to ... cooler weather! Soon, please! (Jeez.) Well, that explains everything. Your marriage disintegrating? Problems around the world? Why? It's because the gays are getting married. I knew it! Psst ... by the way ... NO ON PROP 8! [ Link to today's entries ]
Cocktail of the day. My friend Damian Windsor, world-class bartender, is a finalist in Travel + Leisure magazine's Beverage Arts Challenge '08, in which mixologists from around the country compete for a Major Award (hopefully not an Icebat). Here's Damian's (hopefully) winning entry, which he'll be pouring tonight at Bar Celona in Pasadena from 8pm on. You can also vote for Damian's cocktail at the above link.
Good luck, Damian! Lee Dorsey, Allen Toussaint and Barack Obama. I was wondering how long it would take for someone to do this -- from the beginning I thought it'd be the perfect Obama campaign song, and this made-of-awesome mashup shows why.  Major kudos to Tano Sokolow, who madet his remix. Yes we can!! NO ON PROP 8! Remember, Californians ... vote NO on Proposition 8. It's writing discrimination into the state constitution (putting aside the fact that amending the state constitution by a 50%-plus-1 direct vote is insane), eliminating existing rights -- how would you like it if strangers voted on your relationship? Not too much, I expect. If you will or have already voted no, please talk to as many of your family and friends as possible in the next week. Every single vote counts. I did phonebanking for the No on 8 campaign last night, and will do more tomorrow and through the weekend. So far the results have been hopeful, at least for me -- of the people to whom I got through, it went about 84% no and 16% yes (and the yes people were, at least, very polite). There's no telling what awful lies the Yes campaign will pull in the next week, so talk to people, and contribute or even volunteer if you can. Gumbobama almost there!! Twenty people have contributed $1,900 to the Obama Campaign for Change via this weblog, which is fantastic! With one week to go, I'd be thrilled to hit the rather lofty goal I set. If only six readers contributed $100, we'd get there, or two $250s and one $100, or 12 $50s ... ehh, I have to stop doing math now or my brain will start to complain. (I was promised there'd be no math involved.) We're one week away for real hope and change to take root in this country, and the campaign needs every penny they can get before Election Day. Use the thermometer graphic on the upper right corner of the site, or just follow this link. Please contribute! [ Link to today's entries ]
Winnah! Winnah! OK, well, I'm generally not one to toot my own horn, but it was a tie for second place. Not too bad. ("What in the world are you talking about?") Oh yeah! This past Saturday was the 4th Annual Los Feliz Invitational Macaroni and Cheese Cookoff Extravaganza! That's a very fancy, highfalutin' name for the party that Sherri and Mitch throw once a year where everyone is encouraged to bring a macaroni and cheese dish, and everyone votes on the winners. The first year they did it I didn't know them, but Steve went and asked me for the recipe for a yummy Macaroni and Maytag Blue Cheese dish I had made for a Fat Pack gathering. He made it, took it to the party ... and won first place. The following year I got invited myself ... and won first place. (I also received a Major Award.) The third year I came in second, but thought the actual prize was cooler (the Toxic Teddies Ramones Action Figure Set). I was happy with second place again this year (although honestly I thought my dish was better, heh), tied with a lovely spicy dish containing fresh jalapeños, but as the first prize was another Icebat I was quite pleased with this year's almost-Major Award -- a 32-piece 3D Human Torso Anatomic Puzzle! Seriously though, in all lack of seriousness, it's all in good fun, and the quality of the dishes has improved dramatically since the first time I went -- that's what it's all about, having fun with good food and being creative. There was tons of that, which is why I enjoy this party so much every year. The secret of my Mac 'n Cheese success ... well, just make it from scratch, use good cheese and think of good flavor combinations. It couldn't be easier -- I start with the same béchamel every time (milk, or in this case half-and-half, thickened by a roux and seasoned with a bit of dry mustard), in goes the cheese, flavorings and pasta. The sky's the limit. Here's the dish for this year. Taleggio's a bit expensive, so you can easily substitute Fontina (which I'll probably do next time). You tend to lose a lot of the weight of the Taleggio in these quantities after removing the inedible rind, so you'd need to buy a pound and a half. Use any pasta you like, but this time I chose galletti, which look like elbow macaroni but with a ruffled fringe. (Cue ridiculous singing of "Roni wtih the Fringe on Top" ...) 
I'll definitely do this again, but with less expensive Fontina cheese. The
idea for the recipe came from looking through Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page's magnificent new book
The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative
Chefs From the fishin' hole to Arnold's. Ron Howard would like to talk to you about the upcoming election. Just watch. Trust me. :-) "There are no pro-America parts of the country and anti-America parts of the country." A powerful, scalp-tingling speech from Barack Obama yesterday, in Richmond, Virginia.
12 days. [ Link to today's entries ]
Palate Food + Wine. It's been open for a while now, and rapidly became one of the hottest restaurants in town. I'd heard nothing but good things about it, and its chef Octavio Becerra. I'd been wanting to go. What took me so long? My innate procrastination? Budget? Or the fact that it opened in the old Cinnabar space -- our favorite restaurant in the area for both food and cocktails until it closed in '05 -- and that I'd shed a tear upon re-entering the space? Well, let's not be so melodramatic. I do still miss Cinnabar, but remember that I'm God Emperor of Procrastination too. Steve had his birthday dinner there last Thursday, and off I went ('cept Wes couldn't make it that night, d'oh). First thing -- the space is bigger than the old Cinnabar. It extends further back, to make room for additional dining space plus the wine bar and retail wine outlet. It also presented one of the (to me) great oddities of the greatly odd liquor licensing laws in Los Angeles (as opposed to those in New Orleans where I grew up, to which Steve referred as "What licensing?"). We were seated in the back room, adjoining the retail / wine bar space but separated by a door. I saw to my delight that there were some good-looking cocktails on the menu, including a Sazerac! A cocktail-making test of mettle! I happily ordered when the server arrived. Here's why I didn't get one. The restaurant is only licensed to serve hard liquor in the front dining room. That's the space that corresponds to the old Cinnabar space, and in L.A. County liquor license are attached to buildings, not to businesses, or even to specific spaces in the building. Therefore even though it's all the same establishment, the same business, you can serve a cocktail on this side of the wall but not that side, in the same restaurant. (You California people are weird. My great-aunts warned me you would be.) I briefly considered ditching my tablemates to have a cocktail, whereupon I asked what kind of rye the bartender uses. When she returned she informed me that they had been out of rye for a while and were using Maker's Mark. Oh dear. If he's out of rye then he should be using Cognac, or else he should be declining to serve them. That, plus not really wanting to ditch my friends, I ordered wine. We'll sample the cocktails next time. There were a couple of vodka-y originals, but also classics like the La Floridita and Jack Rose, so I'm looking forward to getting a properly licensed table next time. Palate has lots of great starters, and we dug right in: ![[Palate
Food + Wine, Glendale] Duck Rillettes](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3197/2962274679_594038e248.jpg)
This was Duck Rillettes,, from the "Mason Jars" section of their menu. These selections vary from potted Berkshire pork or poulet to duck or salmon rillettes or olives or ... anything! In case you're not familiar with rillettes (ree-YET), it's meat that's cubed then salted and cooked slowly in fat until it's extremely tender. You can then shred it and put it up in jars along with the fat, and serve it like a spread at room temperature. This particular batch was lovely. 
This one was, of course, right up our alley. Mary called it "Porkography," I called it "Porkopolis." The server thought both were funny. The actual name of the dish is Porkfolio -- Prosciutto di San Daniele, speck Alto Adige, Lardo a la maison, and a selection of salumi: peperone, toscano, finocchiona. And crispy bread. We inhaled it. 
Something very new to me -- Pickled Apples, from the "Something Pickled" section of their menu. These were fabulous. Other selections, on and off this evening's menu, included peaches (can't wait to try these!), baby carrots, cipolline onions, nectarines and cherries. Of these I've only had pickled carrots before. I can't wait to try some of his other selections, which change frequently. 
One of the additions to the old space, along with the back dining room, wine bar and retail space, is the Cheese Room. They have a lovely and rotating selection of cheeses, and Da Cheese Man gets his own room, composing fabulous cheese plates for everyone all night. We'll see the fruits (and cheeses) of his labor later on. 
The main portion of the menu starts out with some soups, and a few smaller starter-sized courses for between six and eight bucks. One of our number was vegetarian and ordered two vegetable starters, one of which was Roasted Potatoes with Kale and Sea Salt. I didn't get a taste, but it looked yummy. 
Steve's meal -- Duck Leg Confit with Pears. I didn't get any of this either. 
This was my main -- Berkshire Pork Belly with Barley and Oven-Dried Grapes. I ate every speck. The pork belly was terrific, meaty and unctuously fatty and delightfully crispy on the outside, with a lovely porky jus. The chewy barley was a nice alternative to rice and its nutty flavor complemented the pork well. The oven-dried grapes were a great touch too -- halfway between a grape and a raisin (or maybe 1/3 of the way there), still soft but concentrated and tart and just the counterpoint for the pork. Yay! 
This was my vegetable side, which both I and our vegetarian got -- Lima Beans with Almonds, Swiss Chard and Shallots. I had always hated lima beans as a kid. I'm not entirely sure why, probably because they were frozen or canned and thus inferior. I don't think I've had lima beans much, if at all, since childhood. These were great, and topped with a crust of herbed bread crumbs and Parmigiano-Reggiano ... best lima beans EVAR! Well, that I'd had in a long time, anyway. 
I know, Gromit ... we'll go someplace where there's cheeeeeeeeeeese! 
First plate -- Timanoix (brandy-washed medium-strong semi-soft cow's milk), Époisses (wonderfully stinky & runny marc-washed cow's milk), Tomme Crayeuse (earthy semi-soft cow's milk). 
Second plate -- Bleu de Bocage (FANTASTIC goat's milk blue -- I ran out to the Cheese Store of Silverlake two days later and got a third of a pound of it), Brillat-Savarin (mild soft-ripened cow's milk, sweet triple-cream) and Fleur Verte (herb-coated chevre, goat's milk from France). 
Finally, dessert. I forgot what else was offered that night, but I went for a classic, simple and delicious chocolate pudding, in this case made with 60% cacao Valrhona chocolate (a bit more elevated than what Bill Cosby would serve out of the Jell-O box). Quick assessment -- we all loved it. Great, simple yet inventive food, fresh and flavorful and not terribly expensive. Wine lovers will have a field day, and provided it's not too difficult to get a table we'll probably be here frequently. It'll never replace Cinnabar in its look, feel or food, but it's really good to know that an excellent restaurant has filled that space. Maple syrup that I want now. My good friend Carol at The Hungry Passport told me about a new product this weekend, and I've already got some on the way. This company, among other things, takes Vermont maple syrup and ages it in 12- to 18-year-old single barrel Bourbon whiskey casks. "The barrels are carefully agitated until the honey, charred oak, vanilla and spice notes are imparted into the syrup for a one-of-a-kind natural flavor." Want. Some. Now. *begins to think of use in cocktails* Recipe of the day. Speaking of Carol, on Sunday she brought over some fantastic fudge. Here's how ya make it.
If you want to keep critters out of it, you can cover it with a paper towel. I suspect that once people start in it will disappear quickly, so I don't suppose storage will be an issue. Open mouth. Insert foot. John Murtha made an idiotic comment the other day about the western part of his state being racist. John McCain seized on that gaffe and tried to glom that onto Obama (because they're both Democrats, so obviously they're the same person) and his supporters (because all of Obama's umpteen-million supporters are John Murtha). To say that he blew it would be quite the understatement.
Sigh. Thirteen more days. David Sedaris on undecided voters. From his new piece in The New Yorker.
He pretty much nails it. [ Link to today's entries ]
Zydecobama ... Oui on peut! Yes we can! Just posted today, a new zydeco song called "Oui on peut," with music by Dirk Powell, Christine Balfa, Jeffrey Broussard, Zydeco Joe Citizen, Corey "L'il Pop" Ledet, and Linzay Young. Filmed at the Whirlybird in Opelousas, Louisiana. Louisiana still looks as if it's going to go the other way, but there are a lot of Louisianians doing their part. What about you? Go to barackobama.com, find your local campaign HQ and do some phonebanking over the next couple of weeks. (I will.) Send in your contributions -- we'll need every cent up until the very day of the election. In fact, why not help Looka! meet its $2500 goal by hitting the "Gumbobama" link at the upper right and donate through this site? Oui, on peut!! [ Link to today's entries ]
Mixology Monday XXXII: "Guilty Pleasures" Well, I didn't get a chance to participate in this one. Wes and I were out of town visiting my sister and my adorable nephew Thomas and my adorable brand-new niece Molly, and I didn't have access to my bar. I also complained about not really having any guilty pleasures, not in the way some of my fellow drinkers did. Wes and I put our heads together, and could only really come up with The Gimlet, which I don't think anyone needs to feel guilty over (unless you make them with vodka, I guess!) and a couple of other things I didn't feel sufficiently guilty about. 
I probably would have written about a similar one as Paul did in the above link. He likes vodka Gimlets, but when I was in school my drink of choice was the Tequila Gimlet, which my good friend Matt Brown turned me on to. Same deal as with the gin or vodka versions ... I usually make mine 4:1 these days, but I'll add the 3:1 proportions too.
Of course, back on those less enlightened days I made my Tequila Gimlets with Cuervo Gold, something I wouldn't use today for anything other then possibly disinfecting wounds. (Horrid, godawful mixto mierda1) Use the blancos I recommended, especially the magnificent Partida. I haven't had one of these in ages, but I think these days I'd take a cue from Paul's recipe above and use this variation as he did:
The other drink of choice back in those Olden Days (although only briefly), was the one Doug Winship wrote up in his MxMo post ... the dreaded, evil Kamikaze. Now, I suppose it's not intrinsically evil, like the black lump at the end of Time Bandits. However, if I were to see one today, I'd shriek, "Don't touch it! It's evil!" It's my own stupid fault, of course. I don't know how I first came across the Kamikaze, but it was certainly inoffensive -- citrusy and sweet (really sweet, given that you're getting Rose's and undoubtedly the cheapest well triple sec). Here's how I made it at the time:
I hadn't really given the drink's name much thought, until one day I was with a bunch of friends at some bar, and they were taking our drink orders. When they got to me I shouted out, "Kamikaze!" resulting in a spit-take and a "WTF?!" reaction from our friend Hiroki, who was from Japan. The word had a somewhat different connotation for him. When I told him how it was made, he opined that the name sounded appropriate enough. During that summer of 1985 I got the great idea to throw a Kamikaze Party. Two
of my friends, Bob and Shawn, thought it was a great idea too, and contributed their apartment for the
That party had almost no survivors. Also, the Kamikaze is the only cocktail that resulted in my passing out next to the toilet (with photographs, of course). This tends to take the "pleasure" part out of the phrase "guilty pleasure." I haven't touched a Kamikaze in 23 years, 3 months, 26 days and approximately 13 hours. And this was after the party of the night before. I'll tell y'all about that one tomorrow. The Podnahcast. I got a note from Valcour Records, the Cajun and roots music label owned by Joel Savoy, that started, "An Irishman and a Cajun walk into a kitchen ..." What sounds like a setup for a great joke ends up being an introduction to a new podcast featuring two friends in Louisiana -- Tony Davoren is a displaced Irish musician from the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains, and Toby Rodriguez is an artist from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. As described on Valcour's site:
As a Louisianian roots music lover of Irish descent who loves Cajun music, Irish music and drinking ... this is right up my alley. Here's Episode 1. Set aside a few hours. Just leave it on while you do other stuff. It's worth it. Believe me. "We got seventeen listeners ... damn, we popular!" "Fuck me, why'd I get involved in this?" Last night's debate, in a nutshell. Who knew that the Republican candidate's strategy was formulated 40 years ago? I always knew The Penguin was a Republican. [ Link to today's entries ]
EMERGENCY: Prop. 8 ahead in polls. The right-wing, heavily funded by the Catholic and Mormon churches, have been outspending us on ads filled with lies and distortions in a desperate effort to pass the discriminatory Proposition 8 in California, which will eliminate the existing constitutional right of marriage for millions of Californians. Prop. 8 had been losing in the polls by five points, until the Yes ads started running, falsely claiming that churches that refuse to marry same-sex couples will lose their tax-exempt status (NOT TRUE), and that elementary school children will be required to be taught about same-sex marriage in schools (NOT TRUE). I guess the Catholics and Mormons have forgotten that little bit about "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." Watch the new ad from NO ON 8 that refutes the lies: And PLEASE contribute to NO ON 8! and stop the lies. We can win this if we get the funding and refute the lies, and we need all the help we can get. Thanks! Bake for Barack! For Los Angeles area locals ... It's the "yeast" we can do -- a big bake sale to help "raise dough" for the Obama/Biden ticket. All proceeds will go directly to the campaign, specifically targeting efforts in swing states. Stop by for some delicious cookies, pies, cakes and bread, washed down with lemonade from a genuine kid-run stand (which is great to help get kids see what it's like to contribute to a cause). There should also be a Sarah Palin impersonator -- see if you can get her to answer a direct question!
DONATIONS NEEDED! To contribute baked goods, please email Lauren Malkasian at bakeforbarack (at) gmail (dot) com. Thanks! Cocktail of the day. Still exploring our new bottles of Hayman's Old Tom Gin, and enjoying every drop. Killer Martinezes, lovely Tom Collinses, although we have yet to try it in a Ramos Fizz. (I keep forgetting to get eggs and cream at the store ... next week for sure.) Tonight for inspiration I delved into CocktailDB, and came up with this one. The original recipes called for an ounce each of Old Tom and sweet vermouth, plus a half-ounce of Crème de Violette, with a dash of orange bitters. To my taste (in fact, probably to most contemporary tastes) this seems horribly sweet, but a possibly intriguing flavor combination with the right balance. I decided to increase the gin and vermouth to 1-1/2 ounces each, and reduce the violette to a teaspoon. Then I realized that this basically makes a Martinez with violette swapped out for the maraschino. That sounded interesting.
It was ... well, certainly interesting. Wes found it "viscous," even though the only difference between this and the Martinezes he's been loving recently is the 1 tsp. of violette instead of 1 tsp. of maraschino. We use Maraska maraschino most of the time, which we find to be a bit drier than the Luxardo (which is still excellent), and perhaps he was reacting just to the level of sweetness of the violette combined with the sweet vermouth and the sweetened gin. He thought it was too sweet; "I wouldn't order it again." I think this has promise, although I think it needs more tweaking. I'd try to get a little more vitterness going by using Punt E Mes for the vermouth, and I might even try a London dry gin too. Yay, tinkering is fun! Have any of y'all tried this one? What do you think? More solace for more troubled times. Again via Mary, who's been providing a great deal of solace of late, it's Bacon Fried Chicken. With bacon and chicken served together. Plus bacon grease gravy made with cream, brandy and Tabasco. C'mon, this is not something from the White Trash Cookbook. This is, in fact, from James Beard's American Cookery, and a recipe used by Beard's father. This is America! (*Cue "Yankee Doodle Dandy" coming out of nowhere, like on "Green Acres," confusing everyone but the speechmaking Oliver Douglas.*) The Onion does it again! Late last night my friend Steve sent out this hilarous article from The Onion, which starts off like this, getting a huge laugh:
Turns out it's not from The Onion, though. It's from The Associated Press. [ Link to today's entries ]
Contribute to Obama '08! Just a reminder ... to the right there's a box where you can click and contribute to change in America, and help elect Barack Obama president. I'm trying to raise $2,500 before Election Day from Looka! readers, and although we've done well so far (thanks, you eleven!) we've got a ways to go. 36% of the way there, let's make it 100! Gumbobama! Cocktail of the day. What to do with my new batch of falernum, what to do? Well, tons! One great, simple thing to do to kind of get outside the box -- i.e., not a rum-based island or tropical-style drink -- is to make this lovely whiskey sour variation in which you just swap out the simple syrup. I can't for the life of me remember who came up with this, but it's a great idea.
Simple, and very refreshing. Here's the one we had the other night. It's a signature drink of the island nation of Barbados, whence falernum originated. I understand that this drink was originally made with Barbados rum (which makes perfect sense), but a few years ago Murray Stenson of the Zig Zag in Seattle suggested to Paul Clarke that this drink be made with one particular type of rum, which looks like something you'd pour in your crankcase and seems as if it would pack a powerful wallop ... but makes a stunningly beautiful drink. Cruzan Black Strap Rum is made not just from regular molasses, as is nost rum, but from blackstrap molasses, which comes from the third boiling of sugar syrup in the sugar making process. Oddly enough, although it has the calories of sugar it's quite good for you, containing vitamins and minerals, including calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron. (Here's hoping that at least a bit of that carries through to the hooch.) If you're a lover of molasses, particularly sorghum molasses for all you Midwesterners, you'll love this rum. Having watched Wes drizzle Kansas sorghum on his biscuits (which is a bit much even for me), I knew he'd love this stuff too. I've seen a number of slight variations -- amount of falernum, bitters or not, lime juice or not -- but the drink does seem to gain some wonderful brighness from the addition of fresh lime, and although the bitters have a tendency to be stomped on by this rum you can add a few dashes if you like, enough for the spice to peek through the heavy molasses flavor. If you're using the homemade Falernum No. 10 posted earlier, a half-ounce works well. With John D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum, the consensus seems to be to cut that back to 1/4 ounce, and I agree. Although the drink might look as if it's made with 10W-40, it contains neither oil nor corn.
In looking at the Cruzan Rum website, I've learned something new. I've always heard the brand pronounced like "CREW-ZAN," equal stress on the syllables, and pronounced it that way myself. The website features an introduction by the guy who makes the stuff, and he says "CRU-zhin." I had no idea. Mixology Monday conundrum. It's coming up in four days, but I'll be out of town, finally visiting my sister's family (and finally meeting my new niece, who's now almost five months old!), and I'm not sure I'll have time to get a drink and a post ready. I'm having difficulty with the topic, though. Stevi at Two At The Most is hosting, and the topic is "Guilty Pleasures," to wit:
Problem is ... most of my comfort foods are good. My ultimate comfort dish is Red Beans 'n Rice, and there's no guilt in that whatsoever. As for cocktails, if I think "comfort" I think Old Fashioned and Whiskey Sour, which are the two my dad used to make all the time. Even though Dave Wondrich called the venerable old Whiskey Sour something like the Joe-Sixpack of cocktails, I think it's a damned good drink, no guilt required. Call me a snob, but all of the drinks we like are good and guilt-free! When I asked Wes for ideas and inspiration he suggested the Whiskey Sour or the Gimlet, but dammit, the Gimlet's good too! I can think about my Cosmopolitan period back in the mid-'90s, or the stuff I used to drink and suffer from in college (Kamikazes ... ugh). I couldn't classify those as "pleasures," though. In the early '00s we had our flavored vodka and infused vodka period (and I really liked some of the latter), but we haven't made any of those in years. The other possiblity is another drink from my childhood, the one that'd always be served at my grandparents' house in the Ninth Ward, what they simply called a "Highball." Inevitably that would be a mixture of 7-Up and Seagram's V.O. blended whiskey. Way, way too sweet for me now, but maybe I could gussy one of those up ... I may or may not be able to think of something by then ... we'll see. In the meantime, it's going to be a very YouTubey day on Looka!, as you'll see below. Ukuleles rule! You know, one doesn't really need to say anything other than, "The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain performs the Theme from 'Shaft.'" And as a big Kaiser Chiefs fan I was quite chuffed to come across this one as well: Of course, if we're talking ukuleles, we kinda can't not mention Jake Shimabukuro (who's stupefyingly brilliant): Hey, my dad had a ukulele and could play "Ain't She Sweet!" Um, and I could play "My Dog Has Fleas." Keating Economics: John McCain and the Making of a Financial Crisis
If you haven't watched this 13-minute video yet, join the 1,750,275 of your fellow
The "appalling" McCain/Palin campaign. These words appeared in a non-bylined editorial in yesterday's New York Times, entitled "Politics of Attack" (emphasis mine).
That would be nineteen times.
Of course, McCain's spokesbots say that this paper has no credibility left. Alan Rich also nailed it in a brilliant column from last Saturday, about how Sarah Palin is making John McCain increasingly irrelevant, which is very worrisome due to her patently obvious ambitions for the presidency while being "preposterously unprepared" for such a nearly unthinkable event. [ Link to today's entries ]
Making Your Own Cocktail Ingredents. Continuing with the World's Most Procrastinatory Tales of the Cocktail Recap by yours truly, God Emperor of Procrastination. This seminar was one of my favorites, being an extension of the "Lost Ingredients" seminar whose panel I participated in last year, along with Ted Haigh, Paul Clarke, Joe Fee, Eric Seed and Gwydion Stone. Paul moderated the panel this year, which also included Erik Ellestad, Jamie Boudreau and John Deragon, and we got to learn about and try some really tasty stuff. Paul kicked things off with an old favorite of mine since I first noticed it in Charles H. Baker Jr.'s The Gentleman's Companion; or Around the World with Jigger, Beaker and Flask about six years ago. This is the thing to do as soon as strawberries are in season, especially if you're in Louisiana and have access to the Best Strawberries in the World. I usually use a good reposado tequila for this recipe, but next time I think I'll use Partida Blanco. I've become a huge fan of Partida Tequila over the last year, and it's easily my favorite. Fully of fruity, spicy flavors, I think it'd take to strawberries very well. Milagro is a good and less expensive choice.
Boy, this stuff is good ... it's become one of the things by which I mark late spring and early summer. The sad part about the Lost Ingredients seminar last year was that the batch of Paul's lost ingredient was truly lost, and didn't make it to New Orleans. Fortunately we got some this time, along with the latest evolution of the recipe. Falernum, in case you're not familiar with it, is native to Barbados and is a syrup or liqueur, depending on how it's made, infused with lime, almonds, ginger and cloves. There are a few commercially available brands, including John D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum (11% alcohol), Fee Bros. West Indian Style Falernum (non-alcoholic) and one from Da Vinci Gourmet (which I don't particularly care for). I stock both Taylor's and Fee's, but I really like this homemade version from Paul Clarke -- just finished a batch of this on Sunday, in fact:
The previous version included fresh lime juice, which did give the syrup more brightness and acidity but also cut down on its shelf life. I don't recall version no. 10 including this, but if you want to try it you can add 4.5 ounces of strained lime juice to this, or just add a squeeze of fresh lime to a recipe that calls for falernum. Erik Ellestad was up next, he of Underhill Lounge and Stomping Through the Savoy, in which he's making every cocktail listed in Harry Craddock's 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, in alphabetical order (although the link will take you to them in beta-alphical order, beginning with his most recent). Now that's a way to learn about vintage cocktails. Erik offered two ingredients, first of which being something you can otherwise easily obtain, but you'll undoubtedly find the homemade product to be far superior. Orgeat is an almond syrup that's an essential cocktail ingredient, espeically if you like Mai Tais. The main problem you have with orgeat is finding a high quality product, and figuring out how to pronounce it. I don't remember where I first saw this or whose illustration it was -- I'm thinking either Martin Cate or Jeff Berry, but somebody correct me if I'm wrong -- but the best way I've seen to teach someone how to pronounce orgeat properly was this: 
For the thick, it's OAR-zsa, not OAR-zsazsa. The recipe is from the seminar, although when comparing it to the orgeat recipe on Erik's site I see a discrepancy between the amounts of almond extract to be added. The link says it's 1/4 teaspoon per liter, and my notes say 1/4 ounce. I think my notes are far less trustworthy, and I hope Erik will correct me if I'm wrong. That said, I can't wait to make this, although I think I may end up with a bit more than I might really need. This is why it's good to have cocktailian friends to whom to give stuff!
Erik added a comment from the recipe's orignator, Francis Xavier: "Real orgeat syrup will split after a few days in a thick, solid white layer of almond powder on top and syrup below. This is normal and happens with quality bought orgeat syrup such as the one I used to buy from Hédiard in Paris. All you need is to insert a skewer in the bottle to break the top layer a bit, close and shake. This is really part of the fun in this product and a hallmark of quality orgeat syrup." Good, 'cause quality orgeat syrup is waht we want. As if that wasn't enough, Erik's also been working on a version of Swedish Punsch, a lost cocktail ingredient (unless you live in Sweden, from whence it is quite annoyingly no longer exported) called for in a number of classic recipes, and actually pretty damned good all on its own. Swedish punsch was fairly difficult to make on your own due to the lack of availability of its essential ingredient, Batavia arrack, a rum-like cane spirit made from cane juice and fermented Indonesian red rice, with a delightfully smoky character. It's not to be confused with Lebanese arak, which is an anise-flavored grape spirit, or someting else called arrak or arrack from Sri Lanka, which is made from "palm wine," or coconut milk. This is in the cane spirit family, and its recent return to the market under the brand name Batavia Arrack van Oosten from Haus Alpenz is very welcome indeed. Vintage recipes that'd be close to Swedish punsch can be found in Professor Jerry Thomas' book, The Bon Vivant's Companion -- check the recipes for Arrack Punch and especially United Service Punch. Here's an excellent recipe, even closer to what you might find in Sweden, another large-batch recipe that Erik gave us at Tales:
Enjoy on its own, or as an ingredient whenever Swedish punsch is called for. Dr. Cocktail would have you make this:
Next up was Jamie Boudreau, who was hilarious and taught us a great many things. The first of which was, "I'm a lazy bastard." (Iiiiii ... think I might be lazier!) "I'm freakin' lazy!" his slide presentation declared, "but those damned spirit companies (you know who you are) don't make what i want, do make what I want but won't give it to me, and/or charge too much for what I want," hence the inspiration to make your own cocktail ingredients, which adds additional challenges if you're making them in quantity for bar service. However, doing this will advance the quality of your bar service by light-years, and make it truly unique. It's happening more and more nowadays at the best bars, and it's exciting to see. Jamie handed out the recipe for his excellent Amer Picon replica which even he has now taken to calling "Amer Boudreau" (but was it me who first started calling it that, or him? If it was me, I want royalties! Or at least a drink sometime ...) This is well worth making, as we've discussed before. That said, I can't wait to get my hands on a bottle of the alleged recent reformulation of Torani Amer and do a side-by-side taste test! Jamie also talked a bit about Swedish punsch (with a slide that said, "Damn you, Eric Seed!" Yes indeed, how dare Eric bring back booze that'll give us more to do?! And taste, mmm.) He also provided another Swedish punsch-containing cocktail recipe for us:
There was also some talk about making homemade bitters and other kinds of infusions, and the ever-present problem of how to strain them properly. Coffee filters work, but only if you have between six hours and two days to wait. A Büchner funnel works much better, but Jamie spoke from experience in assuring you you'll end up with hand cramps from pumping. Could there be another way? Yes! A plain ol' Brita water filter is just the thing. It's labor-free, the charcoal in the filtration system doesn't strip away any of the flavor and he feels it integrates the flavors better. And it's cheap. John Deragon from PDT in New York was up next, talking about and offering tastes of his own version of the venerable and long-defunct Abbott's Bitters (there was an article in the New York Times a while back). He started with this basic recipe from the DrinkBoy forum, and began to document his progress here. I tasted a drop of his Abbott's recreation, and it was pretty damn good, although far more bitter than the vintage Abbott's we have at home. I asked him if he thought the bitter elements might have lost some of their edge in the last 70 years or so, and that's entirely possible. It's a very exciting development, though, and the quest for a recreated Abbott's continues. Finally we had a presentation from Daniel, one of the bartenders at PDT, who gave us the method for and samples of Don Lee's Bacon Bourbon, which we've talked about here at length. I did get some great tips from my pal Zane Harris from Vessel in Seattle -- use a cast-iron skillet for your bacon fry, and a bacon press if possible, to get the bacon nice and crispy and caramelized, as that'll improve the flavor of the fat you use for your "fat washing" technique. Lots of fun, lots to learn and lots to play with! The Fatty Melt. Serious Eats once again throws something my way that means I won't be losing any weight this week ... What is it? Well, I have to say I'm likin' the name already, and it'll make more sense when I tell you that a Fatty Melt is ... a hamburger with two grilled cheese sandwiches as its bun. The Fat Pack weighs in. "Solace for these troubled times," said Mary, who sent it to everyone. "Who's with me?" I am! Are you? "You know," said Steve, "I almost want to find a reason to dismiss this. But I can't! It could be quite good, and looks great in the photo." "Look at that tomato in there," said Wes, "bravely trying to convince us that the sandwich won't actually kill us." It needs bacon, though. And mayonnaise instead of butter on the inside and outside of the cheese sandwich bread, as per our family tradition. A li'l ketchup and Tabasco, maybe? Oh, and onion! Seriously, I'm game. Keating Economics: John McCain & the Making of a Financial Crisis. Watch this, and remember John McCain's part in the largest failure of a financial institution in U.S. history (up until September 2008, that is) -- Charles Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan -- to the tune of $3.4 billion, thanks in part to McCain's intervention. Alan Rich nails it. Brilliant column on Saturday, about how Sarah Palin is making John McCain increasingl irrelevant, which is very worrisome due to her patently obvious ambitions for the presidency while being "preposterously unprepared" for such a nearly unthinkable event. [ Link to today's entries ]
The Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart. By Aden Nak.  Click to enlarge. I counted fifteen times that she either completely ignored the question and didn't answer it or else gave a three- to five-word non-answer and then changed the subject. I also counted ten outright lies (but AmericaBlog counted 18), plus at least nine uses of "maverick," eight "nuculars", four horrid winks and three "darn rights". Oh, and a "doggone it," but no "gosh." Dan won Palin Bingo diagonally with Alaska, Special Needs, the free Air Space, Hockey Mom and Terrorists. We drank Martinez, Alaska and Remember the Maine cocktails, plus some Four Roses Small Batch Bourbon, and per Robb's suggestion we put a bottle of Stoli on top of the TV during the debate, so that we could see Russia from the sofa. 
Biden really, really knew what he was talking about, while at the same time hammered McCain for his positions and plans, and had this great bit that was immediately made into a terrific Obama campaign commercial: Woohoo, are you ready to start having the value of your employer-provided health care benefits taxed as income? That's an extra $12,000 - 13,000 more to be taxed for most of us who have insurance, not even half of which will be covered by his ludicrous tax credit. That's not a "health care plan," that's a swindle. And that's just for starters. Palin couldn't help but seem to do well during the debate, due to the extremely low expectations set for her -- all she had to do was show up, speak into the camera and not pass out. She did a great job reciting the talking points from the flash card she'd been working with for the last week (and which she seemed to have with her; she was checking them constantly). But it's obvious that she couldn't really answer most of those questions other than with her robotic recitations from her training sessions. Poor Gov. Palin is in so very far over her head, and is so very far out of her league. That said, now that the punditry has declared that she did a good job and held her own, let's start seeing her do more interviews and talk shows! I want to see her on "Meet the Press" and "Face the Nation" right away, preferably this Sunday. But it'll never happen. She'll be confined to doing rallies and reading off the prompter, because that's really all she can do. But if she's elected, she thinks that she needs to expand the role of the vice president beyond even what Cheney's been doing. Nervous yet? [ Link to today's entries ]
Cocktail of the day. We're so looking forward to the vice presidential debate tonight. There was really only once choice.
Okay, you can leave out that garnish. I'll ... find another garnish and get back to ya! Murray said he'd be making this one tonight:
Hey, that sounds good. Make-Believe Maverick. John McCain tells some glowing stories about his own history and life. Tim Dickinson, in the current issue of Rolling Stone, did some digging and talking with people who knew him in school, at the Naval Academy, in the Navy and in the P.O.W. camp, and found something quite different: the real John McCain. Long, but a must-read. [ Link to today's entries ]
Oink! Our friend Audrey sent these moan-inducing pictures from her recent trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. Let's start with the one featuring the little shop that would have made my head swivel like Linda Blair in The Exorcist from across the street if I had spotted it: 
As you can see, the establishment is called "Oink." That pretty much tells me all I need to know. However, there is an annotation, a subtitle, an explanation of the oink, if you will: "delicious scottish hog roast rolls." My interest is now exponentiall higher. Then, peering inside the window, we see, written on a chalkboard, an even further description of what all this hog roll business is about:
Oh ... my. Then Audrey managed to get a close-up of the meat of the matter: 
Niiiiiice piggy. I could just reach into there with a fork and dig in. There's a tragic ending to the story, though. Audrey didn't get to eat at Oink! The blame falls on an uncooperative dining companion, who was apparently put off by the window display ... to which Audrey had her face plastered for so long that she was apparently asked to move along. I feel her pain. And I want a hog roll! The lurking Sugar Bear. Those of us of a certain age remember kids' breakfast cereals from our younger days, many of which actually had the word "sugar" in the name -- Sugar Smacks, Super Sugar Crisp, and the like. Remember that Frosted Flakes used to be Sugar Frosted Flakes. Now in the days of "healthier" cereals, all that sugar has been dropped from the brand names. Well, dropped from the brand names, but not from the cereals apparently. Consumer Reports' analysis of kids' cereals shows that some of them are as much as 50% sugar, with very little fiber. The two worst-rated cereals are Post Golden Crisp and Kellogg's Honey Smacks ... which used to be called Super Sugar Crisp and Sugar Smacks, respectively. "A serving of Honey Smacks has 15 grams of sugar -- 3 more grams than is found in a Dunkin' Donuts glazed doughnut. Golden Crisps has 14 grams of sugar in a 3/4 cup serving and less than 1 gram of fiber." The Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs that kept Calvin all hopped up in his comic strip isn't that much of an exaggeration, it seems. The cereal I eat these days has almost no sugar and tastes like proper push broom bristles, as it should! (Ehh, dump a bunch of berries and cinnamon on it and who can tell?) Hey, remember Quisp and Quake? I also remember getting Lucky Charms for breakfast when I was in first grade, until my mom read the packaging and started giving me Instant Breakfast - not quite the same. September Looka! entries have been permanently archived. [ Link to today's entries ]
|
, just looking through the flavor
charts. I knew I was on the right track when I went to Roma Italian Deli to get my ingredients, and Rosario asked me,
"So, whatta you makin'?" I told him, and he said, "Sounds beautiful!" I knew I was home free then. :-)
| 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 ©1994-2007 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.) |
