 
 "Eating, drinking and carrying on..." -- Adelaide Brennan
Finally getting to Anvil! Those of you who follow the Houston-based cocktail weblog Drink Dogma will have heard the good news that Bobby Heugel and his partners finally opened Anvil Bar & Refuge in Houston, a truly aptly-named refuge for cocktailians who for the most part have a difficult time finding a good drink in that city. I've been following their progress on their blog for months, and now that I'm in Houston for the next four days to visit family, a trip to Anvil is tops on my list (after playing with my nephew and niece, of course). Here's a video report from Blockcast TV, who last month were making the rounds of Houston bars, and paid Bobby a visit at Anvil. Anvil also got a nice mention in Gourmet magazine, too. I'm due for my visit on Sunday -- with luck and a banishment of procrastination, I should have some great drink porn up by Monday. [ Link to today's entries ]
Doc's book to be revised and re-released! Major huge big ol' cocktail book news, kids. The ever-amazing Ted Haigh, better known to the world of imbibing as Dr. Cocktail (cocktail historian, archaeologist, expert, teller of tales and epic drinker), wrote a book which was published in 2003 and quickly became indispensible. It is arguably responsible for the reappearance of a great number of truly forgotten (yet wonderful) cocktails in both homes and bars across our fair planet. Sadly, as great as it was, the book (as things happen) was not quite what Ted was hoping for. He didn't get to write as much history about each drink as he wished, due to short deadlines and huge projects in his day job as one of the best graphic designers in the moving picture biz. He had no control over the photography. Plus, it was a paperback that wouldn't lie flat on the bar (and you know how important that bit is). Then a couple of years ago the frakking publisher dropped it out of print! Very quickly copies started going on eBay for between $75 and $100 for what was once a $14 book. Not long after he started talking about wanting to do a revised edition, and for that we were assured that we'd
have to wait. Happily, the wait will soon be over. On July 1, 2009 (just in time for Tales of the Cocktail, coinkydinkally) we get the book
back again, and then some.
Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails: From the Alamagoozlum to the Zombie, 100 Rediscovered Recipes and the Stories Behind Them
Here's what Ted told us in email this week:
To which I can only respond ... holy bejeebies! Hold onto your hats, folks -- this will be made of pure, unadulterated awesome. (And I add that I am honored and humbled that Ted saw fit to include me in that new section about cocktails and the Internetss, and for that I thank him from the bottom of my heart and liver.) Preorder now at the above link if you like, and it'll be there in less than two weeks! Rachel Maddow makes us a Jack Rose. You may have heard that Rachel's one of us -- an inveterate cocktailian. She's serious and she (mostly) knows her stuff. She's spot-on about not using the applejack-branded product -- use Laird's bonded apple brandy or else Calvados. (She even uses our house brand!) But for ghawd's sake, don't use that grenadine-stuff from the bottle. Make your own. It's easy, cheap and a thousand times better. It was bound to happen. My newest blog discovery ... as I note that the percentage of my close friends who are Jewish but who also love bacon and pork products of all kinds is one hundred. Ladies and gentlemen ... it's The Baconjew. It's a swine of the times! It's Treyf-o-rama! [ Link to today's entries ]
Cocktails of the day: Minty Goodness. A couple of weeks ago I got into a little online tête-à-têete with Chris Amirault of eGullet when he asked for suggestions for a mint cocktail he could have when he got home. "Don't say 'Mojito,' please," he added. I extended that to juleps too, since that's a bit obvious, and started mulling over the idea of a smash, a rum smash in particular. More on that in a moment. I have a difficult history with mint in cocktails. I have come to love mint in its fresh form, yet continue to find most if not all mint-based liqueurs to be revolting. I even used to find mint juleps to be revolting, but that was because it was many, many years before I'd ever had a good one, and on a number of occasions I'd tried it I'd been served very poor imposters made with mint syrup (but, thank all the forces in the Cosmos, never an abomination like this). All it takes, though is a good (or great) bartender to make you a proper mint julep, and the world of mint is your oyster. (Not only is this Cocktail of the Day, it's also Mixed Metaphor of the Day.) Chris ended up settling on the Southside Cocktail, one that oddly enough I'd never had, and specifically the version made by Toby Maloney of The Violet Hour in Chicago. There are a number of various recipes for this drink, some calling for lemon (although most bartenders seem to use lime), and Dale DeGroff even calls for it to be topped with soda. I think I like Toby's version the best.
Toby participated in an excellent eGullet thread on the Southside a while back, where he explained the evolution of how he came to make the cocktail the way it is (including the non-traditional addition of bitters, which he quite rightly says goes with gin "like ham and eggs"). It's still a good drink without bitters, but with ... it is the yum! Some recipes call for it with a splash of soda to top it off in a cocktail glass, others call for making it into a long drink, like a Collins with mint. One person on eGullet suggested making it from a fizz into a royale by topping it with Champagne instead of soda. Toby adds that if you do you use Champagne, "don't forget to bump the simple about 1/2 ounce for every 2-3 ounces of Champers, as Champagne dries cocktails out." One of the eGulleters noted that this drink is a perfect way to get the ginphobic vodka crowd to drink a gin-bearing cocktail. I agree, and so did Toby -- he noted that when he put it on The Violet Hour's menu, they sold it as a "gateway" gin cocktail (which is exatly the term I like to use). He added, "Many times, when requested to make it with vodka the bartender or server would recommend that it be made with 'this great botanical, citrus infused vodka we had.' It would then be made with Plymouth gin. Always a hit." (Hah! "Great botanical-and-citrus-infused vodka ... I am so stealing that.) I got myself all distracted with this lovely cocktail and had forgotten completely about my own suggestion, which I tried the next night. It's a variation on the venerable Whiskey Smash, with rum as the base and Créole Shrubb instead of cura¸ao, and is kind of a riff on Max's Creole Julep, the official cocktail of Tales of the Cocktail this year.
Hmm, not bad! The genius that is Michael Ruhlman (and his genius son James).
I'm really looking forward to Ruhlman's new book
Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking
(I love this kid already.)
I agree with James. My sister does too, apparently -- she said, "Feel free to recreate this when you come to visit next week!" I think I shall. The best button in the world. Speaks for itself. 
A friend of mine knew someone who took this image, had a bunch of stickers made up and put them on bathroom hand dryers everywhere he went. Brilliant (but inevitably leading to bitter disappointment of people who ... would eat bacon that was dispensed in a bathroom). Geek Haiku of the Day. As seen on Think Geek, one of my favorite places to order toys and fun stuff (even useful stuff!):
Shiny. [ Link to today's entries ]
Mixology Monday XL: Ginger. Good gawd, I cannot believe it's Mixology Monday again. Time is whooshing by so fast I'll be in the rest home before I know it. I'd better hurry up -- there's a lot of drinking to do before then. 
The theme for this month's MxMo is ginger, and it's hosted by my good friend Matt, known to the drinking masses as The Rumdood. Matt specifies the theme and instructions thusly: "Find or concoct a cocktail recipe that uses ginger in one of its many forms as an ingredient. This can be muddled ginger, sliced ginger, ginger syrup, ginger beer (commercial or homemade), ginger liqueur, ginger candy, or pieces of a shredded photo of Ginger from Gilligan's Island." I must apologize to my regular readers (all five of you!) for repeating a cocktail post a mere six
months down the line, but I had one on hand -- an original, no less -- that fit right into the theme, and I was way too godsdamned
This was one that was created for the Los Angeles Downtown Sub-District Cocktail Contest, in which each of the 17 sub-districts of downtown Los Angeles was going to get its own cocktail. (I know, it's crazy, but we're a crazy bunch.) The Rules: A stirred cocktail using a base spirit, modifying vermouth, liqueur (i.e. Bénédictine, Curaçao, etc.) or sweetening agent, and some type of bitter. No citrus. (Citrus is plentiful in L.A. and it's too easy; we didn't want a whole bunch of sours either.) Also, ingredients had to be readily available, meaning no homemade ingredients or extremely, obscure hard to find ingredients. The idea was to be able to make these on a regular basis and promote making them around the city, or at least around the bigger downtown bars, so they should be somewhat approachable. Entrants were encouraged to do some research on the history of the district they were aiming for, to help the drink reflect both the past and present in that district I decided to go for the Toy District, bordered by 3rd Street on the north and 5th Street on the south, Los Angeles Street on the west and San Pedro Street on the east. It's filled with myriad shops for inexpensive toys, trinkets, and you-name-it. It's also pretty bustling, at least during the day. For years one of my best friends lived in a loft in the Toy District, and there we did lots of eating, drinking and carrying on. (Good, good times.) Besides the personal inspiration, I did a bit of digging and found out some interesting things about the neighborhood. Before the wave of immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and elsewhere in Asia arrived to make the Toy District into what we know it to be today, the neighborhood was "filled with the colorful sights and fragrant smells of old Greece", according to the Los Angeles Times, and was known as Greek Town. The city's first Greek restaurant was on 4th Street, with Kalamata olive oil importers a few doors down. There were 65 Greek businesses clustered in the area, although few remain today and all but two of the original buildings have been razed. I chose one of my base spirits, Metaxa, to reflect the flavors of the community in old Greek Town, augmenting it with rye whiskey to give it balance, to help keep the very floral Metaxa from taking over (which it has a tendency to do), a sturdier backbone and to reflect my love of the downtown drinking scene (I like to drink whiskey in downtown bars). The bitter component is Amaro Ramazzotti, complementing the floral notes of the Metaxa with bitter orange and fragrant spice (plus, the Romans had pretty much all the same gods as the Greeks). Lillet is there to help bring the flavors together, and to reflect the presence of fabulous French dip sandwiches a few blocks away. A muddled slice of ginger, as well as the ginger garnish, reflects the current Asian population of the Toy District and gives the drink a bit of brightness and zing. Okay, I'm being silly with some of the symbolism there, but I wanted a Greek spirit and thought it'd taste good with the Italian amaro (wonderful stuff -- I love amaro in cocktails, as you can probably tell), and the other ingredients were chosen for taste and balance. I worked on this for about three days, and Wes and I drank most of the not-quites. (Hence, we were fairly shitfaced on the Friday and Saturday of drink-testing weekend for the contest.) I'm pretty happy with the result. 
I was wary of bringing in the Greek ingredient -- it seemed as if it'd have to be either ouzo (a bit too obvious, I thought) or Metaxa, and both of them can be too overpowering. I think this drink achieved what I was going for and managed a balance between some pretty strong flavors. Hope you enjoy! [ Link to today's entries ]
Eek. Busy busy busy! Not what Bokononists whisper when they think about how complicated and unpredictable the machinery of life really is, just me over the last couple of weeks. I have a backlog of stuff and I'll start trickling it out. I hope you haven't forgotten the blog exists. I know, 13 days is eons on the Internetss. Memes have come and gone during such relatively geological passages of time! Bittermens Bitters are out!!
Just in time for my return to weblogging is the huge news that the long awaited
There was mention in the press release that in the coming months there'll be worldwide distribution so that we'll see both The Bitter Truth and Bittermens bitters in retail shops and bars more readily. Until then ordering from Germany is your only recourse, with steep shipping (the package I just ordered, four bottles and a t-shirt, ran me €23, eep). For bitters freaks like me, though, it's very much worth it. And we all need our The Bitter Truth/Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters to make our Eagle Rock cocktails at the very least! Can't wait to try that in a Manhattan too, mmmm. Congratulations Avery & Janet! And thanks Stephan & Alex! P.S. -- The NYT link above includes a recipe for Regans' Orange Bitters No. 5 (the commercial product is No. 6), if you want to take a whack at making bitters at home. If you haven't done so, give it a try. It's relatively easy and fun, and might just spark your creativity to whip up an original house bitters recipe. Rock 'n rye baby, on the tree top ... OK, that's not how it really goes, but in my household it kinda did. I suppose I'm only speaking to those of us of a certain age, but ... remember rock 'n rye? It was available bottled from a number of spirits companies, and in its simplest form is just rye whiskey mixed with rock candy for sweetener. Why not just use simple syrup? Well, as Eric Felten notes in his regular Wall Street Journal column, using rock candy as a sweetener keeps the proof high, as the water in simple syrup would reduce it. Why not just use granulated sugar? Well ... um, because it's messy, I guess. Rock and rye was also hailed (perhaps someone dubiously) for its medicinal uses as a cough suppressant. I can't vouch for any kind of medical research, but I can say from personal experience that when I was a little kid, keeping my parents up at night with coughing, my dad would fetch a bottle of rock and rye, pour a tablespoon or so of it, administer it to me and BAM! Before you knew it, I was snoozing soundly and not coughing. Miracle drug, that. (When rock and rye became less and less available, Dad switched to Southern Comfort. That's when it started to creep into the territory of Nasty Medicine.) LeNell Smothers offers us her own recipe for Rock and Rye, which even includes a horehound herbal tea bag for actual cough suppressant value. I'm gonna make a batch of this very soon, both to relive my childhood and expand the horizons of my adulthood. And it's so tasty, too! Just like candy! (I will definitely be one of the happy peppy people who will not pop out at parties, nor will I be unpoopular.) May Looka! entries have been permanently archived. [ Link to today's entries ]
|
. I've enjoyed every single one of his books, and this one
might just have the most practical uses yet. Ruhlman invokes one of his easy-to-remember ratios in describing the
genius that runs through this family: 
| 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 ©1994-2009 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.) |
