Archive for the ‘Mixology’ Category

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“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 281

Wednesday, January 6th, 2021

This could possibly fall equally well under “travel”, but I decided to go the “food” route today.

This should not have surprised me, but yet it did: there is a Charles Dickens Museum. And yes, they do have a YouTube channel.

It is a little late for this year (although the Christmas season actually ends tonight), but maybe for next year: “The Original Victorian Christmas Pudding Recipe”.

Are you hungry yet? How about some Victorian gingerbread?

We can wash it down with “Charles Dickens’s Favourite Brandy Punch Recipe”.

And finally, “Toasted Cheese with the Dickenses”. Complete with Victorian cheese toaster. This is a real thing that exists, and I kind of want one now.

Posted in Books, Christmas, Food, History, Mixology, Museums | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 275

Thursday, December 31st, 2020

New Year’s Eve, the night when all the amateur drunks are out on the road. These seem fitting. (We’ll do Travel Thursday on Friday again this week.)

Shot: From the Laphroaig Whisky channel, a tour of the Laphroaig distillery.

Chaser: “Space Driving Tactics”. This has nothing to do with Star Wars (though if you want that, I assume you’ve seen Ian’s video) but is instead a 1971 driver’s ed film about the importance of allowing space so you can react to the drivers around you. This seems especially important on a night like tonight.

Posted in Cars, History, Mixology | Comments Closed

The Greatest Cellar on Earth.

Thursday, October 1st, 2020

Well, not really. But this is a surprisingly non-annoying NYT article from a few days ago about “dusty hunters”: people who search for unopened bottles of vintage liquor.

The most well-known dusty hunter today might be Eric Witz, 42, a senior production editor at the MIT Press, who posts his scores on Instagram at @aphonik, often with detailed analysis of the origins of each bottle. A lover of antiques and enthusiast of cocktail history, he began dusty hunting around 2010 with the purchase of a 1940s bottle of Forbidden Fruit, a strange grapefruit-and-honey liqueur which has not been on the market for decades. Mr. Witz collects not just whiskey, the obsession of most current dusty hunters, but vintage rum, brandy and Chartreuse, all of which are soaring in value at the moment.
“I love the idea of being able to taste something that was made a few generations ago,” he said. Spirits have a higher alcohol proof than wine, so they don’t really age in the bottle or go bad; in that way, they are like drinkable time capsules. In fact, most all dusty hunters believe vintage spirits are superior in taste to what is being made today, even if they can’t quite explain why. Maybe better quality materials and more artisanal production methods were being used back then, maybe international beverage conglomerates weren’t yet mucking up quality, or maybe something magical is happening in the glass over all these years.

Tying the article together is a guy who bought the contents of Cecil B. DeMille’s cellar.

There were 10 bottles of Old Overholt Rye barreled in 1936, five bottles of 1930s Belmont Bottled in Bond, bottles of Kentucky Tavern, J.W. Dant and Old Taylor bourbons, some 1930s Jameson Irish whiskey, Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin champagne from 1929, and a near-flawless case of extremely rare Green River Straight Bourbon Whiskey from 1936.

…

DeMille’s longtime neighbor in Little Tujunga Canyon was Jean-Baptiste “J.B.” Leonis, a banker and liquor importer who founded the city of Vernon. Sensing that Prohibition was on the horizon, in the early 1920s he began to stash booze in a 10-bolt bank vault behind a trick bookcase. In 2017, upon the death of Leonis’ grandson, Leonis C. Malburg, the collection was finally unearthed, featuring numerous pint bottles of Old Crow distilled in 1912, Hermitage Bottled in Bond whiskey distilled in 1914, and rye bottled specifically for the iconic Biltmore Hotel. Staff members at Christie’s Auction House were stunned when it sold at auction for $640,000 in 2018.

Posted in History, Mixology, Movies | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 169

Tuesday, September 15th, 2020

I feel like opening the liquor cabinet.

Anthony Bourdain makes a Negroni.

The Negroni has been a favorite cocktail of mine during my Wednesday night drinking bouts. One of the online sources I’ve been using suggests shaking rather than stirring.

Next up: of course, the Sidecar. With a diversion into why you should use quality ingredients.

I kind of like this guy. He doesn’t seem to be putting on a YouTube persona, unlike a lot of the other cocktail video makers. As a wrap-up, here’s another one of his: this time, on the Moscow Mule, another one of my go-to Wednesday night cocktails.

There seem to be people who think you should make your own ginger syrup. I’m just a simple home drinker who works 40 hours a week and doesn’t have time to mess with that, so I use a good quality bottled ginger beer. I’ve had good luck with Fever-Tree, but I’m out of that at the moment, and am thinking Fentimans might be worth trying if I can get my hands on some. (I’ve been using Tito’s vodka, not because it is local, but because it seems like a decent vodka that doesn’t break the bank or give you hangovers.)

Posted in Mixology | Comments Closed

Obit watch: January 16, 2020.

Thursday, January 16th, 2020

Gladys Bourdain, Anthony Bourdain’s mom.

Anthony Bourdain became a hard-living chef, and in the late 1990s he wrote an article chronicling the seamier secrets of life in the restaurant business. He was struggling to publish it in 1999 when Ms. Bourdain mentioned to him that she knew a Times reporter, Esther Fein, who was married to David Remnick, the newly minted editor of The New Yorker magazine.
“She came over, and she said, ‘You know, your husband’s got this new job,’” Ms. Fein (who left The Times in 1999) said on Monday. “‘I hate to sound like a pushy mom, but I’m telling you this with my editor’s hat on, not my mother’s hat on. It’s really good, and it’s really interesting, but nobody will look at it, nobody will call him back or give it a second look. Could you put it in your husband’s hands?’”
Ms. Fein persuaded Mr. Remnick to read the article, and The New Yorker published it under the title “Don’t Eat Before Reading This.” Mr. Bourdain later said that he had a book deal in a matter of days after that.

Matty Maher, of McSorley’s Old Ale House.

Mr. Maher, who could trace his career at McSorley’s to a bit of end-of-the-rainbow serendipity in Ireland, began by tending bar at the saloon in 1964 as an Irish immigrant.
He graduated to manager as the beer hall, surrounded by neighborhood blight near the Bowery, tottered at the brink of bankruptcy; survived the loss of a gender discrimination case in 1970 that forced McSorley’s to delete the last two words of its durable slogan vowing “Good Ale, Raw Onions, and No Ladies”; and endured a Health Department ordinance that, while it banned smoking, had the unintended consequence, Mr. Maher said, of encouraging customers to drink more.

Gary Starkweather, inventor of the laser printer.

And finally, Nelson Bryant, outdoor writer for the NYT for nearly 40 years.

I know: who knew the paper of record had an outdoor writer? But they did from 1967 to 2005.

Challenged occasionally by readers who objected to killing animals and urged him to use a camera instead, Mr. Bryant responded by calling hunting “honorable” and noting that he ate what he killed. He suggested ways to prepare fish and fowl for the table, and illustrated columns with photographs he took.

Posted in Media, Mixology, Obits | Comments Closed

Bagatelle (#12)

Friday, May 17th, 2019

With the Preakness Stakes running this weekend, I got to wondering:

The iconic cocktail of the Kentucky Derby is a mint julep, right? What’s the iconic cocktail of the Preakness? And the Belmont?

Since the Preakness is run in Baltimore (for now) I would have expected the iconic cocktail to be heroin. Or a 40 in a brown paper bag.

According to Wikipedia, the source of all vaguely accurate information, I may not have been too far off. Until 2009, the race was “bring your own booze”, “formerly including kegs of beer but in the 2000s restricted to all the beer cans a person could carry in a cooler.” After 2009, something called “InfieldFest” was established, where you could buy a beer mug with unlimited refills.

But there is an official cocktail: the Black-Eyed Susan, “made with vodka, St-Germain liqueur and pineapple, lime and orange juices.” Here’s a 2018 article from Newsweek that calls for “one part bourbon, one part vodka, one part peach schnapps, two parts orange juice and two parts sour mix”, shaken with ice and served over crushed ice “with an orange wedge and cherries for garnish”. Newsweek also links to recipes from “US Racing” and the Washington Post if you want to descend down that rabbit hole.

And the Belmont Stakes? Recent history is troubled. It appears that up until 1997, the official drink was something called the “White Carnation“. In 1997, the official drink changed to the “Belmont Breeze“. That, in turn, got replaced by the “Belmont Jewel” in 2011, which at least has the virtue of simplicity.

Tragically, I have plans for Saturday, so I can’t drink my way through the Preakness. But my readers are welcome to, if they wish. Just don’t drink and race: your horse might hit a bump and spill your drink.

Posted in Bagatelle, Horses, Mixology | Comments Closed

Tweet of the day.

Tuesday, February 19th, 2019

Obligatory:

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Quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore (#5 in a series).

Saturday, January 19th, 2019

I’m not going to do a full Lawrence here, but I want to mention a couple of interesting things I’ve found at Half-Price Books recently:

Not much to say about this one: anybody who knows me well, or even regularly reads this blog, understands why I had to pick this one up.

Spoiler: that “bizarre menace” is…LSD.

I actually already have, and have read, The Ravens, and rather liked it. (Christoper Robbins also wrote Air America, which the Robert Downey Jr./Mel Gibson movie was based on.) But prices on this seem to be all over the place, and I thought it might be worth taking a flyer on for $7.99…

…and then I took a look at the title page:

If you can’t read it, this appears to have been signed to somebody named “Chris” by multiple former Ravens. I think this is kind of nifty, and will probably hang onto this copy. (I might flip the other one.) I don’t think the “Chris” in question is the author, as he died in London in 2012, and his bio doesn’t say anything about military service. I suspect there’s a sad story behind this ending up at HPB that I don’t really want to think about, but I hope wherever “Chris” is, he knows that someone values his book.

Also, just to drive one or two of my friends crazy: I picked up some more Jack O’Connor. The two volume Hunting on Three Continents, which I found for $14.99 (minus 20% because it was after Christmas), and the Jim Casada edited The Lost Classics of Jack O’Connor. which I probably overpaid for. But both are in mint shape. I actually do not remember if I already have Lost Classics, but if I find it in one of the boxes I’ll flip it. I know I didn’t have Three Continents previously: that was a real find.

Probably the next thing I’m going to curl up with, though, is Drinking with the Saints: The Sinner’s Guide to a Holy Happy Hour which was a Christmas gift from my beloved and indulgent sister.

Posted in Books, Guns, History, Mixology, TV | Comments Closed

Headline of the day.

Thursday, July 12th, 2018

The best Austin bar for every Myers-Briggs personality type

A quick skim of the article does not reveal that they picked the best Austin bar for “I think Myers-Briggs personality types are a bunch of f—ing bull—t.” My personal favorite in that regard was the original Horseshoe Lounge: where they checked you for weapons at the door, and if you didn’t have any, they loaned you one.

Posted in Mixology | Comments Closed

Random notes toward an after action report: Dallas.

Tuesday, May 8th, 2018

This is a catch-all for random and undifferentiated thoughts that didn’t make it into my previous NRAAM reports. I’ll put in a jump, since this is running long…

(more…)

Posted in asus_eee, Bluetooth, Books, Clothing, Geek, Guns, Hats, linux, Mixology, Photography, project_e, Radio, Shirts | Comments Closed

TMQ Watch: January 2, 2018.

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018

Yeah, we can’t believe it, either. We want to try on our best Don LaFontaine voice. “In the future world of 2018…”

And that’s as far as we’ve gotten. “…you will believe that a famous chef sends out an apology for sexual harassment that includes his recipe for cinnamon buns“? Nobody would believe that.

“You will believe that Gregg Easterbrook watched football on New Year’s Eve”? That might work.

After the jump, this week’s TMQ…

(more…)

Posted in Mixology, Movies, NFL, Sports, TMQ watch | Comments Closed

Christmas giving note.

Wednesday, December 20th, 2017

I know we are inexorably drawing closer and closer to Christmas. I hope most, if not all, of you have your Christmas shopping done.

For the record, if you do not have your Christmas shopping done, and if you are, for reasons I cannot fathom, looking for a Christmas present for your humble blogger: please do not purchase this book for me. Thank you.

(If you do have someone in your life who is not cat allergic and likes spirituous liquor, Amazon does have this available with Prime shipping, so you can get it before Christmas. And there is even a Kindle edition, if you need to fill a gap on Christmas Day.)

Posted in Books, Christmas, Kindleing, Mammals, Mixology | Comments Closed

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