Almost time to drink my eggnog!

I mentioned aged eggnog a while back, and have some made and aging in the fridge right now.

By the end of November it will have been 3 weeks, and time to sample it for the first time... I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

I will let you know how it is :)

Aged Eggnog

I noticed an article in the current Seattle Magazine that mentioned ageing eggnog. I'd never heard of this before, being a somewhat recent transplant to the Northern reaches of the world. For some reason, in South Africa, we never really got into eggnog, what with the 36+ degree C summer weather over Christmas!

The basic idea presented in the article was to put the eggnog (with alcohol) in a cool location - the author used her unheated garage. Now, my garage seems to stay around 45 degrees F in winter (at the coolest), so this seems like a dangerous thing to do. Surely the eggs will grow some funky bacteria?

Not so, according to this article on Chow.com: Old but not lethal
They do recommend using the fridge, not the garage, though!

Bogart Recipe

Here's a recipe for a yummy cocktail served at the Big Picture in Redmond. I'm posting it here so that I can find it in the future when I forget the recipe - it's easy to make at home (assuming you have fresh sage leaves).

Ingredients:
1 measure Gin
1/2 measure Triple-sec
1 measure Margarita mix
2 fresh sage leaves

Put a few ice cubes in a shaker, add the gin and triple-sec and sage leaves, and muddle well. Add the Margarita mix, shake, and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a sage leaf if desired.

"New Orleans is drinking better"

This is one of the interesting news snippets you get for friending New Orleans on Facebook: An article in the LA Times titled "New Orleans is drinking better lately". And the obligatory teaser:

Anyone invoking the world's great drinking cities has to place New Orleans pretty close to the top.It's the birthplace of Peychaud's bitters and Southern Comfort, of the Sazerac and the Ramos gin fizz. And it has a long-standing absinthe legacy, including in 2007 being the first port of entry for the liquor since it was outlawed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1912. Not a bad inheritance.

However, the cocktail revolution sweeping New York, San Francisco and Chicago -- the speak-easies and fedora-sporting bartenders alchemizing booze into transcendent mixology -- has been slow to come to town. But a new crop of bars and bartenders are giving the Big Easy's drinking scene a decidedly upscale flavor.

On Sazeracs...

One of the things I did in New Orleans a few months ago was become acquainted with the Sazerac, an "old-fashioned" cocktail. The "official" website and recipe are here: http://www.sazerac.com/cocktail.aspx. Wiki has some good info too.

The traditional drink should be made with (good) rye whiskey, Peychaud's bitters and Herbsaint (a pastis, like Pernod). Absinthe can also be used, and there are a few now available in the USA, even some made near us in Seattle.

What is odd, though, is that ordering this drink outside New Orleans is a bit like trying to find Marmite outside the Commonwealth.

About 50% of the places I try ordering one have no clue how to make it. I guess this is not too surprising, since the cocktail is not "in vogue", and many other old-fashioned cocktails have fallen by the wayside. I've also had more than one person say that Absinthe is still banned/illegal in the USA... :)

There are a few places that know what a Sazerac is, and mix a good one. I was very pleased when the friendly barman at Pazzo in Portland sid he knew the recipe. He warned me that he did not have Peychaud's bitters, but they had some that were made in-house by the chef. The resulting drink was pretty close to the ones I had in New Orleans.

I'll update this with any other success stories...

The long, slow death of Zima

From Slate, an interesting look at the evolution and gradual demise of this much-maligned beverage. "Tinfoil soaked in Fresca" indeed...

Green Tea is "in"

Slate has an interesting article on America's current obsession with all things green tea. I agree that the hype is over-the-top and the marketing behind some green-tea products is mind-boggling.

My favourite dumb add featuring green tea is the one for Snapple's green-tea drink, where a hapless young man treks to China to find out what EGCG is. The use of nutritional jargon and acronyms is an interesting marketing ploy - green tea must be good if it has a cool compound with a complicated name (so complicated we need an acronym, and so cool that nutritionists have researched it). "Let's not mention it's flavour, or how refreshing it is... let's just tell folks it has tons of EGCG!"

Now, I'll be happy if green tea actually has health benefits - I drink some almost every day. But the reason I drink it is that I enjoy it. I'm not going to pop green-tea pills, or use green-tea soap, just because it's the hot new thing...

Seattle food and bar news

I'm recovering from a fun weekend, and thought I'd share some raves about the places I've been to recently, and also list some of the new places in Seattle I found out about, but have yet to try.

Been there:

1. Rover's. Wow! This food here is absolutely fantastic! One of the other guests at our table had been to the Herb Farm, and said Rover's was much better. It's also less expensive (although definitely still pricey). A and I had the 5-course vegetarian menu, and I added a scrambled egg with creme fraiche and caviar. Being a total glutton I also went for a flight of wines paired with each of the 5 courses - good value at $50 (the pours were generous, and the wines were all good to excellent). I'll definitely be back once or twice a year for a special treat...
2. Union Square Grill. Lovely art-deco decor and comfy booths. Fairly aged clientelle and a focus on standard grill fare make this a little too reserved and staid for my liking. The food was pretty good, especially the wild mushroom phyllo appetizer. The heavily salted salmon main course I had was a let-down, though...
3. Union. We ended up here for dessert after a show on Saturday, and I was really impressed! The service was exceptional - friendly, efficient and with some fun banter between us and the waitress: SNL need to do a "Jaegermeister shots at the symphony" sketch in our honour. Their desserts are excellent - a worthy replacement for our old dessert venue, Earth & Ocean. (And sadly, Coco La Ti Da has closed down).

Places to check out:

1. The Bottleneck Lounge is a new bar in Capitol Hill. They supposedly serve (only?) South African wine, which is unusual.
2. The Georgetown Liquor Company is a "retro-gaming bar". They have a 100% veggie menu, which is fine by me!

Cappellano Barolo Chinato

I have been eyeing an intersting bottle of wine for a few months, and decided to treat myself last week. The Cappellano Barolo Chinato is an interesting digestive, similar to Italian amaro liqueuer like Ramazzotti, Averna and China Martini. The medicinal taste comes from an infusion of herbs and "china" bark (quinine). Some people think averna's taste like cough syrup - I think they're great. (Some of the Washington State liquor stores even have them, which is cool).

It turns out that this fortified wine is actually the pre-cursor to the amaro liqueuers listed above. (For more info see here) It's an interesting beast - created by Giuseppe Cappellano, a chemist who loved barolo wine and believed in its "therapeutic benefits" when drunk well aged. (As opposed to being a well-aged drunk?)

Other interesting ingredients are clove, wormwood and cinnamon. Yes, wormwood. As in absinthe. I thought wormwood was verboten nowadays, but it turns out it's used to make vermouth and many other drinks and medicines. It turns out absinthe's bad rap is largely a myth. Anyway, back to the chinato...

I opened the bottle and had a small glass after dinner, and really enjoyed it. It's definitely not as sweet and syrupy as the amaro liqueuers. The barolo wine definitely is evident - a sappy, juicy tang under the herbal and medicinal flavours. Very smooth and non-tannic. I hope it lasts well once open (being fortified, it should).

Some of you may be wondering how a young(ish) South African guy got introduced to amaro liqueuer in the first place. I have my uncle to thank for that - he lived in France for a few years, getting trained by the company providing the systems to run the Koeberg nuclear power station. During this time he managed to visit family in Italy who introduced him to China Martini. (The French family introduced him to the bridge-like card game, Tarot. But that's best saved for a future entry.)

When he came back to South Africa, he brought some China Martini with him, and got the rest of us hooked. At one point it was actually quite easy to find it available in bottle stores in South Africa (not sure about now, but it should be easier than then, if anything).

The Pinotage Club

(From Spittoon): Wine writer Peter May recently launched a blog dedicated to Pinotage (the uniquely South African grape variety).

I was pleased to see that Pinotage is being grown outside SA (in New Zealand and the US, based on the articles on the blog). Horton Vineyards, a US winery, plan to launch their first Pinotage next year.

Updated: 1/9/2007. Fixed Peter's name - thanks for the correction!

Lillet, Kina Lillet...

From this article on IOL, it looks like the new James Bond film has caused increased interest in Lillet.

On-screen Bonds have usually ordered a "vodka martini - shaken, not stirred". But in Casino Royale, which premiered earlier this month, actor Daniel Craig lists Bordeaux aperitif Lillet as an ingredient of the spy's favourite tipple."Three measures of Gordon's (gin), one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet, shake it over ice then add a thin slice of lemon peel," Bond asks a waiter as he duels with his adversary in a high-stakes game of poker.

That repeat of the recipe from Ian Fleming's first Bond novel has prompted viewers to contact the firm, which has just seven staff and has dropped the word Kina from its name.