Sunday discoveries

Discovery of the day: Persphone pomegranate-flavoured vodka. We may have come as late to the party for flavoured vodkas as we did early to the soju soirée, but we're making up for it by seeking out the oddest we can find. It was monshu who discovered Hangar One Buddha's hand citron flavour (he tells me the kaffir lime is tasty too), but I like to think I've carried my weight by uncovering this elegant variety while marking time last Sunday. I'm not sure where it's distilled exactly (one of the ingredients is supposedly "Canadian spring water"), but the headquarters of the parent company is just the other side of Tower Grove Park from where my great-grandfather had his pre-Prohibition tavern on the South Side of St. Louis

We picked it up on a Sam's run today and made it the feature of our afternoon cocktail hour. The first thing we noticed is that it's drink-straight smooth, which make something of a bargain at about $21. It's not particularly sweet, but it is fruity, though you wouldn't necessarily identify the taste as pomegranate if you hadn't been informed. (In other words, about as far from grenadine as you can imagine.) In fact, the first thing it made me think of was Mao Tai, although without any of the spiciness or harshness. It made a lovely cosmo (which I immediately nicknamed a "necropolitan") and a tasty ginger martini, although the subtle flavour was overwhelmed by the crème de gingembre. The next step is to pick up some pomegranate juice and try some more complex blending.

First runner-up was orzotto--the real deal. What I've talked about before is a substitute made from orzo ("barley") pasta, a standby dish that was left behind when monshu moved to South Beach. Looking for a substitute, I Googled "orzotto" and found all about the Friulian barley-based risotto. That was a while ago, but we've had surprising trouble finding pearl barley around here. Today's unsuccessful printer search at North & Clybourn ended with a consolution visit to Whole Paycheck, where we found the barley and some terrific chicken-basil sausage to pair with it.

The texture takes getting used to. I've only every had barley in soup before, so eating it al dente is a new experience. It also took about twice as long to cook as pasta orzotto. Still, it's tasty enough and we'll make it again. (That is to say--knowing what I know now--next time I'll have monshu make it for us.)