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Aug. 22nd, 2010 09:44 pm
Reconciled
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his_regard came by and served as a Special Cocktail Consultant for what to do with some of the more difficult liquors in our cabinet. One of these is the North Shore Aquavit, which monshu surprised me by bringing home in a rush of enthusiasm after tasting a house cocktail made with it at In Fine Spirits. His suggestion was to use it as a substitute for absinthe. Hard to believe I don't have any, isn't it? Pastis, as I've found, is not a good substitute; it tends to overwhelm the drink with loads of anise and not much else.
He didn't have any immediate suggestions for the Geai bleu which I brought back from Canada, but to my surprise he pronounced it less sweet and syrupy than the Sortilège that he enjoys neat. We tried mixing it with limoncello and found that it basically erased the blueberry notes. Hmm. He knows his Koval and his Haus Alpenz, but his suggestion for Vana Tallinn was simply "I drink it in coffee. And hot chocolate." As for the Ransom Old Tom, that's a puzzler that may have resolved itself, since I finally got around to trying the Martinez, as recommended in the Oh Gosh! cocktail blog, and it is good. Also surprisingly strong for a drink which incorporates twice as much fortified wine as gin.
Or maybe I just had too light a lunch. We made up for that at dinnertime, though, with a hearty squash soup designed to use up the last of the ham from two weeks ago. As tasty as it was, it was lacking a little something--which turned out to be fresh sage from the garden. It was a summery twist on what's really a very fall dish. We were very lucky, since he conceived of it before the weather turned and I find it hard to imagine enjoying it as much on a sticky day like yesterday.
Not too sticky to take in the last free concert in Millennium Park, however. Tuppers was very put out by some of the bad behaviour around us (particularly Armpit Sniffing Overall Daddy and the Cell Phone Snapshot Women), but I go expecting that, so it was copacetic. Nuphy was there, too, and pronounced it better than the night before, when the humidity was so bad it pushed the strings out of tune. As a bonus, I got to see his daughter, who was attending a wedding reception downtown, then we all went off to the Gage, where Tuppers stunned me somewhat by devouring most of a Scotch egg and a bowl of fried chicken livers.
I wasn't in the mood for that much grease, so I limited myself to a drink which despite being called a "gin fizz" had very little of either. At first, all I could taste was the whiskey, but it got sweeter as I went, so I'm left wondering if it simply wasn't mixed very well.his_regard tells me I need to check out one of the frou-frou cocktail lounges in town if only to marvel at the mixmasters' art. Sounds like a project for cooler weather, when the long pants at long last come out of storage.
his_regard came by and served as a Special Cocktail Consultant for what to do with some of the more difficult liquors in our cabinet. One of these is the North Shore Aquavit, which monshu surprised me by bringing home in a rush of enthusiasm after tasting a house cocktail made with it at In Fine Spirits. His suggestion was to use it as a substitute for absinthe. Hard to believe I don't have any, isn't it? Pastis, as I've found, is not a good substitute; it tends to overwhelm the drink with loads of anise and not much else.He didn't have any immediate suggestions for the Geai bleu which I brought back from Canada, but to my surprise he pronounced it less sweet and syrupy than the Sortilège that he enjoys neat. We tried mixing it with limoncello and found that it basically erased the blueberry notes. Hmm. He knows his Koval and his Haus Alpenz, but his suggestion for Vana Tallinn was simply "I drink it in coffee. And hot chocolate." As for the Ransom Old Tom, that's a puzzler that may have resolved itself, since I finally got around to trying the Martinez, as recommended in the Oh Gosh! cocktail blog, and it is good. Also surprisingly strong for a drink which incorporates twice as much fortified wine as gin.
Or maybe I just had too light a lunch. We made up for that at dinnertime, though, with a hearty squash soup designed to use up the last of the ham from two weeks ago. As tasty as it was, it was lacking a little something--which turned out to be fresh sage from the garden. It was a summery twist on what's really a very fall dish. We were very lucky, since he conceived of it before the weather turned and I find it hard to imagine enjoying it as much on a sticky day like yesterday.
Not too sticky to take in the last free concert in Millennium Park, however. Tuppers was very put out by some of the bad behaviour around us (particularly Armpit Sniffing Overall Daddy and the Cell Phone Snapshot Women), but I go expecting that, so it was copacetic. Nuphy was there, too, and pronounced it better than the night before, when the humidity was so bad it pushed the strings out of tune. As a bonus, I got to see his daughter, who was attending a wedding reception downtown, then we all went off to the Gage, where Tuppers stunned me somewhat by devouring most of a Scotch egg and a bowl of fried chicken livers.
I wasn't in the mood for that much grease, so I limited myself to a drink which despite being called a "gin fizz" had very little of either. At first, all I could taste was the whiskey, but it got sweeter as I went, so I'm left wondering if it simply wasn't mixed very well.
his_regard tells me I need to check out one of the frou-frou cocktail lounges in town if only to marvel at the mixmasters' art. Sounds like a project for cooler weather, when the long pants at long last come out of storage.