Domcat

[muckefuck]

We've suspected our cat was a gay homosexual from the first. Preliminary confirmation came with the first exhaustive grooming I incredulously witnessed him giving himself, a particular portion of which earned him the nickname "Felcher". If there was any doubt left, it has been banished by the arrival of Leathermouse.

"Sounds like your cat is stimulated by the smell of the leather," observed niemandsrose. She went on to advise us, "Try leather mice or real fur toys." It so happens that the pet store in Andersonville had mice made of leather, so I picked one up and tossed it to him once we were inside the door. OH MY GOD. I think the proper term is "apeshit". The rabbit-fur mouse was also a hit; wrestling with it for a while got him so excited that he tried to leap directly onto the mantelpiece, only to find himself hanging off the edge by his front paws.

While we were there, I stocked up on more cardamom-scented tea at Pars Grocery, where I also found tea made from borage flowers. I was intrigued, since the only use I've ever known for borage flowers is candying for decoration in the manner of violets. It turns out that گل گاوزبان (lit. "ox-tongue flower") isn't exactly the same as the borage of my youth (Echium amoenum vs. Borago officinalis). Be that as it may, it makes a lovely herbal tea.

We also poked into the corner liquor store in the homes of finding some of the things we've been looking for for a while, such as decent sloe gin (i.e. not DeKuyper) or Original Sin cider. No luck on either of those, but I did fatally weaken in front of a bottle of Zirbenz Stone Pine Liqueur (a.k.a. Zirbenschnaps) from Styria. Haven't tried it yet, but I'm looking forward to a dram after dinner. Searching for recipes, I discovered that it's another of the family firms in the Haus Alpenz stable which includes the Rothman & Winter Crème de Violette and Orchard Apricot that we're so fond of, so that bodes well.

Comments

[lhn.livejournal.com]

Sam's has Plymouth Sloe Gin (or at least did a month or so ago). As I mentioned in the voice mail I left you, they also have oude genever at the Downer's Grove store. (Which probably means they could shift it over to the store nearest you-- or I can pick it up for you next time I'm out there.)

They also, to my astonishment, have Old Tom gin, which AFAIK was completely out of production for decades. (And that's got to be new, since I'm sure I would have noticed it as a curiosity if nothing else.)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Old Tom, it turns out, is another Haus Alpenz product. I'm not sure what's going on here, if they've long had these brands in their portfolio and just didn't import them or recently acquired them and have begun promoting them Stateside or what, but I'm happy. (Less happy than I was before tasting Zirbenz, but what can you do?) Do I take it Old Tom is prominent on the pages of Imbibe?

[lhn.livejournal.com]

Somewhat-- it was prominent in the source material, though the author is clearly more interested in genever (or, as he invariably calls it, "Hollands"). He suggests approximating Old Tom by adding simple syrup to London dry. But I'd also run across Old Tom in other books that trace the history of cocktails and/or gin. It's frequently noted that the gin of Hogarth prints or Liza Doolittle or the ancestral martini (maybe, given the disputes to that cocktail's origin) was closer to Old Tom than to London dry gin, or even genever (which at least existed during the period, and was probably the model for 19th century American-made gin).

Of course, Old Tom's not exactly held out as a refined style of gin ("Gin Lane" not being something to aspire to for most :-) ), that being one reason it died out. (Another being the way gin production, at least in the English-speaking world, tended to focus on the dryer-than-thou progression the martini took during the 20th century.) But I'm still interested to try it out in some of those original recipes, and in any case I'm guessing that they're not trying to reproduce Hogarthian twopenny rotgut. :-)

(Though if they are, the joke's on me, given what they're charging for it. ;-) )

[niemandsrose.livejournal.com]

Ha. That's awesome.