Dang, I have to choose between vodka and trade unions? What happened to #OccupyTheBottle?
The posters above and below are just two of the excellent vintage posters collected by Poemas del rio Wang, showcasing Soviet efforts at stopping (or at least slowing down) that country’s culture of drunkeness. The same author, on a different blog, looks at how the vintage posters were later repurposed for a cola advertising campaign.
I was absolutely delighted to find a few recipes for Gin Fizzes over at Gilt Taste. I’ve been developing a bit of a taste for revived vintage cocktails lately, but I haven’t yet gotten around to a Fizz.
From Gilt Taste:
What is a Fizz exactly? Once cited by legendary bartender Trader Vic as “an early-morning drink with a definite purpose – a panacea for hang-overs,” the Fizz includes the following ingredients: liquor, lemon or lime juice, and sugar, which are shaken with ice, strained into a cocktail or Collins glass, and topped off with fizzing seltzer or Champagne. Eggs are often added, cutting the sharp taste of the gin and citrus, and endowing the Fizz with a unique velvety-yet-light texture. A “Silver Fizz” uses only egg whites; a “Golden Fizz” includes an egg yolk; and a “Royal Fizz” greedily incorporates a whole egg.
I’m saddened by our culture’s insistence that alcohol must be served in the afternoon or, preferably, evening. It’s intoxicating, sure, but it’s also an ingredient that can be used or abused. And, when used properly, a nice beverage that includes alcohol can be a wonderful way to start the day. I’m looking at you, mimosas.
I believe that Bloody Marys were originally devised as morning drinks as well.
A Gin Fizz sounds like a delightful way to expand my morning drink repertoire. I think I like their Lavender-Lemon Silver Fizz. Here’s the recipe:
The Lavender-Lemon Silver Fizz
A wonderful front-porch drink, this grown-up lemonade is best adorned with a deep wicker chair and hand-held fan. It would also make a lovely tea-time libation, served with macaroons.
2 ounces gin
1 teaspoon simple syrup (they suggest Royal Rose Lavender-Lemon syrup)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 egg white
1 tablespoon seltzer1. Shake with plenty of crushed ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass or Champagne coupe, and top with a tablespoon of seltzer. Grate a bit of lemon zest over the top. If too sweet, temper with more lemon juice.
They have four more! Try ‘em: Five Recipes For A Gin Fizz.
For reasons I won’t get into now, I’m currently in the middle of a six-month-no-beer attempt. July 1 can’t come soon enough.
But I’m still enjoying plenty of glasses of wine, and I don’t mind a tipple of harder stuff, either. So, in the absence of green beer (my heart, it does grow fonder) I was happy to get emailed a list of five Irish-themed cocktails that I can drink on St. Patrick’s Day. Thank-you Esquire. Here’s one of my faves:
The Emerald
- 2 ounces whisk(e)y
- 1 ounce Italian vermouth
- 1 dash orange bitters
Glass Type: cocktail glass
Stir well with cracked ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. We recommend using Irish whiskey.
One of the only mixed drinks with which we’ll repeatedly toast the Emerald Isle is the Emerald. There’s not much imagination in it, sure, its logic being, “If you mix rye, which they drink in New York, with vermouth, you get a Manhattan; therefore, Irish whiskey and vermouth must be an Emerald.” But it’s delightfully smooth and mellow. And if the reasoning’s a little screwy, at least the only thing green about the drink is its title.
In fact, the Emerald presents rather an ethical dilemma: Like the original Manhattan, it contains a dash of — oops! — orange bitters. But maybe that’s just to remind the sons of Erin that they shouldn’t rest until the Saxon yoke is lifted from their fair and blooming isle and all true blood, bone, and beauty can flourish in an air of tranquil peace and liberty. Or maybe someone just wasn’t thinking. In either case, if your principles won’t allow you to cross your lips with orange, you can leave the bitters out for an Angelo-and-Mike, or switch to Angostura bitters for a Blarney Stone. Or you can leave them in, but down your potion with a lusty, “To our enemies — may they be drinking bog water while we’re drinking whiskey! May their obituaries be written in weasel’s piss! May they shit sideways! May the hairs on their asses turn to drumsticks and beat them down to hell!” That’s what we do, anyway.
Now that’s a toast!
In summer 2009, I drank (or tried to drink) a carton of eggnog that I had stored in my fridge for six months past Christmas. Somehow, I wanted to outdo myself, so last after Christmas 2009, I bought some discount eggnog on sale, and stored it for a whole year.
On Jan. 4, 2011, I drank that eggnog. With tequila.
This is how it turned out.
(For what it’s worth, I’m cooking up a few more experiments with expiry dates — but they kind of take a lot of prep time.)
That’s “Cooking with ’SNER”, as in making food with Old Style Pilsner — the Canadian version of a hipster beer like PBL. Imagine if the Trailer Park Boys had a cable access cooking show.
Check out Episode 2, in which they make a summer SNER snalad for a starter, then finish with ricotta spinach chicken served on rice and a 6 pack of SNER.
Thanks to my cousin Mitch, who sent this on to my uncle Rod, who passed it on to me. He claims we are going to have a Cheeseburger Picnic — ’sner style — next summer. I will be watching my inbox for the e-vite.
There sure is a lot of chaff to sort through on your way to the wheat, but every now and then there something that reminds me of the good in newspaper readership. They’re not all illiterate, knee-jerk racists.
For example, in today’s Winnipeg Free Press, they’re highlighting a story of recovered two-century-old beer from the bottom of the Baltic. The story comes with a picture:
Divers who found what’s believed to be the world’s oldest drinkable champagne say they have also discovered two-centuries-old bottles of beer at a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea …. Researchers who tried drops of the dark, foamy liquid liked the taste of it.
But what really made me laugh was this comment, by “kiov”:
They must be quite valuable given the care that is going in to protecting them. I always place all of my rare, breakable artifacts on a stack of papers on the edge of a desk while I send emails a few feet away.
Ha! Touché!
The Mitchell Library in Glasgow is huge — like, ridiculously huge. It’s got over 1.2 million volumes, making it the largest reference library in Western Europe.
Among it’s collections are numerous photographs, and many of them have been scanned and placed on the internet in recent years.
And that gives us what they call the “Virtual Mitchell” which allows you to search through about a century and a half of photography about the streets, people and places of Glasgow.
So, obviously, I searched for “Great Hamilton Street” (okay, I browsed, but the name kind of did attract me, when I came across it).
In 1898, above, Great Hamilton Street was home to a pub: “Old Burnt Barns.” By 1925, unfortunately, the pub had closed, replaced by a pawn shop.
Not long after that, the road was attached and somewhat straightened, and Great Hamilton Street was no longer — subsumed as part of the London Road. It just doesn’t have the same ring.
Happily, though, I’m pleased to note, thanks to the magic of Google Maps’ Street View, that the corner of London Road and Green Street, which used to be the Great Hamilton Street home of Old Burnt Barns, now appears to house The Carlton Bar.
And that calls for a drink.
As I never tire of linking, last year, on June 25, I tried to drink some six-month-old eggnog. I called it “Summer Christmas.” It didn’t really work out.
This week, while innocently grocery shopping, I came across a clearance skid of eggnog. They were selling litres of eggnog for $1 each. I couldn’t pass it up.
Now, I still have a carton of (already open) eggnog in my fridge, which I plan to finish lickety-split. That’s it, above, in the glass, and the carton is on the right.
But the stuff I just bought is different — it comes in a plastic jug. And it doesn’t need to be refrigerated until after it’s open. And best (or perhaps more unsettlingly) of all, the expiry date on it is more than a full quarter-year away. That’s right, if you look closely at that picture, above, my newly acquired eggnog doesn’t expired until April 20.
That means I could get lucky. That means it only has to last two months past the expiry date — not six — if I want to make it to “Summer Christmas.” And, what if I keep it refrigerated all that time? I think I have a pretty good chance of making it!
Now Amy cautions me off. And, she says that “it’s only funny the first time.”
But I retort with a “repetition is the basis of (some forms of) humour.”
So I’m throwing it out there:
Readers! Should I save that eggnog and do another “Summer Christmas” video in late June? Or should I just drink it with tequila asap?
In a special New Year’s Eve post, Amy films while I use a heavy kitchen knife on a $9 bottle of “sparkling wine.”
It’s open!
Now, I have posted about this before. So has Keith. And Wired has a “how-to” wiki that explores the difference between sabring a real French champagne, and an American one.
I have a sneaking suspicion that I’ll be posting about it again, too.
(photo from mricon on Flickr.)
In French, they call it Lait de Poule, or, literally, “chicken milk” (maybe “hen’s milk”). I call it delicious. Well, sometimes.
But if you’re getting tired of eggnog the ordinary way — with rum, or dark rum, or spiced rum, perhaps bourbon or brandy on a wild night — then have I got a treat for you.
Try tequila.
I’m serious. Tequila and egg nog go together almost perfectly. The creaminess of the nog cuts through the tequila flavour, softening it just so. And tequila actually, believe it or not, tastes less harsh and alcoholic than rum does.
Now, what shall we call it? Suggested names are:
Vote in the comments, or come up with alternative suggestions!
Advantage of the blog over the mainstream media: We’re not bound by common decency.
Tom Oleson, columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press, brings to our attention the fact that there is not one, but two songs about whoring in Winnipeg:
A colleague emailed me this week an enquiry about a song called Three Old Whores from Winnipeg. The song was not familiar to me, and at first I thought she was confusing it with another old ballad, The Winnipeg Whore, which I once heard performed by two elderly, drunken English remittance men at the bar of the Press Club, but she was right. They are distinct songs, although in spirit, as their titles suggest, not all that distinct.
Of course, he demurely suggests that, much as he’d like to, he can’t very well quote any lines from the songs. And, eschewing any advantage of the Internet, he doesn’t even link to a NSFW link that’s offsite, or hide it behind an Editor’s Note.
No need for any of that here. A simple Google search brings up several versions of each song. Like many drinking tunes, of course, these are sung to simple melodies and the lyrics are mutable (whether the Winnipeg whore is “a maid of the Chippeways” or “sweet Rosie O’Grady” is partly a matter of personal taste).
I’ve synthesized the various versions into ones that I think are, well, bawdiest.
The Winnipeg Whore
(versions here, here and here)My first trip up the Saginaw River,
My first time to the Canadian shore,
There I met Rosie O’Grady,
Commonly known as th’ Winnipeg Whore.Said, “My faith! You look familiar.”
Flopped her ass upon my knee,
Said she’d meet me in the northeast corner
Dollar and a half would be her fee.Some were fiddling, some were fie-deling
Some were fucking on the bar-room floor,
But I was up in the northeast corner
Putting it to the Winnipeg whore.Fucked her once, fucked her twice,
Then I fucked her one time more;
She gave a shout and then she fainted
That was the end of the Winnipeg whore.Then, in there walked some sons ‘a’ bitches,
Must have been a score or more,
Oughta seen me shit my britches,
Slidin’ my ass out the whorehouse door.—–
Three Old Whores from Winnepeg
(versions here and here)Three old whores in Winnipeg
Were drinking a sherry wine,
Says one of them to the other two,
“Yours is smaller than mine.”Chorus:
Oh, take up the sheets, me hearties, water the decks with brine!
Bend to the oars, you lousy whores, none is bigger than mine!“You’re a liar,” says the other old whore
“Mine’s as big as the sea,
The battleships sail in and out,
And never a bother to me”Chorus
“You’re a liar,” says the other old whore,
“Mine’s as big as the moon,
The ships sail in on the first of the year,
And never come out until June.”Chorus
“You’re a liar,” says the other old whore,
“Mine’s as big as the air,
the ships sail out and the ships sail in,
And never tickle a hair”Chorus
“You’re a liar,” says the first again,
I’d blush to be so small,
Many’s the fleet they sailed right in,
And never come out at all.”Chorus:
Oh, take up the sheets, me hearties, water the decks with brine!
Bend to the oars, you lousy whores, none is bigger than mine!
Now… who’s up for some drinking and some singing? And whoring, of course.
Well, this just makes them look stupid. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that it has never sanctioned the sale of alcoholic drinks with caffeine in them, and, responding to a request from 19 state attorney-generals, the FDA, has sent a warning to manufacturers.
From this New York Times story — and from the original press release on the FDA web site — it’s clear that the organization is targeting energy-style drinks with alcohol added. The FDA says:
In the past year, Anheuser-Busch and Miller agreed to discontinue their popular caffeinated alcoholic beverages, Tilt and Bud Extra and Sparks, and agreed to not produce any caffeinated alcoholic beverages in the future.
The Times adds:
And MillerCoors agreed to stop selling its product Sparks. The brands under scrutiny — which include Joose from United Brands and Four from Phusion Projects — are being marketed to young people with social marketing tools.
However nobody seems to be asking the real question:
Why is this an issue at all? Haven’t we been drinking rum-and-Cokes for, well, over a century? I don’t know why it’s legal to sell Coke and rum, and to mix them together and then sell that product in a bar, but it somehow falls under the aegis of the FDA when caffeine is added to a cooler?
(via Coudal)
There’s more than one kind of bitters, but the classic one — the famous one — is always Angostura bitters. I spent a long time last year looking for a bottle so that I could make real versions of some classic cocktails, and it can be surprisingly difficult to find.
Who would have known that finding Angostura would only get harder. There is a world-wide shortage.
A report in the Guardian says that production of Angostura bitters (it’s only made in one factory in the world, in Trinidad and Tobago) has been shut down since June:
In the UK the website of angostura’s main importer, WB Distribution, says the product is completely sold out….
Patrick Sepe, chief executive of the US distributor, Angostura USA, said the production line ran dry in June and was only just getting back on track. “There has been a shortage,” said Sepe. “You can’t just turn on and off supply of bitters. It’s not like producing bottled water – it’s a very delicate, intricate process.”
Invented in 1824, angostura was named after a town in Venezuela where a German doctor, Johann Siegert, came up with the recipe as a stomach tonic to ease tropical ailments among soldiers.
Bereft of the classic bitter, certain bars have now turned to alternatives, including supplies from a German company, The Bitter Truth.
“A lot of bars are not happy,” said Mark Ludmon, editor of Bar magazine. “Any bar that’s trying to do cocktails seriously will feel it’s wrong not to use the right bitters.”
Fun fact — bitters are the one ingredient, classically, that distinguishes a “cocktail” from a “sling.”
I’ve always thought this would be cool to learn — and now, thanks to the magic of the Internet, I can obtain the knowledge direct to my own home, free of charge!
Yes, even you can learn how to open a bottle of champagne by cleanly breaking the glass neck, instead of just popping the cork like a normal human being. Apparently it is also possible to open beer bottles this way. Beer, doncha know, is cheaper than champagne, so if I can learn how to do that, it’s probably going to be a more-useful party trick.
But, for the moment, I’ll settle for the champagne. There’s cheap champagne (knockoffs) too, and personally, I would like an excuse to buy and drink champagne more often. Really, it’s the champagne of wines!
Here is a post with full instructions. But they also have a slo-mo video:
(From Cooking Issues, my new favourite cooking/tech blog.)
