Chris Amirault

That's a good way to put what I was trying to say, Sam: it evokes Artichoke, in a cocktail-y, Platonic sense. I think I'll stop trying to describe this now. Cynar fans should give it a go.

I just reread the entire topic (quiet afternoon at work) and couldn't find any information on using fresh fruit in bitters. Do you do a fruit infusion first and then use that alcohol for the rest of the process? Or everything at once? Or...?

I picked up the rum in the perfume and roundness of the drink. It's not a rum drink, per se, in the sense that rum isn't the dominant liquor in the drink (like a Daiquiri, say); it's meant to showcase the Cynar's qualities. Which it does, alchemically.

But I saw heaven in that drink. I want you to see it too! Ah, well.

Are you sure that all you could taste was the Cynar? I ask because we all agreed that the drink tasted like the most spectacular artichoke we'd ever had. ETA: I will note that we used more mint than Toby specifies, and it had been picked moments before the drink was made.

Does it become jammy? That long cooking would seem to have that effect, non?

So, Victor, if the last three decades have seen an order-of-magnitude increase, does that not speak to mielimato's point, at least in relation to the previous thirty years? And what has happened since 1980 or so that has caused this change?

Took a while to clarify -- sorry for the delay! I think that I'll be taking my teachers out to dinner on Wednesday night. I'd love to have a Tex, Mex, or any combination place relatively nearby. (Lots of Central American places in RI, but most Mexican is crap and there's no Tex nothing nohow.) We'd be no more than four people and probably flexible in terms of time. Near public transportation (or the convention center itself) would be ideal.

I have been thinking about jerk lamb, as it turns out, this weekend....

Do you go jammy, Kerry, or are you more Keller-esque?

Speaking of food photos... Thanks to KarenM's great photo of her dish -- -- we've just started a Ratatouille Cook-Off. I mean, we all gotta get us some of that!

Welcome to the eGullet Recipe Cook-Off! Click here for the Cook-Off index. There was this rat, and he wanted to be a cook. When he finally made it into the kitchen of a Parisian restaurant, he needed some help coming up with a signature dish to impress the critics. So he sent his producer to stage a few days at the French Laundry, a little-known, out-of-the-way joint run by a guy named Thomas Keller. Keller had come up with a dish he called "byaldi," and with a bit of tweaking, handed over a recipe for Thomas Keller's "confit byaldi." Rat made it, critic was thrilled, everyone's happy. A little while later, this eGullet Society member, KarenM, prints out the recipe and makes this thing of beauty: Fortunately, there were many dozen grateful Heartlanders eager to devour the dish, which some of them called by its ancestral name: ratatouille. Ratatouille is the perfect late summer Cook-Off. Shockingly, we have only one topic dedicated to it, but it's a beaut. You'll find disagreements about whether ratatouille should be a jammy, stewy ratatouille or a discretely sautéed and layered dish. Advocates of Provencal authenticity face off against the fresh, clean, and bright brigade who know no region. And then there's that picky olive oil question. I'll admit that I've always hated ratatouille, which has been throughout my life the potluck dish I should avoid at all costs, so I'm game to figure out how to make something that doesn't suck. I also have no fear of the mandoline, if it comes to that. So where do you stand? Jammy goodness or definitive elements? Are you a Provencal stickler or a "what's ready in my garden" free spirit?

I think that McCormick & Schmick's serves oysters and many are local. Not exactly a chowdah hut, but... On another note: a little bird told me that Temple cleaned house (both back and front), and that I should visit in late Sept when the new crew is in full swing.

In my neck of the woods, PIBs are fancy cocktail food. Sheesh!

The Fitty-Fitty made with Jonge is pretty interesting. It's not mind-blowing, but that maltiness rises with the vermouth and does fun things with the orange bitters. (I use a 50/50 Fee's/Regan's bitters mix for this.)

Which is?

It looks very good, but how did it redefine Nicoise for you?

That's cool! What other things did folks learn at the Gathering?

Why I think that's a fine example.

Made a bacony version of this Madison dish two nights ago, and it was great. The NYT is getting in on the long-stewed bean action. This recipe is very similar to the Madison one though it adds wine, which I think hers does not.

I'll see if I can get a clarification, but I believe she's looking for anecdotes about cocktails -- origins, developments, brawls, whatever -- that can be entries in the "Top Tales" section of this reference.

I'll start. I think that getting the full story from Jeff Berry on finding his "Rosetta Stone," the original recipe for Don the Beachcombers Zombie, would be a great addition to this list.

As soon as I saw that Creme de Violette I spent a while trying to figure this shipping map out. Don't bother: it's wrong. Just call 1-800-331-3005 ext. 258 and ask them there. $45 to DHS-air five bottles to the folks house in MA. No shipping to RI.

Just in from Ann Tuennerman, the Founder of Tales of the Cocktail. We've got the rest of the month to collect tales here so that Ann can have them by August 31. Post one, post many -- and don't hesitate to share your own unique story.

Just to add a voice here, I'd like to say that I've used enameled cast iron -- my many LCs, a Descoware, and a Martha Stewart -- in a jillion different ways, including on top of the stove and with sudden temperature shifts, and I've never had any cracking or crazing of the enamel. Now you want to talk about staining, that's another story!