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There's a truckload (literally) of live chickens every Saturday at the Alemany farmers' market here in San Francisco. We always, say, "look at all the nice chickens going to their new happy homes." They also sell eggs (including duck balut) and occasionally chicks. (People don't actually eat chicken chicks, do they?) They weren't particularly cheap, especially considering all the extra work. We asked once, and I believe they said it was something around $5 a chicken.

Being a gardener, I've not had a problem with confusing Taro (Colocasia esculenta) with true Yams (Dioscorea oppositifolia, the most commonly used Asian species). Neither the plants nor tubers really look much alike. In America, the main confusion is from the marketing strategy of the sweet potato growers, who, to differentiate orange fleshed sweet potatoes from yellow fleshed sweet potatoes started calling the orange fleshed ones "yams". If you want confusing, try to tell Taro (Colocasia sp.) from Malanga (Xanthosoma sp.).

I've never heard of Tapioca (Cassava) or Taro (Colocasia) referred to as "yam"; but, true african yams are Dioscorea species. There are also native Chinese and Japanese species in the Discorea genus. This Webpage has useful information about Yams vs. Sweet Potatoes. This wiki webpage has info on true Yams and appears fairly accurate. I've never seen true yams except at Japanese markets, and have never cooked with them.

Huh, that Emeril recipe sounds truly awful. Here's a couple that seem like they would at least be noble experiments. I based the proportions on my Mojito Sorbet. "Old-Fashioned" Sorbet 1 c Sugar 2 c Water 1/4 c Orange Juice 1/8 c Bourbon Zest of 1 orange ? tsp. Bitters (Not sure about the balance of this one. Might end up being too orangey to qualify as an old-fashioned.) Lemony Mint Julep Sorbet 1 c Sugar 2 c Water 5 Sprigs of Mint 1/4 c Lemon Juice 1/8 c Bourbon Zest of 2 Lemons 2 T Mint Chiffonade edit - Had vermouth in my old fashioned and no bitters. Sheesh, what was I thinking?

Digest: San Francisco Chronicle Magazine for Sunday, January 29th 2006 RISING STARS 2006, Michael Bauer RISING STARS 2006: Greg Dunmore, Olivia Wu Restaurant: Ame, San Francisco Style: Global, inspired by local ingredients Recipe: Grilled Grouper on a Ragu of Shellfish, Beans & Fennel in Saffron Broth RISING STARS 2006: Corey Lee, Michael Bauer Restaurant: The French Laundry, Yountville Style: French/American Recipe: Soft-Poached Araucana Hen Egg, Puree of Jerusalem Artichokes, Shaved Black Truffles & "Creme des Topinambours" RISING STARS 2006: Michelle Mah, Miriam Morgan Restaurant: Ponzu, San Francisco Style: California Asian Recipe: Braised Boneless Sweet Soy Short Ribs RISING STARS 2006: Mike Yakura, Amanda Berne Restaurant: Le Colonial Style: Vietnamese/French Recipe: Coconut & Brown Sugar Brined Pork Tenderloin with Broken Fried Rice & Pickled Baby Bok Choy RISING STARS 2006: Charlie Hallowell, Carol Ness Restaurant: Pizzaiolo Style: Rustic Italian Recipe: Ribollita RISING STARS 2005: Where are they Now?, Amanda Berne Tailgate Training: The Dutch Goose's new owner on secrets of the trade, Sam Whiting Interview with Greg Stern, the new owner of The Dutch Goose in Menlo Park. Raising the Bar With Tequila: A Mexican plaza takes shape inside a SoMa warehouse, Zahid Sardar A Rhapsody in Redd: Yountville restaurant reveals Richard Reddington's refined artistry, Michael Bauer 3 and 1/2 stars out of 4.

Yeah, noticed that too. Also, some pretty bad technique stirring the martini*, a julep strainer is supposed to go inside the shaker, and, boy he really pulverized the mint for that julep. Loved the opening: AB's Dad, "How was school today, sport?" AB, "Well, I got beat up again." AB's Dad, "Well, that's just fine." AB's Dad heads straight to the bar to mix a pitcher of Martinis. Maybe that explains the hostility towards the ice... *Whose preparation was a bit dry for my taste. But, hey! At least he made a point of using Gin! And the "rinse the ice cubes with vermouth" seems like a better dry martini technique than the "rinse the glass with vermouth" that some bartenders use.

This recipe works well for me and I have gotten positive feedback from several other folks who have tried it. Mojito Sorbet I'm sure it could be massaged to work for other citrus based cocktails. -Erik

Is the stress of Iron Chef America driving Alton Brown to drink? First we had an episode where he investigated and explored Egg Nog and bourbon, ("School of Hard Nogs"). Now a whole episode dedicated to cocktails! The recent, "Raising the Bar," features cocktail history, bar ware, mixing technique, and recipes for Martinis, Daiquiris, and of course, Mint Juleps. Oh, and some pretty twisted ice abuse.

yeah, and most sweet dishes, too... ice cream can't cut it without salt. ← The thing is, with ice cream, you're making a quart at a time with a pinch of salt. With "up" cocktails, you're usually making a 4 to 6 ounce portion at a time. It would be OK, if like simple syrup, you had some standard bottle behind the bar. Sadly, there is no bottle of, what? sea water? for your bartender to put in cocktails. Just pointing out stuff. edit - thought of better example.

A little oil certainly won't hurt anyone. And you don't need non-stick surface on every pan in your cupboard. You need an 8" non-stick saute pan for eggs and a couple other things. You don't need a non-stick stock pot, you don't need a non-stick sauce pot, you don't need a non-stick pasta pot, etc. And in fact non-stick surfaces are arguably detrimental when you are trying to make a pan sauce.

Not sure if mangos are OK. I know I've had cakes made with mango gelatin filling. However, this page indicates the following fruits are bad for jello, "kiwi fruit, papayas, pineapple, peaches, mangos, guavas, and figs." It may be that the mango used wasn't fresh. I have read that these enzymes are very heat or cold sensitive, and can be rendered inactive with a quick trip to the freezer or on the stove.

Citrus is fine. The other fruit I know of with gelatin dissolving powers, in addition to those you've already listed, is kiwi.

Revive this thread to ask: I'm often a bit confused by what is what with Schnapps, Eau de Vie, Kirsch, Cherry Brandy, Kirschwasser, Cherry Heering, etc. The recipe in this week's Cocktailian, The Porteño, calls for Cherry Brandy. I have kirsch. Is this what I should use in the recipe? Or should this be one of the Cherry Liqueurs, like Cherry Heering or Kirsch Schnapps? Or, god forbid, one of the bright red and I'm sure artificially flavored Cherry Flavored Brandies I find at the grocery store? It's already got a half an ounce of falernum and a half an ounce of Fernet, to only a half ounce of lime juice. To my mind, it probably doesn't need any more (probably less!) sweetener than that. And while we're at it, are Kirsch and Kirschwasser words for the same thing? It seems like it, looking at online dictionaries. A clear spirit distilled from fermented cherry juice. Is there any particular benefit to the products from the Black Forest? -Erik

But, then I'd have to worry about my salt intake along with my alcohol intake when drinking cocktails! For me, the reason dirty martinis are disgusting, is they usually dump the contents of the bar top olive tray in them. Who knows what might be living or included in that stuff! Yuck!

Does savory necessarily mean salty? Aromatic cocktails like the Manhattan or Bronx are not really "sweet", at least made traditionally. I think there is great room for invention of "culinary" cocktails using ingredients more commonly found in the kitchen than the bar. I haven't been to this restaurant yet; but, their cocktail list, while sadly a bit Vodka focused, looks pretty cool and inspirational. Aziza And, yeah, I happen to think Aquavit is great in "savory" cocktails. -Erik

Digest: San Francisco Chronicle Wine Digest, Thursday, January 26, 2006 The big gulp: Will consumers be able to swallow consolidation?, W. Blake Gray Letters to Wine Wine Business Insider: Reality TV show seeks wanna-be winemakers, Cyril Penn "The Wine Makers" is a new reality television series set to air in spring 2007 on PBS...The U.S Supreme Court this week declined to hear an appeal from Bronco Wine Co. regarding California's "truth in labeling law."...Frederic Rouzaud is taking over from his father, Jean-Claude Rouzaud, as managing director of Champagne Louis Roederer Q&A with the man who's buying the wine world, W. Blake Gray What does 'family winery' really mean?, W. Blake Gray Pairings: Go nutty over Chardonnay and Italian-style chicken, Joyce Goldstein Recipe: Sauteed Chicken Breasts Piemontese The Chronicle's Wine Selections: Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay, Linda Murphy Bargain Wines: Slip into winter whites, sleek reds, Leslie Sbrocco The Cheese Course: Dairy farmer's first try is a charm with Cornish Blue, Janet Fletcher The Cocktailian: Drink a Porteño and soon you'll be humming about Argentina, Gary Regan Recipe: Porteño Adapted from a recipe by Murray Stenson of Zig Zag Cafe in Seattle.

Cool as Copenhagen For the cucumber puree: 1 cucumber 1 tsp. lemon zest 1/4 cup dry vermouth small pinch of sea salt For the cocktail: 1 oz cucumber puree 2 oz Aquavit 1/2 tsp Pastis Peel and seed a cucumber. Puree cucumber flesh, lemon zest, dry vermouth and a couple ice cubes until smooth. If you're really particular, you could put the mixture through a cheesecloth. This will make enough for quite a few cocktails. Combine cocktail ingredients in an iced cocktail shaker, shake, and strain well into a cocktail glass. Lemon twist or Fennel frond seems like a nice garnish. edit - Forgot the pinch of sea salt in the cucumber puree, which by the way, makes an excellent chilled soup when combined with a bit of plain yoghurt.

Very fond of Fuller's myself. As far as I know, Fuller's is available on cask only very rarely here in the US by special arrangement only. The only bottles I've seen here in CA are the Pride, ESB, Vintage Ale, 1845, and Porter. Haven't had the Honey Dew. Is it similar to Young's Waggle Dance? I have tried that and didn't much care for it.

Large article about bitters in yesterday's LA Times: A revival of bitters? Sweeeet! A fairly long article with a few cocktail recipes. PS. Props to Chuck Taggert's Gumbo Pages for linking to this long and fascinating thread. Here's a few clicks back atcha.

In "Difford's Guide to Cocktails", in addition to the Aviation cocktail, there is a recipe for an Aviator cocktail which the author claims comes from the Savoy cocktail book. I can't find it in the Savoy book I have. Haven't done an exhaustive search though. The Aviator recipe in Difford's is: equal parts gin, dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, and red dubonnet. Stir with ice to chill, strain, and serve up. I found another recipe for it on the internet that was: 3 parts gin, 1 part dry vermouth, 1 part sweet vermouth, and 1 part red dubonnet.

"Difford's Guide to Cocktails" is a quarterly softcover magazine dedicated to cocktails. It appears there is also a series of publications called, "Difford's Guide to City Drinking: The Best Bars". This first issue (5.1) has an interview with and recipes from Tony Conigliaro, a pictorial of harry's bar in Paris, an article about essential bar equipment, a guide to "great cocktail bars" around the world, a "how to mix" guide, a number of cocktail recipes (starting with letters A-C) from the hardcover book "Difford's Guide to Cocktails", and some reader submitted cocktail recipes. There are also pictorial features with history about various cocktails. It is a very handsome publication, with much apparent care taken to photograph all the subjects, cocktails, ingredients, bars, or barkeeps, in the most flattering light. The interview is nice, as it is uncommon for any publication to talk to a bartender as seriously and in as much detail as you find here. The recent nearly content free, "Year of the Cocktail" issue of Food and Wine springs to mind. If anyone has ideas about how to make licorice syrup, chamomile foam, or where to find liqueur de sapin, please post them. The over 500 recipes and their associated photos take up about 60 of the 150 pages. Many of the classics (A-C) are here along with newer inventions. As I said above, a lot of the newer drinks are layered drinks, shots, or dessert drinks. I can't imagine garnishing any cocktail with a crumbled cadbury flake bar. There are several here. As George said above, Mr. Difford takes great pains to present the content as his personal point of view. You may or may not agree with him; but, you can't argue with his passion for cocktails. I can't answer whether it is worth $8 of your hard earned money, after all, that is a six pack of very nice beer, or most of a cocktail at the Pegu Club. -Erik fixed speling and grammer.

In addition to Kurt's pretty comprehensive list, Torani makes a grenadine syrup. If your restaurant does espresso service and uses flavored syrups, you may be able to get this from the same supplier. If you do ever decide to try making grenadine from scratch you will come to understand why the real stuff costs so much! It is an enormous amount of labor for very little return volume-wise.

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Hi Sean, Welcome to eGullet. Parfait Amour has never quite floated high enough on my wish list for me to purchase it. I do know there is at least one cocktail in Ted Haigh's "Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails". Its name slips my mind at this time. I've had good luck with most recipes I've tried from "Vintage Spirits...", so if I had to use some Parfait Amour, I'd give that recipe it a try. However, it does seem to me I remember reading a post from someone who said they had a hard time getting that particular cocktail to come out. I don't know if you've come across the cocktaildb yet; but, it's a fine resource for cocktail recipes. If you search by ingredient with Parfait Amour you should come up with 17 or so things to try. Looking at the search results, the recipe in, "Vintage Spirits..." might have been the Jupiter. -Erik edit - I guess I should call you by your name since you signed your post.

RE: Doing it yourself I think this section of the article is the most informative. Whatever you do, don't piss off your neighbors. edited to make quote shorter