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K & L carry them, and I've seen them sometimes at The Wine House, as well. http://www.klwines.com/find/search.asp?w=a...&wr=e&submit=Go The Jug Shop might be somewhere else to try; but, their website is sucky. -Erik

Since you started with 100 proof vodka you've got something that is 1/2 "water" and 1/2 "alcohol". You want to end up with something that is around 2/3 "water" and 1/3 "alcohol". Uh, let's see. As long as you have added no other liquid to start, you've currently got 187 ml of alcohol and 187 ml of water. By divina's recipe you add another 187 ml of liquid. You end up with 562 ml total, 187 of which is still alcohol. By my math, that is around 33% alcohol or 66 proof. Perfect. :-) spelled divina wrong.

Made frozen Vanilla Custard last Saturday to go with homemade Peach Pie. 2 Cups Whole Milk, 2 Cups Cream, 3/4 Cup Sugar, 6 egg yolks, 1 Vanilla Bean, pinch salt. Used procedure from Alton Brown's "Churn Baby Churn 2." I know I wasn't saving money by making it myself, since I could nearly buy 2 pints of Straus Creamery Vanilla for the cost of the Vanilla Bean alone. Sure was tasty, though. -Erik

The target proof/percentage for most liqueurs is around 60/30, so depending on the proof of alcohol you started with, you don't want to increase the dilution beyond that point. Aside from that consideration, make a simple syrup, cool it, filter your limoncello, and mix in the syrup to taste. I forgot to ask, what went wrong with the last one? -Erik edited to add question.

This kir variation was quite nice. Soaked a few small strawberries in sugar and bitters until they released juice, dropped a strawberry in the bottom of an old style champagne glass with a spoonful of the juice, added an ounce of homemade strawberry liqueur, topped with dry champagne. -Erik

Yes, indeedy! And now's the time! Farmers' Market is full of the small early crop. -Erik PS. Okra is in the same plant family as Hibiscus (Malvaceae) and has lovely yellow blossoms. edited for usage.

ACME was an old San Francisco beer brand launched by the Olympia Brewing Company, contemporary with the original Anchor Steam. Northcoast bought the name, and then chose to use it when they launched their more approachable line of beers. Love the packaging and advertising for all the ACME beers. I don't think Northcoast makes any bad beers, though, I find my taste for their higher proof offerings has faded somewhat as I have gotten older. Old Rasputin, Pranqster, and Old Stock are all great beers; but, at over 10% ABV, they will knock you for a loop, if you lose track of your consumption. I'm very fond of their Scrimshaw and Red Seal Ales. I've been in kind of a Stout/Porter mood lately, so will have to remember to give their Old #38 Stout a try again. -Erik

Rats, I was trying to be funny not chauvanistic. If cheapness is your first concern, you could always make your own. I think the only tricky part is tracking down the more obscure flavoring elements, though I find a lot of odd roots and herbs at local health food stores, so I'm sure they can be ordered on the internet. -Erik

There's been quite a bit of research done in my department at UCSF regarding the effects of menthol (and capsaicin). Unfortunately, I am a computer guy, so don't necessarily understand it well enough to be an expert. What the labs have found is that menthol binds to a receptor in your nervous system which normally detects a cooling temperature shift. You put a ice cube on your tongue, the receptor detects that change in temperature and sends the message to your brain that the temperature has changed downwards. Menthol skips the actual temperature shift and simply causes the message of cooling to be sent to your brain. I suspect this beverage contains some chemical analog of menthol that doesn't have a mint flavor. Just not sure if this is "better living through biochemistry" or not. -Erik Nature 416, 52-58 (7 March 2002) | doi: 10.1038/nature719 Identification of a cold receptor reveals a general role for TRP channels in thermosensation David D. McKemy, Werner M. Neuhausser, and David Julius

Our DVR sometimes decides to tape the Cook's Illustrated TV show for us. One episode recently contained a segment on rating dry Vermouths for cooking. They had bow tie guy do a blind tasting while review guy talked about what you should look for in a Vermouth. In the end they recommended Gallo Vermouth for cooking. I think Noilly Pratt came in second. However, while the review guy was talking, bow tie guy tasted all 4 and then proceded to down about 3 glasses of one of the Vermouths, which he then picked as his favorite. It turned out to be the Vya Extra Dry Vermouth. When he found out the review guy recommended people buy the Gallo he said something like, "Good more of this one for me!". Anyway, that was enough of a recommendation for me, so I've since picked up a bottle. Haven't had a chance to do my own taste test vs. Noilly Pratt as of yet. Anyway, if the French are screwing us by sending watered down vermouth, stick it to them, and buy American. -Erik

I'm kind of puzzled and confused by the use of generic ingredients this season. Why use plain hamburger, when you could use some specific kind of beef? Why use plain chicken, when it could be some funny looking heirloom bird? It seemed like the first season, they stuck to ingredients that were more or less native to America, or at least closely associated with the US. Bison, Corn, etc. This was at least kind of cool. As far as the Iron Chefs go, Flay is the least interesting to me. He seems to have a pretty limited repetoire of dishes, his platings are not all that exciting, and he always features at least one dish his restaurants are famous for. At least during battle chicken he didn't make tamales or some sort of cowboy breakfast. Not sure why he called the chicken stuffed with ham and cheese something like, "a tribute to spain," since it was a version of Chicken Saltimbocca. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the Des Jardins battle and Dufresne battles. I hope they get some fun ingredients to play with. -Erik

Hi... We have several Farmers' Markets in town. One of them is downtown and attached to a building I would describe as "Disneyland for Foodies", the others are in less scenic locations and serve quite a cross section of ethnic and class groups. Sometimes when I need my fix of chicken fat roasted potatoes or June Taylor Jams, I head downtown; but, most often I tend to go to the one closer to my house and fight over the best looking peas or fava beans with women or men from other ethnic groups. Aside from the downtown Farmers' Market, most of these other markets are no more the "preserve of the economic elite" than the shops in Chinatown or the Mission. For the most, part they are also cheaper than Safeway or any other grocery chain in town. In fact, at least here in San Francisco, I find even Whole Foods often has better prices on some items I buy frequently, than Safeway. Though, you do have to pay attention at Whole Foods, so you don't get soaked for the odd $1 a piece organic lemon. I found the opinion piece to be thought provoking; but, after some consideration found myself disagreeing with most everything except the last couple paragraphs. Shopping well is no more the purview of the rich than any other aspect of Home Economics. Sadly, I think almost nothing in American culture or education teaches young people to shop well (or manage their finances, for that matter). Anyway, I was riding the bus the other night and as usual was looking at what people had in their Safeway bags. Usually it is the average mess of cereal, popsicles and the like. I noticed the man across from me had fresh mushrooms and basil. I really did feel like asking what he was going to make, or point out to him that he could have gotten either cheaper at the farmers' market. Of course I did not, because aside from cooking with fresh herbs, we had nothing in common. -Erik

Tried the Chez Maman burger the other night and wasn't over impressed. To me it was over seasoned, a little small and kind of lost in its over size hard roll type bun. Very good frites, though. However, perhaps I will grow to love them, as they are opening a second restaurant up the street from me on Cortland Avenue, (sadly where Palatino used to be,) in the near future. -Erik

One thing I have noticed on my visits to Fog City News, is how many of the European chocolate brands they carry are owned by Nestle or Kraft. I wonder if Scharffenberger will continue to offer tours of their factory in Berkeley or if they will get pulled into the mothership in PA? I haven't been over to take the tour, and will be sad if I missed that experience entirely. -Erik

For deconvoluting the cocktail part, I don't think you can do much better for a starter book than David Wondrich's "Killer Cocktails : An Intoxicating Guide to Sophisticated Drinking". Punches are nice for summer parties, especially since they can be made ahead. Something like a tequila spiked watermelon lemonade or Brazilian Daiquiris can be made ahead, chilled, poured over ice in a collins glass, and garnished for elegant and refreshing drinks. Just remember, if you are the bartender and host, especially since it sounds like you are not that experienced with cocktails, it becomes your responsibility to keep an eye on your guests' intoxication level. If you are going to really do it up, it is best if you make it a sleep over. -Erik

I haven't been to Delfina recently, so I won't comment on the salt issue. My wife and I usually find late night dining in San Francisco frustrating, especially on Friday and Saturday. What usually happens, is, we make a reservation for 9 or 9:30 and don't end up getting seated until 10, 10:30, or 10:45. By that time, we've had too much to drink, are starving, and don't really feel like eating a big meal. It's not usually a problem at the truly upscale places; but, at the "upper mid-level" restaurants we dine at most often, we find the early evening service and food to be almost uniformly better. -Erik

Usually, around here, it's done with cleaned oysters on the half shell, kind of like Oysters Rockefeller, (stuffed or not). -Erik

I like whisk(e)y but I'm not really a scotch guy. More Bourbon and Rye. Sadly, the death of James Doohan encouraged me to enrich my bar with some scotch. I have to say, with some encouragement, the Compass Box Asyla is a fine decently priced whisk(e)y with an "e" or not. Yum, and glad we are not drinking synthehol. -Erik

Oh, man I am so jealous! A Ridge Howell Mountain Zinfandel was one of the first wines I consciously sought out as a young wine fancier. Finally drank it a couple years ago, to discover I hadn't stored it well. Mmmm...Motor Oil! The Ridge Three Valleys Zinfandel is one of our current bargain faves. Cheers, man, sounds great! -Erik

My usual botany trivia post. From what I've been able to find out, the mint properly used in Cuban Mojitos is Mentha nemorosa. Spearmint (Mentha spicata) is supposedly the closest easily available garden mint. Yerba Buena (Good Herb) seems to be a fairly non-specific name. Quite a few different plants in different parts of the world seem to have ended up being called Yerba Buena by Latin settlers or Spanish Missionaries. For example, in the Philipines, Mentha arvensis is called Yerba Buena. The original settlement in the area of the San Francisco, CA was called Yerba Buena after a native West Coast herb that wasn't even a mint (Satureja douglasii). -Erik

Baudelaire was an asshole and probably a fascist; but, aside from more or less the whole of Lowry's "Under the Volcano" the following three paragraphs have always been my pithy favorites regarding drunken-ness. ------------ "Be always drunken. Nothing else matters: that is the only question. If you would not feel the horrible burden of Time weighing on your shoulders and crushing you to the earth, be drunken continually. Drunken with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you will. But be drunken. And if sometimes, on the stairs of a palace, or on the green side of a ditch, or in the dreary solitude of your own room, you should awaken and the drunkenness be half or wholly slipped away from you, ask of the wind, or of the wave, or of the star, or of the bird, or of the clock, or whatever flies, or sighs, or rocks, or sings, or speaks, ask what hour it is; and the wind, wave, star, bird, clock, will answer you: 'It is the hour to be drunken! Be drunken, if you would not be martyred slaves of Time; be drunken continually! With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you will.'"

I've had mine in a sealed jar in the basement now for about a month. There was some black coloring at the top in the begining; but, since, not much change in color. Is it oxidation that causes the color change or exposure to light? At this point mine is, 16 walnuts quartered, a few pieces of lemon zest, and about a bottle of vodka. -Erik

I had a burger at The Magnolia Pub on Haight last night and was quite pleasantly suprised at the quality of the burger and sides. Half pound (a little big for me) of very fresh Niman Ranch meat, nicely grilled, butter lettuce and a ripe tomato. Very good Fries as well. As a special bonus, they serve all their sandwiches with Gus' New York style barrel pickles. I don't think they have malts; but, the cask conditioned ales I tried were pretty tasty.

annadev, I found some articles that jogged my memory. For a while the Wappo folks were running a latin american style restaurant in the train station (where the smokehouse was) called Wappo Taco. They have since re-themed the menu to more global latin cuisine and re-named that restaurant Fuentes Tapas. That might have been what you heard about. -Erik

Anyone got a good blueberry sorbet or gelato recipe to share? My wife loves blueberries, and I'd like to make one while the local blueberries are still available. This Blueberry Sorbet from Rob Feenie looks pretty promising. Probably double it, though. -Erik