FrogPrincesse

Thanks @scubadoo97. I added a bit more black pepper after the picture.

Finally a sparkling cocktail with a little more punch, the rum version of Milk & Honey's sparkling Manhattan, the Chicago Cocktail. South Sider (Alex Day) with El Dorado 8 demerara rum (substituted for the 12), Maurin sweet vermouth (subbed for Carpano Antica), Angostura bitters, Peychaud's and Creole bitters, dry Champagne. At first there is some tomato sauce/savory notes from the vermouth but then I got these crazy smooth vanilla notes from the rum as everything meshed together. This is very good.

Goat cheese with golden beets and Italian parsley from my CSA. Red wine vinegar and olive oil vinaigrette. So good.

Sandbass with Meyer lemon herb salsa and thyme creme fraiche, red spinach.

More sparkling cocktails exploration. This one was a bit better. It's a cognac/sparkling take on the Last Word but obviously with the Champagne it tastes much lighter. Julien Sorel (Phil Ward) with Pierre Ferrand 1840 and Landy VS cognac, green Chartreuse, Luxardo maraschino liqueur, lemon juice, Pierre Gimonnet dry Champagne.

Ramen noodles have a different texture (and taste) compared to soba or udon... They are not interchangeable. This description might help.

Polite Provisions has been nominated for a James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program. The judges must have a sweet tooth. Seriously, it's fantastic to see San Diego's cocktail scene acknowledged as being on par with the best of the country.

Calva Dorsa Royale (Phil Ward) with Daron XO calvados, St-Germain, St George absinthe, Pierre Gimmonet brut dry Champagne. It's ok... Better with a heavy hand on the absinthe so the St-Germain is somewhat covered up. But I am not entirely convinced it's not a waste of good Calvados or good Champagne...

@Tri2Cook That looks very nice. Thanks for the recommendation!

That's kind of a funky measurement, right? I was thinking the same thing when I was re-reading the recipe the other day. I am pretty sure it's a "dash" in the original recipe, and I won't go into the rabbit hole of trying to figure out again what a dash is... In any case, to answer your question, 1/8 tablespoon = 3/8 teaspoon = 1.5 1/4 teaspoon, so I would have measured a full 1/4 teaspoon, and then another half 1/4 teaspoon. When I made the cocktail most recently I measured 1/2 barspoon cause I wasn't going to bother with the 1/4 teaspoon. It worked fine.

That's appetizing. Are you trying to make me not like peaty scotch? I'm already hooked so it's not going to work. Back to the topic. I just thought of another source of smoke - tea, more specifically Lapsang souchong. I am really interested in that idea because I don't use tea enough in cocktails (I use it in punches but rarely in cocktails). Does anybody have experience with that? I know Death & Co has at least one recipe in that vein.

I don't think it's available anymore... The article that @Craig E already linked has all the info. The Hamilton 151 is a very good substitute and is fairly easy to find.

I tried Maurin sweet vermouth for the first time a few days ago. It's very savory, with a lot of herbs such as thyme. Almost reminiscent of the seasonings in tomato sauce. Apparently it's a fairly new product made based on an old recipe. Maurin currently belongs to Anchor Distilling. I used it to make a Negroni.

Imperial Cocktail with Tanqueray London dry gin, Noilly Prat extra dry vermouth, Maraschino liqueur, Angostura bitters. I like this one and it's pretty too.

I found this article in Serious Eats to be very informative about the different styles of ramens and classification by seasoning (shio (salt), shoyu (soy sauce), miso (fermented bean paste), as well as broth type (tonkotsu, i.e., pork bone broth), discussion of toppings, etc. Here is an example of shio ramen I had just a couple of days ago at Yakyudori, a restaurant in San Diego. The pork belly topping was good and the egg had a nice texture. I am not a fan of the (canned?) corn but it seems very common. The noddle themselves were nothing special. Fermented bamboo shoots in the upper right corner, and plenty of scallions in the middle.

From the Little Italy Mercado farmers' market in San Diego: Ponderosa bitter lemon (50 cents a piece, I should have bought more than one!), Bouquet de Fleurs sour oranges (for marmalade but I was told they were sweet this year), passion fruit, Haas avocados, rhubarb, Perfection tangerines, sage + buckwheat & orange blossom honeys (this is my favorite honey vendor, Mikolich, and their sage & buckwheat honey just won a Good Foods award), Asian pears, bay leaves.

Neisson is nice, and so are La Favorite, St James, Clement, etc. I guess I like variety!

@JoNorvelleWalkerThe white one I assume? Have you tried the aged one too? It's rather good.

Spicy carrot soup from vegetable literacy with creme fraiche and sumac.

To honor Dick Bradsell, a variation on the Bramble with Tanqueray London dry gin, lemon juice, Briottet blackcurrant syrup, demerara syrup.

I love Eat Your Books. I've been using it for years now and have hundreds of notes in there! It's a fabulous ressource when you have a lot of cookbooks (and cocktail books).

Clint Eastwood (Mike Ryan) with Michter's rye whiskey, green Chartreuse, Angostura bitters, demerara syrup (I used half demerara syrup half gum syrup). The generous dose of bitters (1 bar spoon, as much as the Chartreuse) was fun and actually less in-your-face than I would have imagined. Very good Old Fashioned variation, and I am falling more and more in love with the Michter's rye.

How was it? Or are you taking a nap now maybe?

@lesliecPretty sure these are two different products. The Whisky Exchange, for example, sells both. https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/26653/picon-club-a-lorange-liqueur-bitters

I use an All Clad 3-quart saucier pan, or a pressure cooker if time is limited.