haresfur

Picked up a new-to-me Lazzaroni Amaro today. Pretty sweet, tastes basically like a non-fizzy chinotto. Not unpleasant but not sure what I will do with it aside from maybe drinking straight or topped with soda water or tonic. Anyone run into this one?

Awesome. Do you put the chocolate syrup on the glass before or after you build the drink?

That sounds great. I bet the chocolate goes well. I've mixed Campari with lemon sorbet. Looks nice swirled in with straight lemon but I've had problems getting the swirl right.

Totally agree, both about problem solving and in particular about acquired tastes. But you have to start with yourself. Case in point. A number of years ago, when I was quite new to the professional booze-taster gig, I got sent a bottle of this new rum called Sea Wynde. I tasted it and almost spat it out. It was harsh, burnt tasting, sulfurous. If that was rum, everything else I knew as rum wasn't. Clearly defective. ... Then we got Inner Circle, also different but a lot. By now, of course, I had learned to appreciate this stuff and was actively seeking it out. Then Eric Seed asked me what spirits I'd like to see available, and I told him a real, old-school Jamaica rum. I'd never had one, but I was sure it was big in that stank, which by this point I had learned to call "hogo." Next time I saw him, he had samples, and by this point I was able to tell what I was looking for in such a rum. With that input and input from some other people who had come to appreciate this style (Audrey Saunders, for one), Eric put together Smith & Cross. Things like that don't happen if you compartmentalize your input. My first thought on reading this was, "Gee, I hope I don't have to acquire a taste for Bundaberg yellow label. So how do you decide which tastes you want to acquire? I suppose one way for me would be to listen to the opinions of the writers, bartenders, and historians. As I think about it, perhaps it is better to think about evolving tastes rather than acquired tastes. There has to be a way to get from point A to point B. Maybe you decide the endpoint would be better hit by an asteroid and left to the fossil record. Or you get side-tracked on the way and end up somewhere exciting and unexpected.

I admit, I sometimes like drinks that others might turn up their noses at. Maybe not chocotinis, but ones that aren't "too adult". There was a MixMo a while back on "guilty pleasures" but maybe others have ideas for drinks that are tasty (or perhaps humorous) in spite of themselves. For example, how about an adult float that feels nice on a scratchy throat: Fill chilled glass with lemon-lime gelatto Add 2 oz Aperol Top with tonic water Might be better with Campari

Ah, I was wondering about the delis, thanks for clearing that up. Sounds like you are providing a great community meeting place.

I think this is perhaps why the answer to the OP is so elusive--a recipe cannot be intrinsically "craft". A "craft" item is the product of a craftsman, an expert in executing a method. Whether a cocktail is a "craft" cocktail must be judged on a drink-to-drink basis, even when the drinks are theoretically the same recipe. Perhaps addressing the idea of intrinsic quality or merit of recipes needs another term? I think the merit question is where classic comes in. Classical music is a style with a particular merit. And it is generally agreed, I believe, that people continue to write classical music. I don't think the vest is a red herring because the bartender craft is both in the execution of the drink and in the performance of preparing it. The question then is if the vest is appropriate to the ambiance or a non-sequitur? Surely part of what made Jerry Thomas great was the diamond stick-pin. Gerry Regan's book has some great examples of what makes a great bartender.

So all the old delicatessens are gone, Myer's, Phil's? Surely there were more. Do you find a growth or decline in how many people in the area are keeping kosher or how strictly they are keeping it?

To add to what Anna said, Induction is the highest efficiency cooking surface so compared to resistance heating, it will save money and be more "environmentally friendly" if you are concerned about such things. The limitation on which pots you can use is the only down-side.

My crack, anyway.... With the exception of the first point, I think this is a pretty good explanation of a craft cocktail. There will always be examples that don't fit the norm but it is pretty close to the mark. IMO "craft" doesn't necessarily have to conform to one taste aesthetic like the "serious" cocktail bar. Beware the sweet is certainly a good guide but a sweet cocktail could certainly be prepared with a lot of craft, and low-alcohol non-spirit-forward drinks can fit the definition of craft - you are welcome to argue semantics about whether we are talking about cocktails or mixed drinks but I don't get hung up on that stuff. If you look to other crafts, there are a huge varieties of styles and tastes in pottery, fine furniture, craft fabric, etc. and I believe it would be a mistake to get too snobby.

The kugel looks wonderful. I'll have to try it this winter. I googled your shop and you are pretty close to my Junior High School. I'm getting all nostalgic. As you thought, Melbourne must have a substantial orthodox Jewish community, judging from the people I see at the airport. No matzo in my local grocery - I'll have to try the one in town that seems to have a little better selection. We don't have to pay for bags but reusable ones are encouraged. At Aldi you have to bring or buy reuseable bags.

Wow, whole wheat and spelt. I think I may have seen whole wheat but never spelt. I'll have to look and see if I can find some here. It's been ages since I've had matzo. I don't like warm butter and I remember from the 'peg the challenge of spreading cold butter on matzo without turning it back to flour! I see your shop is in the hilly part of town

It's been great fun. The last pot is part of a small series I did of tea pots inspired by bowls. The pot is made out of a bowl and a plate sealed together and then smooshed down like it was dropped on a table. I think the spout is visually problematic and a couple of centimeters too long. It is glazed in an Americanized shino glaze that unfortunately didn't get some of the colour variations that are more interesting.

I thought there was a tea pot photo thread in the coffee and tea forum, but I couldn't find it. There are threads on Yixing pots (like the top one). I really don't know a lot about brewing tea or matching teas to pots.

I made the bottom three, quite a while ago. I do need to get back to pottery, if only because we keep breaking plates. The round tea pot is my most used pot. The other two work but aren't super practical.

I thought the ginger beer was pretty good. What brand do you like? My favourite Aussie ginger beer is Cascade from Tasmania. I buy whichever is on sale. On the other hand Bundaberg rum is godawful. Actually, I have only tried the yellow label stuff. I would only try the others if I could get a tiny nip-bottle.

Well, it's almost 9:00 PM on Saturday here and my blog is drawing to a close. Thanks for reading and it's been a really fun "conversation". I've learned a lot. I'll leave off with a few tea pot photos:

Something else I wanted to mention is the fickle nature of water in much of Australia. Even though we had record rain after the drought, we are still on water restrictions. That may ease further with some upgrades to the water treatment system in Bendigo but the fundamental problem is too little and erratic rainfall and a general lack of storage capacity. Much of the groundwater is too saline to use. On the other hand Bendigo water is very soft and tastes really good after some pretty advanced purification. I usually try to capture the water for plants as I'm waiting for the hot water to reach the sink. I keep a pitcher handy and pour it into a plastic water jug if I'm not using it for the plants right away. Of course it would have helped if they had put the water heater closer to the kitchen & bath, rather than at the back of the house (outside). And another more or less food related item are the eucalyptus leaves I gathered for the last family members, a couple of stick leaf insects I bought from a friend's kid who has quite a little business going.

Oh, I forgot to mention that after lunch we went around to my friends' place for tea and cake. Josie made a very nice pear and raspberry cake.

The lamb cooked for about 10 hours, the last one uncovered, which seems to have been a mistake. It got more dry than brown. The root vegetables were nice and soft when I got home from lunch - they just tasted uncooked. So I put them on the stove with wine and simmered for quite a while. To make a long story short, they were still pretty bad. The lamb was cooked but not exactly melting away. Maybe another half day would have helped. It tasted pretty good to me. We ate one shank's worth and have leftovers for something. I also served it with mashed sweet potato, ginger and a bit of sour cream. A bit too much sour cream but it turned out pretty well. Opened my last bottle of Davenlore merlot from Prosser Washington. Made me realize how much I miss Washington merlot. Good thing I have a few bottles of their Cabernet, though. Eileen used to work with one of the owners and we really like their wine. Much better than knowing someone who's wine you aren't fond of.

My friends just built a house in Trentham, a small town on the Great Dividing Range - "great" as in "long", not "high" In central Victoria, you'd be hard pressed to figure out there is a continental divide there without looking at a map of the streams. Trentham is a bit over an hour south of Bendigo. We were joined by other friends who live in Bendigo & Kyneton. Lunch was at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Well, not actually at the hotel, which had a fire several years ago. The new owners have been working to restore it and in the mean-time serve meals in the old stables in the back. The kitchen is in a caravan. I had roast duck with duck & juniper pie and lentils. The duck was pretty good, the "pie" wonderful and the lentils were very good, too. Here are a few of other meals: It was a beautiful autumn day and the locals were out at the bar, watching the world go by:

Ok, no safety net: Time for the lamb. I got up early fed and walked dogs (saw a wallaby). Then cobbled together advice from here and Alice Waters and a few guesses along the way. First I salt&peppered the lamb and browned it in olive oil. I took the lamb out and browned the root vegetables a little. Took that out and put in a separate casserole. Then I cooked up a mixture of chopped leek, onion, and shallot in the pot. Took that out, added some white wine and deglazed the sides a little. The leek mixture went back in, along with a couple of chopped tomatoes and rosemary. Put the lamb on top, covered and put both dishes in an oven heated to 150 C and immediately dropped the temperature as low as it could go. I put the meat thermometer on the shelf and the temperature ranged from about 75 to 84. I haven't really figured my oven out yet. It has a convection element at the back instead of the N American Norm bottom element. The grill is separate, below the oven. Then with fingers crossed I left for lunch with friends.

LOL. Correct he is after tuna - only spring water, not oil. The purple packages are pet mince (no not minced pets!). I try to buy the stuff that doesn't make a point of advertising that it contains kidney because Dalmatians can get crystal problems in their urine, similar to gout (different from the common cat crystals) so purines are better avoided. The brown bottle with the yellow pull-ring cap is Bundaberg ginger beer. Aussies do like their ginger beer and I can't complain about that.

Time for the ugly: Here are some refrigerator photos:

Had to make a trip to Geelong today, over 5 hours driving for a 2 hour meeting. So the day started with an egg McMuffin, hash browns and a large mocha. I didn't bother taking a photo. I drove around looking for a lunch spot in Geelong but found myself in the outskirts and ended up eating some unexciting udon soup in a shopping mall. The good news is I made it back to the office in time for beer club. The James Squire Porter was rated highly by most members. When I made it home, I was pretty tired so an easy meal of butter chicken was in order. My routine is to chop an onion and fry it up in olive oil along with a cup of brown rice (medium grain is sold in the supermarkets) until the rice is toasty and the onion translucent. I threw in some Hungarian yellow peppers from the garden because I needed to use them up. Then add 2 cups water. I also added about an ice cube size chunk of frozen turkey stock. After about 1/2 hour of simmer place chicken on top and dump a jar of butter chicken sauce over. Cook another 15 minutes or so until the chicken is done. Bone-in chicken takes longer. While the chicken was cooking, I made a small French 75 but replaced the champagne with Duck and Bull cider. Yummy. 1 oz Tanqueray gin 1/2 oz lemon juice Shake with ice, strain into a champagne flute, top with sparkling cider. Garnish with lemon twist. My champagne flutes came from my grandfather and they are a bit small for even this reduced volume so I added more cider after the first few sips.