haresfur

That's good news. I hope with more stores, they will be able to bring in more items and at better prices. Now if the Aussie $ doesn't crash...

When I first got interested in cocktails I bought a bottle of sour mix. Used it once.

How about my Bitter, Bitter, Bitter, Bitter: The Fernet Branca should meet the discusting (to some) criterion. It certainly is high maintenance. And highballs built in the glass are convenient for parties. You can use Italian soda or (English?) bitter lemon soda.

Ok. A search of the forums makes it appear people are using rye or bourbon for the Boulevardier (perhaps too much of a change but maybe similar to a Manhattan where the choice seems to be open). Personally, I try not to get hung up in semantics and am willing to go with whatever sticks in popular usage.

Is the difference from the Boulevardier just proportions, then? Seems hardly worth a new name. I tried a version with 1.5 Wild Turkey rye, 1 Campari and 0.75 "Rosso Antica" and no twist. The rye gave a nice spice but also a bit of strange bitterness that seemed out of place. A tiny splash of Contreau smoothed out the edges for me.

This has to be the most awesome paragraph I have ever read on eG Forums. I think the word "like" may be too simplistic a concept in this case. "I like hitting my head against the wall because it feels so good when I stop." Maybe it's more "discovery". I've discovered a whole world of flavour nuances beneath the initial gag response to Fernet. At the same time, repetition has dulled the initial response so I can appreciate the other qualities. I think you probably use service techniques like this all the time and they frequently come down to evolution of taste either in the glass or in the mouth. Citrus oil on the surface of a drink to prepare you for the whallop beneath; sugar in a high alcohol drink so the initial heat is soothed by the sweetness that follows. I think this is a reason I like rocks drinks - I get a stiff drink that mellows and stretches out as I finish it. To get back to the main topic, the marketing inherent in "perfect" probably isn't any more evil than any other drink name. I've heard various half&half pizzas like half pepperoni half mushroom termed "perfect". For me the problem is that I just don't get dry vermouth. At $26 for a bottle of Noilly Pratt here, it is a taste I'd just as soon not acquire.

Thanks Toby, great suggestions. See, I need to buy more bitters for, um, research.

I think that the hardest thing, probably, is to go from something promising to something divine. Anyone have ideas on that? Or is it just a matter of palate and experience?

The trick is not to worry about being a boor and just enjoy your meal. My technique if using chopsticks is to pick up the shrimp with the sticks. Suck the sauce off the tail. Grab the now clean tail in my fingers and crunch the last bit of meat out of the tail. Throw the tail shell over my shoulder... ok, put it down discretely. Hey, if they don't like it they should make the food easy to eat, although I suppose eating the tail would solve the problem, too. Never thought of that.

No 375 ml vermouth bottles here. When I open a new large bottle of vermouth, I've been filling a clean beer bottle nearly to the brim and capping it with a home brew capper. A Grolsch bottle with a ceramic cap would be easier, but I gave all mine away when I moved. Need to try the vaccu-vin for the active supply.

Probably insignificant when you slather them on your chips/fries.

Do you think your science background carries over into your approach to cooking or do you want to get away from it? I tend to the latter, but maybe that's why I'm a mediocre cook. Then again my Dad was a good but wild cook and a good scientist... Thanks for the great and inspiring blog.

Wow! Do you really file your tea by type? A very impressive stash.

NIH appears to recommend not drinking more than a quart of grapefruit juice a day Atorvastatin. However, in the the Health and Human Services publication Medicine by Design they say some people can show an effect at lower levels: My personal, non-medical practitioner thought, would be to avoid those juices completely when going on a drug with possible interaction and then introducing them slowly (in consultation with your doctor) only after you have established your response to the drug. But then, I didn't have a good experience with statins, anyway.

Hmm, how well do you chew your food?

Good for you! If nothing else you will become aware of how strong your desire/dependency is or is not. In college I would periodically fast for a couple of days - if only so I would appreciate dorm food. Now, I periodically detox from caffeine. If I get a headache I know it was time.

Ok, I'm behind the times with this. Any insights on why China is banning Australian lobster? I'm not sure whether I'm more upset about the plunge in prices due to the ban or at the incredibly high prices in the first place. The rock lobster industry says prices have plummeted since China's decision to stop all imports of Australian rock lobsters.

FWIW, my coworker who used to work for Coca-Cola in Africa, said they go to great lengths to ensure the taste is the same around the world, including sustainable water supplies meeting stringent quality requirements. (Of course that appears not to include paying for cane or beet sugar in the USA.) I heard anecdotally about a water supplier here in Australia who was required to relocate his well away from a stream when drilling a replacement. The new well had slightly too high iron and he was not allowed to treat or blend it. And back on topic: Thanks for the great blog, Chris. I need to make some rosemary simple syrup. How do you think an x the brave would be with bourbon?

Well, I can amplify a bit on my experience if you want. I have the low end tilt-head mixer. My 3000 W transformer is certainly big enough to handle any transient demand from the 300 W mixer. So in terms of voltage and wattage, there isn't a problem that I can see. The 50 Hz frequency here is different. That's something I don't understand very well but as near as I can tell from the great internet font of wisdom, the speeds may be about 20% slower. I can't tell but I seldom need top speed anyway. I haven't used the mixer much (maybe now my oven is finally fixed...) but it runs. It appears the same units are sold in Japan where they have 50 Hz - or is it 50 or 60 Hz, depending on where you live? Interestingly, the 220 models appear to be rated for both frequencies. If I were Kitchenaid, I wouldn't advise someone to do it as a CYA. In fact I wouldn't advise you to do it. But I have yet to see any reason to worry about my system and even if it burns out eventually (can't see why it would), I haven't lost anything.

Well, it's worked for me so far, but your electrons may vary. What problems did people have? One thing, particularly with motorized equipment is to be sure you have a high-enough wattage unit for the start-up pulse. That can be around 2 times the rated value, I think. Mine is rated for continuous usage and I chose the size, based on the espresso maker. I believe there are some electronic things sensitive to the frequency 50 vs 60 Hz but even my rice cooker works.

My vegetarian sister always does Indian food for Christmas. If you want something more traditional you can stuff and roast a pumpkin. (Sorry I'm a bit late).

I bought a 3000 W transformer/voltage regulator so I could move my small appliances to Australia. For that price they should make a dual voltage version.

My Sanyo rice cooker has different marks for different types of rice. I mostly make short or medium grain brown rice and find I like to add a bit more water than they call for.

What they said, but don't be afraid to play. One other approach once you have a passing acquaintance with the basics is to buy something new and then try to figure out the best thing to do with it (hopefully the best thing isn't to pour it down the sink and make yourself an old fashioned ). For example, you could buy some Campari to make an Americano and then think "hmm wonder how it would be if I replaced the soda water with gin?". Ok, that's been done, but you get the idea. I have some plum wine just waiting for an idea on what to mix with it. Another approach is to take a recipe that falls short in your opinion and try to figure out what to do to improve it. Maybe that's just adjusting the ratios but maybe it's adding something new. And don't forget that something could be a non-alcohol component. Sometimes we tend to focus too much on the booze IMO. Don't worry, probably nothing you do could be worse than the stuff college students throw down their throats.

I had good luck with bobateadirect.com, not that I'm a matcha expert. grade A matcha