John Rosevear

The size I use is the size that comes out of the ice-o-mat, which (from memory here) probably ranges roughly from small shards to a chunks a little bigger than 1/2" in diameter. Definitely not snow, and a little coarser than what I get when I use a Lewis bag.

Looks like a copy of one of the old Rival Ice-O-Mats... I bought one of those (circa 1950, we think) off eBay a couple of years ago for $15 after hearing one of the bartenders at Eastern Standard sing its praises. Changed my life, too. FWIW, I find that when I shake with cubes and strain into crushed, I inevitably use too much crushed in the glass and end up overdiluted if I don't finish the drink within 5 min or so.

...and don't strain. Just pour the whole thing into the glass, garnish, and serve.

The Surf Room Mai Tai is a great party drink. If you multiply all of the proportions by 18, it makes almost exactly a gallon (before ice).

Rhum Clement is an excellent Martinique that is (in some parts of the US) easier to find than the St James. I like it a lot -- in fact, I'm sipping a Mai Tai made with Clement's VSOP right now. Re falernum, if all else fails you can order the Fee Bros syrup online from quite a few vendors.

First Mai Tai in months -- it's a nice reminder of summer. Appleton Estate Extra, Clement VSOP, Brizard curacao overpoured a little because the lime was kind of tart... good stuff. Needs mint, but my mint patch is buried under snow.

The revived Boker's Bitters. I know I'm late to that particular party, but I just haven't had a chance to play with them yet. And this really really will be the year in which I find consistent sources of fresh galangal and curry leaves.

I have a small young lime plant (not a kaffir) that has given us several small limes in the 6 months or so that we've owned it. I expect the limes to get bigger as the tree does, if only because they will be out of reach of the cat. It's in our living room (about 40 miles north of Chris's) right now, by a big south-facing window. It spent the summer on my deck and came inside when nighttime temps got near freezing. My mom (in RI) has done the same with a Meyer lemon tree for about 10 years now and gets 15-20 gorgeous lemons every year. It's definitely possible to grow citrus in a small way in northern climates.

Morello cherries, in a jar. They are absolutely perfect for cherry cobbler, and quite fine in a pie.

It was the same price as regular Pepsi around here. I think it's a clever way to sell to people who normally can't stand (and don't buy) mass-market HFCS soda, by offering a product they might actually like.

I experimented with Flavacol years ago and I dimly remember that putting it in the oil was in fact the secret. You may find that you need to use more oil to get the full effect.

For those who haven't tried it and have any interest in cola at all, I strongly recommend checking it out. The Pepsi is surprisingly good stuff, quite different (in a very good way) from their regular product. I very much wish Coke would do a similar run of their 1970s formula for those of us who can't get Mexican Coke.

When I was first learning to cook Chinese, Yan-Kit So's "Classic Chinese Cookbook" was, more than any other single book, the cornerstone of my education. It's not perfect, and it's not comprehensive, but what's there is very good indeed, and ideal for a serious beginner. Dunlop isn't quite so beginner-friendly to my mind.

Shamanjoe, you totally need some falernum because you totally need to try the 1934 zombie, the real king of tiki drinks. Fee's falernum syrup is a little scary but works (Berry actually recommends it, or did) and is widely available on the 'net if your local sources fail you. Cinnamon syrup is easy to make at home -- actually most of these syrups can be made at home without too much fuss, even orgeat. And of course (to get us back on topic), making your own syrups is a premier sign of cocktail snobbery.

As I often say, it's easy for Michael Pollan to insist on all-local-produce-all-the-time, because he lives in Berkeley, where one can get decent local produce year round. But for those of us who live in places where winter happens, it isn't so simple. Where do you "baffled" folks live and what exactly do you eat in midwinter?

There's a hydroponic operation near me that produces quite decent beefsteak-ish tomatoes year round, much better than any of the imported varieties available locally. Fresh corn in midwinter, though, is something Massachusetts grocers still haven't figured out -- the stuff I've tried has been uniformly nasty.

Korean or not, it looks great... your photo has inspired to do something similar tonight (minus most of the heat -- while my kids have learned to appreciate garlic, they but aren't yet on friendly terms with capsaicin).

I suspect you're right. I think my wife was just hoping I'd be inspired to concoct some good breakfast sausage, but I doubt it'll end there.

A Bodum Santos vacuum coffee maker from my coffee-geek sister, David Thompson's Thai Food, The Flavor Bible, a new copy of The Way to Cook to replace one that got damaged in a move a while back, and meat grinder and sausage stuffer attachments for the KitchenAid. (And now I definitely have to go buy a copy of Ruhlman's Charcuterie... just what I need, another time-intensive kitchen obsession!)

The Surf Room variant is from Berry's book Intoxica... if you have the Tiki+ iPhone app, it's listed as the "Mai Tai (Hawaiian Style)". It's not Vic's Mai Tai, and it's not exactly a *deep voice* Great American Cocktail, but it's a tasty tiki drink, well worth trying on a warm night. 1 oz orange juice 1 oz pineapple juice 1/2 oz lime juice 1/4 oz lemon juice 1/4 oz orange Curacao 1/4 oz orgeat 1/4 oz simple syrup 1 oz Demerara rum (80 proof) 1 oz dark Jamaican rum 1 oz light Puerto Rican rum Shake, pour unstrained into a DOF glass (or a pint glass if you used a lot of ice), garnish with pineapple, sugar cane, orchid, and mint sprig.

I knew because of this: Of the hundred-plus Jeff Berry recipes we've tried over the last few years, the Surf Room Mai Tai is my wife's absolute total favorite, hands down, second place not even worth mentioning... and I've maybe felt moved to explain the whole "it's not REALLY a Mai Tai" deal to her friends a time or three. [edited for typo fix]

... or you go off on an extended monologue about the Royal Hawaiian Hotel's pineapple-fueled "Mai Tai" vs Vic's original and the apparently-outsized influence of the former and its progeny on what people think a Mai Tai really is.

Shamanjoe, I generally like Gary Regan's recommendations, but in this case I think that's waaaay too much Violette. Try your next Aviation with just a teaspoon or so. Re the mai tai, it really shines with the right rums -- Appleton V/X and Saint James Royal Ambre are good reasonably-priced options. Martinique rums tend to be dry, almost whisky-like; the Gosling's is more like a Jamaican-style rum. If you'd like to experiment, try making a batch of simple syrup with a little bit of vanilla in it and using it with that recipe -- works beautifully.

I haven't had the North Shore, but if the US market Kubler is anything like the original US-ban-era Swiss variant of a few years ago, I think you'll find that nearly all absinthes are less anise-y and more nuanced. I found the older stuff nigh undrinkable, which is a shame as I've still got nearly a liter of it sitting around.

...so perfect, in fact, that the measurement markings are wearing off and the plastic is getting battered from overuse, prompting you to replace it with the stainless steel version.