ChrisTaylor

Picked up a mini of Ardbeg Blasda. I was forewarned that it's an oddball drop. On the nose it's young and there's smoke/peat. Yeah, it's lightly peated--not unpeated. On the palate it's young. Oak. Wood. A certain creaminess. Then a bit of fruitness. It's okay. Perhaps it's even good. Can't see myself coughing up for a full-sized bottle, though.

Nothing wrong with Tanqueray in a Negroni. Though I tend to have a bottle of top shelf gin on hand I rarely use them in a Negroni. I mean, it's not like Punt e Mes and Campari are best friends forever with subtle flavours. EDIT I wouldn't suggest it as a go-to, 'everyday' base for a Negroni but St George's rye gin makes for an interesting Negroni. I like genever, too, although last time I mentioned that it was clear I was almost on my own with that one.

I've had mixed results following the "smoke > sous vide" method. The post Nick linked to advocated "sous vide > smoke." I'd had the most success with that method. Though it (probably) defeats the point of precise temperature-controlled cooking, I've been known to come home from work and park sous vide beef ribs in my hot smoker--reheating and smoking at the same time.

The cook-off inspired me to get around to making the beeramisu from Chris Badenoch's cookbook. Badenoch was a one-time contestant on the Australian version of Master Chef. The dish is simple: layered mascarpone mousse and espresso/chocolate stout-soaked sponge fingers. I used Young's Double Chocolate Stout. Dig my high class presentation. The end result was ... okay. Inferior to the classic. I'm not sure if it was my incompetence, the ingredients themselves or some combination thereof but the bottom layer of beeramisu tends to get a little liquid-y. And once I realised just how absorbent sponge fingers were I made a point of squeezing out the excess coffee and beer.

I reckon you'd be better off with buttermilk.

The lychee beer isn't totally awful. At least not for the first bottle. A six pack lasts a while.

Burning Ice, using Laphroaig .25 Cask instead of the prescribed 10. Nice winter drink.

More Henry. Big on the tannins. Reminds me of the skin from a Granny Smith apple. A mild bitterness on the end. I approve.

Shirakawago Sasanigori, an unfiltered sake. Off-milk appearance. Sour, yeasty, boozy on the nose--reminds me of the kind of Southern African home brew that inspired this rather charming song: On the palate it's a little sharp and sour without crossing into unpleasant, bile-like territory. There's a bit of overripe banana going on there. A bit of a rough finish. A little bit is a lot, yeah, but it's closer to being perfect snow than the one that was actually marketed as perfect snow. EDIT A fair while in, as the drink slowly warms up to room temperature, a pleasant honey sweetness has appeared on the tail end. So far as unfiltered sake goes, this is pretty banging.

This month's MXMO focuses on the Manhattan. Here's my spin on the drink: The Place of Weeping 2.5 oz South African brandy, KWV 10 0.75 oz Dolin sweet 2 dashes bitters, (homemade) Boer -- big on the clove, nutmeg, black pepper 1 dash Angostura bitters Stir/strain the above into an Octomore-rinsed glass. This is boozy but too smooth. I'd be inclined to revisit this with a less-refined brandy or maybe even a split-base: maybe fiddy-fiddy aged KWV and young Klipdrift.

It counts as one if you pour two normal-sized Mai Tais into a giant novelty glass. Tonight I'm on cognac. Nothing remarkable: Jean Luc Pasquet VS.

If you work long hours, it's nice to know you're coming home to something that'd ordinarily take a while--e.g. short ribs, pork belly. Duck confit is nice, too, although I think the killer app is octopus. When I'm catering for my family I tend to use both of my circulators--I'll have one dealing with meats and the other handling vegetables. Or one on reheat duty and the other cooking things that can only be prepared last minute. If you can't find value there, well, the problem isn't with the unit itself.

My first venture into flavoured sake: Kuromatsu Hakashika Hana Kohaku. Sake with 'natural Japanese plum extract added.' Relatively mild--12.6% APV. It's less sweet than I expected. I mean, yeah, it's sweet, but there's enough sourness--and a bit of sake savouriness--to keep it relatively balanced. Or at least to prevent it from being all-out, balls-out cloying. It's fairly ... blah, though. I mean, I like it more than I thought it would--I bought it out of curiosity--but it's not something I'd buy again. It's not ... sake enough.

Classic Bats and a nice ginjo. Kikusui's organic, to exact. Very restrained aroma. Delicate. A rounded sweetness that rolls, ever so pleasantly, into a crisp savouriness. This would be lovely with fresh seafood--sashimi, oysters, maybe a cold seafood salad. A touch of pepper on the end with a bit of fruity sweetness. I normally prefer less refined sake but this one is a winner.

Solomon Grundy. It's pretty good, although I wonder if rye would work in place of the gin.

Last night I made an Old Pal. I didn't think I'd had one before but I had consumed the Campari/dry vermouth combo before. I find thd combo to be a little off.

I am now on episode five (Ben Shewry/Attica). I've liked them all so far, although this one resonates a bit more because I've been to Attica a few times and recognise a few of the dishes. And, hey, my home city in the kind of show that normally focuses exclusively on Americans and maybe, just maybe, other residents of the northern hemisphere. I hope a second season is in the works. Locally, I'd love to see Peter Gilmore/Quay appear. And, yeah, that potato dish. 'A simple dish of a potato cooked in the earth it was grown in.' It's a pretty banging dish.

The bird! The bird! For a brief moment I thought I'd had this one already. I guess it's the bird logo, the minimalist label design and the Ellroy. A little sweet. Simple syrup. A bit of citrus going on. Lemon zest. A tiny bit of bitterness. A lasting but subdued savouriness. This one's nice. It doesn't have any obvious tattoos or piercings in weird places. It keeps itself reasonably clean. It doesn't wear swastika t-shirts. You could introduce it to your mother in confidence.

'Asabiraki' Junmaishu Ohkarakuchi Suijin Rounded sweetness fades to savouriness. Smooth, refined. Mouth-filling butteriness. Clean. A little bitterness on the end.

I bought a half dozen bottles today. I opened this first because I liked the label. English-language bits and pieces: Fruity. Sweet. Banana. Then there's something odd--hard to place. A sort of vegetable bitterness, maybe? Something herbal? I don't really know what it is but it's interesting. A bit boozy on the tail. 16.something%. It's alright. It's not a disappointment after the cool label or anything.

I'm watching the first one now. It's very good.

The Sanny. Maybe my palate's out of whack--I have a cold--but all that bourbon and whatnot brings out a weird coffee note in the Cynar.

Test Pilot, using a half ounce of Sea Wynde and a full ounce of Appleton V/X for the Jamaican component. As much as I hated the Wynde on its lonesome it's pretty fucking good in a flavour-packed drink like this.

'Suishin' means 'drunken heart', apparently. I approve of that. The English-language label says 17% This sake was considerably more expensive than everything else I've had so far. It has a good reputation apparently and I reckon that's deserved. Restrained fruity aroma--melon. Honey on the palate, altho' it's a balanced sweetness. Melon again. It feels pleasingly viscous. I like this one.

When I went past Hong Kong Supermarket this morning they were in the process of putting some new sake on the shelves. I purchased two. There's no English on this label, aside from a web address, but poking around on Google for all of thirty seconds taught me this is Funaguchi Kikusui. It's a boozy (19%) unpasteurised sake classified by Kikusui as full-bodied and slightly sweet. That classification is accurate. The 200mL serving is just the right size. A little bit is a lot, if you catch my drift. The aroma is savoury and ... fatty. As in, there's something in there--seriously--that reminds me of the cheerful smell of roasted animal fat (duck, dripping, etc). There's a bit of sweetness there. And the texture, oh, it's lovely. It has the very dry finish you'd expect from such a boozy sake. Supposedly the flavour changes a lot as this sake matures. I'm inclined to buy a few more cans and put them away for a few months. This isn't a sake for everyone. It's certainly not a sake I'd give a first-timer--even if they were the kind of first-timer that liked to start with 'interesting' things rather than 'generic' things--but it is very nice. EDIT I reckon you could make an interesting cocktail with this. And I'm not talking about the 'let's pair a generic-tasting sake with some fruity sweet stuff'-type affair here. EDIT 2 Now I know, reading back a few posts, why the can looked so familiar.