ChrisTaylor

Middle to end of week when I return from a day in the classroom, particularly in the second half of term? Yes. There will be suds on the dishes. Rinsing requires that little bit of extra energy I just don't have.

Gingerbeard ginger beer. It's the first alcoholic ginger beer I've had before and, mild as its alcoholic content is (4.something%) I feel the alcohol actually detracts from it. I've had superior non-alcoholic ginger beers.

So. Yeah. Really long shot here. But anyone know of anything worth eating in Harare?

Can't you see if a decent butcher has a catalogue of game and whatnot? Things you can order in.

Sure. Maybe. But if I was an editor I'd jump on that line with my initial question. A professional writer isn't writing for himself or herself. A professional writer writes for a wider audience.

I'm reading an article that rates a number of Australian reds. A couple of the pinot noirs are described as having a 'juicy crunchy finish.' What does that mean? I can sometimes take things too literally (let's just say it's hardwired) but when I think of crunch I think of ... celery. I think of crunching on a packet of potato crisps. I find it hard to imagine a drinking experience along these lines. Too, if a palate 'displays athletic shape and energetic tannins', what does that mean? I've no issue understanding flavour/aroma-based tasting notes (i.e. grassy, blackberry or even 'chalky tannins') but I'm at a loss when trying to understand this sort of wine writing.

You should've sampled the Glenfarclas. Hopefully I have a 25 by next time--it's something special.

Last night was a whole lot of meat--BBQ ribs (beef and pork), roast chicken wings, rabbit confitted in smoked olive oil--as well as the obligatory green stuff and starch. Tonight I'm just having a steak, maybe a couple fried eggs, some spinach, some mushrooms and some roast tomatoes. Simple and plain but nice. I was tempted by the whole duck I saw--I mean, it'd be nice to throw that in the smoker--but I just can't be bothered dealing with that today.

Glenfarclas 15. It's nice enough for an entry-level Speyside but the 15 is nowhere near as impressive as the 25--altho', oddly, I do prefer it to the 21. You can pick up on the rich sweetness that's going to develop into the mouth-filling caramel awesomeness of the 25. Oddly, this could probably benefit from being bottled at, I don't know, 40% instead of the 46. The kick of the alcohol is really strong here. I think I'll replace the 15 with a 25 when it runs dry.

I sort of figured that a '94 Calvados is a bit like a, say, '96 Distiller's Edition Talisker or a '11 special addition whateverwhisky. Essentially a batch number rather than a vintage like you'd have with wine (as it doesn't age in the bottle, after all).

I hope you don't mind. I'm skipping work tomorrow and coming for dinner.

Bump. Eric Bordelet's '94 calvados is the first example of the spirt that I've enjoyed. Calvados has, in the past, to me smelt great but tasted like rot gut. The Bordelet, as much as it's a touch over 50% APV, actually tastes like apples. And that sounds odd, yeah. Apple drink tasting like apples. But most apple-based beverages (i.e. a lot of those Scadanavian ciders and some of the really sweet Australian ones that are stupidly popular at the moment) just don't like apple at all. The Bordelet is expensive but it is a beautiful beverage. I think I want a bottle of my own. I've had two of his ciders, too: one of the entry-level apple ones and one of his expensive poire ones (made with pears from 300 year old trees). Both very nice examples of French cider (which, really, overall and everything, is as good as cider gets).

I didn't add water, no. I ordered it by the glass and stupidly didn't pay attention at all to the APV--I only noticed the rot gut aftertaste. Next time I get the chance to try it I'll actually pay attention the APV and add a little water. Last night I sampled a couple of interesting things: * Isle of Jura Superstition: I know that this is Jura's attempt at producing a more flavoursome whisky (I haven't had the original but I've heard it's insipid) but it was really mild. Almost like it'd been watered down a whole lot by someone who really doesn't enjoy the taste of whisky. I wouldn't be unhappy if I'd paid for a glass in a bar and that's what I got but I wouldn't be rushing out to the shops to purchase a bottle for my collection. * Abelour A'bunadh. haresfur and I did a side by side comaprison of my bottle (batch 28) and his (batch 33). The differences in colour, aroma and flavour profile were clear. It wasn't a huge different--it wasn't like comparing, I don't know, the Abelour to something from a different distillery or different region, but you wouldn't need an especially well-trained palate to tell that these were not from the same bottle. Obviously, if you like one you'll like the other. Of the two, I enjoyed the 33 more. haresfur, iirc, enjoyed the 28 more. * Monkey Shoulder. A blend of three Speyside whiskies. Inoffensive for a cheap whisky. Nice, even. Would you run to buy this over some of the nice Speysides? Maybe not. But if you're at a bar and there's a join between that, maybe a Glenfiddich 12 and a Johnnie blend ... well, that's not a choice at all. * Coal Ila 28. Tastes of smoke and nothing else. Not as complex as, say, Laphroaig, even (if Laproaig is like a burning hospital, Coal Ila 28 is like inhaling when opening a smoker). Worked well with the BBQ food but man ... you'd have to be in the right mood to enjoy this. And even then, you'd only want a small pour. I suspect this bottle will last me forever. I can see why they tend not to age Islay whiskies as long as Speysides. * Sullivan's Cove double cask (bourbon and port). Another Australian whisky. Inferior to the wonderful Smith's 8, but superior to the original (and even the peated) Hellyer's Road and, of course, Lark. I don't know if I'd buy a bottle ... but I'd happily order it in a restaurant or bar setting if there wasn't something especially compelling on offer. * Gentleman Jack. I had a strong reaction to the flavour and aroma of this one: overripe bananas (I hate the smell of bananas) dumped in an industrial-sized jug of nail polish remover and maybe left alone under the bathroom sink for a few months. No one else seemed offended by it but, truly, compared to the Woodford Reserve (my favourite bourbon so far) or even the Booker's, it was horrid. I don't think I've ever had the standard Jack so I can't tell you how much better it is than that.

The ribs were okay in terms of flavour (I followed one of Adam Perry Lang's recipes but used a commercia BBQ sauce instead of a homemade one) but not so much in terms of texture. I kept the smoker temperature low enough, I'm pretty sure, but I think they could've done with more time in there. Another hour maybe. They were edible but nothing worth writing home about. Still, we didn't have to dial for pizza. The rabbit was interesting and showed a lot of potential. I portioned it then rubbed it with a basic spice mix: salt, pepper, chipotle, onion, garlic. Cooked it in the olive oil (the saucepan went directly into the smoker) for a hour then gave it another 90 minutes or so in the oven. I guess I could've given it another 30 minutes, maybe. I reheated it on the grill. The meat was nice and soft but the connective tissue, especially around the legs, didn't break down as well as I hoped it would. I might maybe marinade it in something acidic next time. Maybe that'll make a difference. I didn't get around to trying any vegetables or fruits (a friend wanted to smoke apples) in it. Or bake bread. Next weekend, perhaps.

Went to the Chez Regine (270 Russell St, for the few Melbournites/visitors who read eGullet) whisky bar last night and tried a few. Notables: * 15 year old Nikka Yoichi single malt. My first Japanese whisky. A great single malt. Reminds me a helluva lot of Speyside--maybe Glenfarclas, specifically. I'd buy a bottle of this. I wouldn't buy a bottle of Nikka's 'white' blend, which includes Bowmore (yes, the Islay single malt) in the mix. It has, thanks to the Bowmore, a generic peaty Islayish quality about it, but it's not as nice or interesting as any of the Ardbegs/Lagavulin/etc. * A 49 year old Glen Grant. Perhaps not as good as the 25 year old Glenfarclas, to my mind, but still very, very, very good. This was something special--partly because it's got the whole nice, caramelised, aged Speyside thing going on (with a bit of smoke) but also partly because the stuff in that glass would've been--by the time you figure on the bottle being maybe a couple of years old--pretty much double my age. * Glenmorangie Nectar D'or. Didn't sample this at the whisky bar. In fact, I'm sampling a tiny portion of it right now. It's nice enough, I guess, in a mild and inoffensive and accessible way (despite being, what, ~45% APV?) but I kind of expected it to be a little sweeter given it's finished in Sauternes casks. It hasn't taken on anywhere near as much of the character of the wine as, say, the locally produced Hellyer's Road pinot noir finish. * Booker's bourbon. I was expecting big things--not just because it's so expensive here and not just because it's raved about--but I didn't enjoy it. The finish is really harsh. The Woodford Reserve is a much nicer bourbon. Better may exist: my experience with bourbon is very limited.

A bit ago, I used to volunteer with a program that offered academic tutoring to Sudanese kids. They'd run all sorts of special activities these kids were mostly too poor to participate in--soccer clinics and whatnot. I ran regular cooking classes and tasting sessions (i.e. I'd bring in some interesting pieces of meat or seafood and we'd cook them and taste them). Thing in, this program ran out of a church. The church's kitchen had no oven or anything like that. What I had to work with was basically a portable electric stove top. If you wanted to boil some water, say, you could start it right now and head off for a while--get a cup of coffee, take a nap, maybe watch a movie, maybe catch up on the washing and cleaning and other domestic chores, maybe make a stained glass lamp--and come back and it'd just be starting to simmer. The technical term for this stove was, I believe, a 'piece of shit.' It's what I was stuck with unless the weather was nice and the minister/pastor/whatever-he-was-called was willing to let me fire up the BBQ. We shared real estate with people who were cutting up bread rolls and dishing out salads for the kids' proper lunch. On that crappy electric stove, and in its cousin the crappy electric frypan, we cooked everything from camel meatballs to kangaroo steaks to a big pot of mussels. I had armies of primary school children cleaning steamed blue swimmer crabs and groups of kids daring each other to swallow oysters. 'Is it alive?' 'Yes.' 'Is it a boy or a girl?' 'Which would you prefer--if you want it to be a girl, I'll say it's a girl.' We butchered a pheasant and an 11 year old ran around with the head, chasing his friends and some of my fellow tutors. We had failures--a big pot of chicken curry on that stove was a bad idea and so too was attempting to segmet and pan-fry a duck. I should add that back then I didn't have a car. When I went to the program each Saturday, I'd be sitting on the train with a stockpot laden with utensils (including--and this is crazy illegal here--my cook's knife) and other cooking implements.

I've decided, for now, to just buy a whole lot of beef and pork ribs. I do feel the need to experiment, tho'. I was trying to figure a way to keep, say, a rabbit nice and noise. And then I remembered that hey, I have a recipe or three for confit rabbit kicking around: essentially rabbit pieces immersed in a pool of olive oil (along with maybe some garlic or herbs) and slowly (and lowly) cooked for 2-3 hours. This could be a disaster. It could taste like shit. However ... smoked olive oil is awesome rabbit is awesome confit rabbit, any other day of the week, works just fine We'll see. Bugs could either make a trip to the bin or enter the canon of my favourite rabbit recipes.

Isle of Jura is a distillery (and, obviously, an island). Superstition is one of the expressions of their whisky. Abelour is a distillery. A'bunadh is a cask-strength expression with a new batch hitting shelves (roughly) every twelve months. It has no age statement. There are some differences between the batches but I think you must have been looking at the other Abelours. A lot of whiskies are aged in sherry casks (the most notable alternative being bourbon, but you'll find whiskies aged or at least finished in pinot noir casks, sauternes casks, rum casks and other types of casks. Sherry casks are very, very, very common, though. It's not something unique to Abelour.

Got my copy. It's a nice book. Unsurprising, really--all of his books are nice.

How long--roughly (temperature not time, I know, I know, but I want at least a vague idea)--would you cook a vension steak for (say, ~150-250g worth of meat)?

So. Yeah. Australian idea of BBQ != American idea of BBQ. This was discussed in a thread I posted a while back. Well, now I have a large, cabinet-style smoker BBQ. I want to start cooking animals in there. Only ... I have not the slightest idea what I'm doing. A lot of BBQ threads assume you know what you're doing to some degree. This, however, is a foreign cooking method for me and, indeed, most Australians. At some point I'll order, say, the Adam Perry Lang books I was recommended, but for now I'm looking for some very basic information. * How long/low should I be cooking, say, beef and pork ribs (whether a rack of 'back' ribs or some spare ribs) to end up with something that's tender? Do I cook them for a while in the smoker and then transfer them to a grill or do I eat them straight from the smoker? * Which is superior--rubs or marinades--for producing moist meat? I don't want some complex marinade that tastes of whatever--the idea is that I'd be sticking to flavours that emhpasise or support the pork/beef (i.e. salt, pepper, maybe a hint of chipotle). * What sort of cuts can I cook in there? I can see ribs, lamb/pork shoulder working and brisket, too, but am I limited to cuts with a lot of fat/connective tissue? Will any such cuts do? i.e. chuck, beef shin, even lamb shanks, trotters? * Can I cook very lean cuts/species such as rabbit or kangaroo or turkey? * Vegetables? I know it's possible, but what's worthwhile? * Other things--say, bread?

The local pan-Asian supermarket sells little cans of insect larvae. Mealworm, I think. I saw Heston eat some of the very same product on TV once. He spat it out. Every time I consider buying a can for the hell of it, I always pause and reminder that episode of Feasts.

My first attempt at spit-roasting: a duck seasoned with mostly salt but also garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper and a little bit of chipotle powder. It wasn't bad. The breasts were medium rare and greasy and salty and smoky and everything else I wanted them to be. The legs needed a few minutes in the oven to be finished off to a palatable level--and even then, I still had big lumps of fat to contend with. Happy enough with it for a first attempt, tho'.

After realising I'd be paying ~$400AUD for one of these BBQs I put the idea on the backburner--not something I'd use all that often, so it'd have to wait until ... some non-specific point in the future. Then I saw one for $200AUD and bought it. It's a large 'cabinet' style BBQ. What are some things worth investigating, aside from the classics--pork shoulder, beef brisket, beef/pork/lamb ribs, chicken, etc? Lamb shoulder worthwhile? What about leaner meats--I'm thinking game like venison (well, actually, I'm thinking of 'roo/etc but Bambi's mum is probably more familiar to you lot). Even rabbit (any way to stop it drying out in there?) Seafood--say, octopus? Any vegetables/fruits?

Yeah. 10 or 20 courses sounds like a lot, but the reality is the actual quantity of food is probably on par with the average 3-4 course meal. It's spaced out even more, too--unless you eat quickly, in which case a lot of restaurants will speed things up, it can be spread over 3-4 hours.