JAZ

Lately, I've been drinking the occasional Maiden's Prayer out of Paul Harrington's book, which calls for equal parts gin and white rum, plus Cointreau and lemon juice. It occurs to me that there are only a couple of cocktails that call for two spirits in more or less equal parts. Another is the Saicar from Dave Wondrich's Killer Cocktails, which calls for brandy and reposada tequila. It too is a great cocktail. I know of several other cocktails that call for a base of one spirit, plus a splash of another, but not many that call for two spirits with equal billing. Am I missing them, or are they a rarity? Any others worth trying?

If the idea of cider appeals to you (I think it's a great match with shellfish) you might try a light dry cocktail with Applejack -- maybe an applecart topped with a splash of soda or sparkling wine.

As Rob has said, he's passed his opening day, so we're closing the topic. Please feel free to send congratulations to Rob in a personal message.

The museum is housed within the Food and Beverage Museum in the Riverwalk complex. It's small, but nicely arranged with a lot of information packed in a small space. Antique bottles, equipment, and glassware are part of it, of course, but the displays are set up to tell stories, so it's not dry (ha!) at all.

#4. Brown Sugar Sings The Blues Ingredients: 1 oz fresh bueberries .5 oz gum syrup made with brown sugar 2 oz Old New orleans Rum 1 oz lime juice, fresh squeezed 3 ice cubes Optional: berries as garnish pulled caramel sugar spike as a fancy swizzle-stick garnish I use a cobbler shaker for this, although it does get clogged up. Muddle the berries in the bottom of the shaker. Add the other ingredients. Shake vigorously, until shaker is extremely cold. Pour (carefully) into a short cocktail glass. Garnish with a few berries and a spike of pulled caramelized sugar.

I've kept this open for a couple of extra days, since I didn't receive many entries. (My apologies for announcing it so late.) If you're thinking of entering, you've got another day. Please send me your entries by tomorrow.

#3: Louisville Cocktail 1.25 oz. Bulleit Bourbon 1.25 oz. B & B liqueur 1.25 oz. Carpano Antica formula 2 dashes Herbsaint or Absinthe 2 dashes Peychaud bitters Pour into ice filled shaker. Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Serve with the best brandied cherry you can find. This was described as "a riff of off a Cocktail a la Louisiane."

Great idea with the lettuce. I make miniature tostadas for one of my classes, and always put a little shredded lettuce on the bottom to keep them crisp, but never thought of it for crisp tacos.

I'm going to vote "no" as well. To me, perfume is simply distracting and unwanted during a meal. I actually stopped wearing perfume when I started cooking seriously -- not that I wore a lot, but I didn't like the interference.

A follow-up question. Along with the single-bevel knives I was asking about, I have the opportunity to get one of the Shun Elites, with the powdered steel. In your opinion, is it worth the extra cost?

Chad, you may cover this question in your book, but I haven't been able to do more than skim it so far. (I do look forward to reading it.) What do you think about the knives with a single bevel? I've never used them, but I have an opportunity to get one for very little money and am tempted. I should say that I have a lot of knives (I've worked in cookware stores off and on for 10 years and thus have quite a collection), so it's not as if I need any more. But I'm tempted by the Shun Pro or Pro II lines -- should I get one? What are the advantages or disadvantages? (I should add that I don't sharpen my own knives, although I take reasonably good care of them. I would be having a professional knife guy sharpen this, just like I do all my knives.)

I bought a bottle of Aperol after tasting a couple of similar Aperol variations on the Negroni (one at Bourbon & Branch in SF; one at Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta). My version: 1 oz. gin (I'm using Beefeater) 1 oz. Aperol 1 oz. Lillet (blond) Bourbon & Branch called theirs a "Summer Negroni" and I think that's a good name for it -- much as I like Negronis, this is lighter and more refreshing.

#2: The Ode to Jeff (built for two) 4 oz Old New Orleans Amber rum 1 1/2 oz lime 1 oz pimento dram 1 oz falernum 3 dashes Peychaud's bitters 1/2 tsp Herbsaint medium egg white Shake all ingredients without ice. Add ice and shake until frothy. Strain into two glasses, drop two or three drops of Peychaud's onto the top of each. Jeff is, of course, Jeff "Beachbum" Berry, whose hard work has unearthed a treasure-trove of information about tiki drinks and the bartenders who created them. This drink pays homage to one of those men, Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt, aka Donn Beach, aka Don the Beachcomber, whose combination of Angostura bitters and Herbsaint was the "secret ingredient" to many of his legendary libations (not Angostura and Pernod as had been previously suggested). It took Jeff Berry to bring this revelation to our attention, and so I offer this drink, which uses the bitters/Herbsaint base to fine effect with the layered Old New Orleans Amber rum. Note from the entrant: Should the judges require some pimento dram to prepare this beverage, the entrant will be most happy to supply it immediately.

I thought Atlanta area members might be interested to know that The Cook's Warehouse is holding its annual Sidewalk Sale this coming weekend at all three locations. (By way of disclaimer, I work and teach there.) Not everything will be on sale, but there are some pretty good deals to be had.

The eGullet Society would like to thank Chad and his publisher for permission to reprint an excerpt from An Edge in the Kitchen in The Daily Gullet, and for agreeing to answer our questions as well. Click here for the new discussion. Thanks, Chad, and congratulations!

We'll be driving from San Francisco to Oregon in a couple of months, and it seems that the best stopping place will be Eureka. It's been at least 15 years since I was in Eureka, so I have no current knowledge of what's available for dinner. On the higher end, Restaurant 301 looks interesting, but we'd also be fine with the Lost Coast Brew Pub if the food was good. Another thing we'd love is really great Mexican food. There are also a few Mexican restaurants that come up in Google searches, but no way to tell which, if any, are good. Any suggestions? Our only limitation is that we probably won't get there until 8 at the earliest, which means we'll be eating dinner at 9 or later.

Two points. First, brunch is a great thing if you're hungover: A) You get a built-in excuse to eat traditional breakfast foods after noon, but if you can't stomach breakfast foods when you're hungover, it's also perfectly acceptable to order a burger or sandwich or other non-breakfast food. B) You can drink and people don't look at you as if you're downing a Scotch for breakfast. Second, brunch is the ideal meal at which to order Eggs Benedict.

I can offer some suggestions about onion rings. I prefer very lightly coated rings, so I tend to do the milk (or buttermilk) soak and the flour dusting. But I agree that sometimes they can just seem like fried onions. And they also get soggy pretty fast. My solution is to put an egg in with the buttermilk -- it seems to make the coating more like a batter. For the crispness issue, I've found that a combination of regular all purpose flour and rice flour makes for great crispy rings with longer longevity. I add some spices to the flour -- chili powder, onion powder and salt -- but that's optional.

We have our first entry! #1: The Bloodhound 1.75 oz Bulleit Bourbon 1 oz fresh squeezed grapefruit juice 1 oz St Germain 6 drops Peychauds build first three ingredients over ice, shake, strain. float bitters. The entrant added this: Which brings up a good point. Any product that originated in New Orleans can be grandfathered in.

If you’ve seen this topic, you know that we’re planning a Society dinner at Mila in New Orleans during Tales of the Cocktail. We thought it would be cool to run a cocktail contest to go along with it, so we are. There aren’t many rules – actually, there are only two. First, you have to use at least one ingredient made in New Orleans or by a New Orleans company. Old New Orleans rum, Sazerac rye, Herbsaint, Peychauds – any of 'em count. Second, don’t post your entries here. We want the judging to be unbiased, so we’re submitting the entries to the judges anonymously. Send your recipe to me in a PM, and I’ll post it here, and then send it along to the judges. We’re planning to have the winning cocktail mixed specially for us at the dinner at Mila. You don’t have to go to the dinner to enter, of course. If the winner is at the dinner, he or she will probably be able to finagle a few drinks out of the table; in any case, the winner will get a copy of the book Big Easy Cocktails: Jazzy Drinks and Savory Bites from New Orleans. Most importantly, though, the winner will bask in the glory of having created the eGullet Society Tales of the Cocktail 2008 Commemorative Cocktail. Deadline for entries: Friday, July 11.

It seems to me that people tend to disparage electric ranges when they haven't actually used the new generation of them. I hear all kinds of blanket statements about gas ranges being better than electric, but I can say from personal experience that the electric range I have now is way better than many of the gas ranges I've used, and it's just an old style coil one. It gets hotter, heats up faster, and holds a nice low heat forever without any hot spots. I use fairly high end gas ranges at work -- Viking and Wolf -- and I'd take the electric Whirlpool I have in my apartment over either of them. Any day, no contest.

What kind of batter do you use for the fish, Bruce? Whenever I've tried to make fish tacos with deep fried fish the batter gets soggy and makes the whole taco fall apart.

I think that with limited wine selections, a dry champagne can be your best choice for spicy appetizer foods. There are undoubtedly better choices, given an infinite list, but it will at least be passable if the list is limited.

If -- and it's a big if -- your date likes to cook, pasta can be a great cooking project for two. It's much easier with two sets of hands, and it's probably a good gauge of how compatible you are in the kitchen. Way later in the relationship you can make sausage -- not something I'd recommend on a first date, or even a second or third, unless you know your date pretty well.

If the choice were between eating outside and not getting a table, I might choose to eat outside. Ever since I was eating outside on a breezy day, and a piece of lettuce from a Caesar salad on a server's tray flew off and hit me as she was passing our table, I've preferred the indoors for dining.