JAZ

I had a chance to taste these when Ed was in San Francisco recently, and I'll vouch for how good they are. I've never been much of a fan of rum (sorry, Ed!), but these were fabulous. The vieux is smooth enough to sip neat, and they were all successful in the ti' punches. In fact, I'm going to try to find some this afternoon and experiment with some other drinks.

Well, I've had ripe green olives in cans. Lots of times. Where do they fit in?

I think it's worthwhile to note that there are really two Joy of Cooking books out there: the original one, revised several times; and the New Joy of Cooking, which was substantially rewritten several years ago, with many new recipes and techniques and much of the older recipes modified to fit into "today's" cooking habits. I've never done a page by page comparison, but from what I've seen, they're very different books.

When I first moved to the city, I lived in the Cole Valley area of the Haight. My sister and I (and occasionally other friends) went to the Aub Zam Zam, not regularly, but several times. Bruno was quirky, yes. Your best bet getting served was to order at the bar, preferably a martini (gin -- no such thing as a vodka martini for Bruno) or a shot if he was in an expansive mood. We were fine, as we always ordered martinis and played by his rules. I can remember one time sitting at a table (after getting our drinks at the bar), my sister and I watched as a youngish couple came in and moved the two chairs at the table next to us so that they could sit side by side and not across from each other. Bruno came over and made them move the chairs back. And a friend of mine likes to tell the story of taking an out-of-town business acquaintance there in the late afternoon. They had just ordered martinis when a woman at the bar used a swear word (I don't know what it was, something fairly mild, as I recall). Bruno closed the bar, saying he couldn't allow profanity from a woman in his place. So, yes, there are stories. I'm sure he relished his reputation, but he was okay. Now, it's still pretty old school, but you can order more than a martini. Why would you, though?

Wow, are they still around? ← I think they only sell wholesale now, except for one last shop out on Taraval, and that might not even be there anymore. But you can find their products at some Bay Area markets. I even get them at Safeway (the one on Market). I've always liked the fact that they make demi-baguettes and mini-baguettes, since the main problem with baguettes is that they don't keep at all.

I had a bottle of the Collins, before I found Fee Bros. When I tasted them side by side, the Fee was so far superior that I tossed the Collins (it was almost empty, anyway). The Fee Bros. had a more pronounced orange taste and much more complexity.

For baguettes, my favorite is Bakers of Paris. I like Semifreddi's Sweet Batard or and Grace Bakery's Pugiliese for toast and sandwiches. For specialty breads, Noe Valley Bakery makes a great Asiago bread, although I haven't had it in ages.

A great butchers' shop in San Francisco is Drewes Brothers on Church Street at about 28th. Another good patisserie-style bakery is Destinations on Chenery in Glen Park. Great croissants and cinnamon buns, and wonderful individual tarts. My favorite store for liquors is Plumpjack on 24th. I haven't been to their other location, but I can find all kinds of obscure cocktail ingredients here. There are probably other places I'm forgetting, but I'll add them later.

Your post reminded me that the best description I've ever read of a hangover was written by Kingsley Amis, in Lucky Jim: You just know he'd had his share of hangovers.

I made split pea soup. I wasn't planning to; I was planning to make chicken stock for soup tomorrow. But the butcher's shop was out of chicken backs, out of legs, out of whole chickens -- in fact, out of any poultry pieces with bones. They did have wonderful looking Nieman Ranch smoked ham hocks, though, so I picked one up. I thought about navy beans, but that would have taken too long, so split pea it was. My resolution is to use my pressure cooker more often, so I cobbled together a recipe out of my various pressure cooker cookbooks and gave it a try. I've never made split pea soup before, with or without a pressure cooker. I think it turned out rather well, especially considering it only took about 40 minutes, including the time spent chopping the vegetables.

A winter salad I like is butter lettuce, sliced tart apples, cheddar cheese (crumbled if it's really aged; cubed or sliced if it's not) and toasted walnuts with a sherry vinegar/walnut oil vinaigrette. If you like beets, you could make a beet salad with a) mint, feta cheese; dressed with a walnut oil/raspberry vinegar dressing or b) oranges, red onion and toasted pistachios or hazelnuts with a hazelnut/champagne vinaigrette. I've also made a warm cabbage salad, based on a recipe from Hubert Keller, with shredded cabbage and carrot, diced apple, bacon, and toasted walnuts. It's dressed with a warm vinaigrette flavored with caraway seeds.

A little late, but I was going to suggest a dash of Tabasco, or other vinegar based hot sauce. This does two things -- gives the soup some acid, which heavy soups often need (I think), and provides some punch.

Check out this article by Mamster on storage from the Daily Gullet Archives. Not only is it full of information, but it was included in the Best Food Writing anthology.

I made goulash last night -- does that count?

After some more experimentation, I've come to the conclusion that bergamot juice blends best with gin and rum -- not so well with brandy or tequila. The drinks I've liked the best, in addition to Trillium's Friday After Five, are these: A variation on the Jasmine (from Harrington's book): 2 oz. gin 1/2 oz. triple sec 1/2 oz. bergamot juice splash Campari A Bergamot French 75: 1 oz. gin 1/2 oz. bergamot juice 1/4 oz. simple syrup topped with Champagne or other dry sparkling wine This one was a surprise. I had half a bottle of sparkling wine left over from a New Year's brunch, so I figured I'd give it a try, but I wasn't sure about the acid of the fruit and the champagne. But it worked very well. My favorite, surprisingly, was the rum drink I tried. (Surprisingly, because I don't consider myself much of a rum drinker.) I made a drink similar to the Nevada cocktail, substituting bergamot for the grapefruit juice. 2 oz. white rum 3/4 oz bergamot juice 1/4 oz. lime juice 1/2 oz. Velvet Falernum dash Angostura bitters Like the original Nevada, it's a drink that's complex, with layers of flavors playing very nicely.

I read about this Scotch on Drinkboy's site, and when I saw a selection of whiskies from Compass Box at my favorite liquor store, I indulged and bought a bottle. It's really unlike any other Scotch I've had. Extremely peaty, as the name implies, yet incredibly light bodied and smooth. Although it's 92 proof, so maybe "smooth" isn't exactly the right term. Some might consider it unbalanced, as peaty as it is, but I happen to like that quality in a Scotch. (I really like Laphroaig, for example.) In fact, the closest whisky I can recall tasting was a cask strength Laphroaig at the Whiskies of the World expo some years ago. Has anyone else tried this, or any of the other Compass Box whiskies? Compass Box

I realized when I glanced through this today that I've been remiss in reporting, although not in acquiring. Mostly they were on sale for absurdly low prices, so that's my excuse. Some appetizer/tapas/small plates books: Surreal Gourmet Bites, Clifford Wright's Little Foods of the Mediterranean, the Joy of Cooking collection All About Party Foods. On hold at the store until the next sale starts is also Little Italian Bites by Carol Field, so you may as well add that in. A couple of pressure cooker books. Paula Wolfert's Couscous, Flo Braker's Perfect Art of Simple Baking, and three or four more, which I can't quite exactly recall right now. Also, signed copies of Jacques Pepin's Fast Food My Way and The Apprentice (not on sale but how could I resist having M. Pepin sign my books?); ditto for Bourdain's Les Halles and Alice Medrich's Bittersweet. On Food and Cooking, sadly, not signed, because Harold McGee didn't come to the store for a signing -- it was cancelled. So that's -- well, let's call it 15 more.

Yes, and if you can remember to drink a glass of water for every cocktail you drink, you'll thank yourself in the morning.

As I sit here drinking coffee (with milk) and a Bloody Mary, eating toast (with butter and jam) and cheese, I think I can safely say no.

I made carrot soup to start our Christmas dinner, which had a vaguely Middle Eastern theme. It was easy, cheap, low calorie and good. I'll give an approximation: Peel and cut into chunks about 8 large carrots. Saute one small or half a very large onion, sliced, in some olive oil. Add a large can of chicken broth and about a cup of water and the carrots and cook until carrots are falling apart soft. Also add about a teaspoon each of salt and cayenne and a tablespoon of ground cumin. If you toast cumin seeds and grind them, you can add less because it's more powerfully pungent. Cool slightly (or not) and puree in small batches in the blender (small batches, because we all know what happens when you try to puree too much hot soup in your blender, don't we?). Reheat when you're ready to serve and taste for seasoning. Garnish with a big drizzle of yogurt and some chopped fresh mint.

I have no idea. Have you tasted it? It seems to me that that would be the way to find out. And if it tastes a little off, maybe you could still cook with it. Or use it in a sorbet.

Katie's recipe for limoncello (or, more precisely, one from the LA Times based on Katie's recipe) just tied for first place in the LA Times article on the Ten Best Recipes of 2004. Way to go, Katie!

After regaining my sense of taste and smell, I've been experimenting with my bergamot oranges and have found that a Jasmine-like drink works well with them: 2 oz. gin, 1/2 oz. Velvet Falernum, a splash of Campari and about 3/4 oz. of bergamot juice. They also make a great nonalcoholic sparkling drink mixed with simple syrup and sparkling water. I find the bergamots have a juice somewhat reminiscent of grapefruit juice, as far as the level of acidity and bitterness. I'm looking forward to trying them in a version of the Nevada, as soon as I make it to the liquor store for some rum.

A drizzle of olive oil and a big pinch of salt.

I don't have any Torani Amer, but when I do, it's on my list to try.