JAZ

We ate the usual saltines with peanut butter or cheese and crumbled them into cream of tomato soup, but we also ate them in one of my family's specialties -- buttered and sprinkled with "parmesan" cheese from the green can, then run under the broiler until they were crispy. Because my entire family seems to suffer from a mental ailment that makes us forget anything placed under the broiler, they were often beyond crispy and well on the way to burned (my mother aways called those "nicely browned"). The most memorable instance of the snack + forgetful tendency occurred when my sister and I were in high school. She made up a batch, stuck them in the oven, and forgot about them until we smelled the unmistakeable stench of carbonized cheese. She pulled out the pan and we were treated to the sight of a dozen saltines all on fire with a slow flame, like small flat briquettes. We lived in the Seattle area at the time, so of course it was raining, and I'll never forget her reaction to the sight of the flaming crackers: she opened the sliding glass door off the kitchen, stood at the threshold and flung them out onto the patio, where they sizzled and eventually dissolved. We didn't speak of it, and I think that was the last time we made them.

I've been using them for years. Although I like the ones canned in sauce, I don't use them up fast enough and part of the can almost always spoils, so I use the dried ones mostly. Since I often just toss them in a braised or simmered dish, they work out great. Also, I make a spice mixture with dried chipotles, dried orange peel, dried garlic and cumin.

Original? No, but there are many people out there who don't realize that, for example, fresh basil tastes different from dried. As several posts have mentioned, it bears mentioning when the audience is new to cooking. As for the other side of the coin --the canned ingredients, the dried spices and mixes -- they can have their place too. I think part of the joy of being an experienced, unbiased cook is that one learns when to go with fresh and when the "convenience" ingredients are acceptable, even (dare I say?) preferable.

I realize that 130 choices may seem like an unmanageable number, but here's a comparison that helps to put it in perspective. There's a sandwich chain in San Francisco, not upscale at all, that does a booming lunch business. They make everything to order, and all told, I'd say there are at least 60 or 70 "choices" the customer has. But what it comes down to is 10 or so choices of bread (more if you count bagels); 6 or 8 choices of vegetables (some free, some with a surcharge); 5 or 6 choices of cheese; 4 or 5 condiments; and probably 20 choices of meats/other fillings. Plus a list of hot sandwiches. And you know? I really wish there were more cheese selections, and I can think of several fairly mainstream vegetable selections they don't have (roasted peppers, for example, or sauteed onions). My point is, when you break the choices down into component lists (breads, condiments,, etc.), it's not overwhelming in the least to have that many. Granted, 130 is almost double that, but my sandwich shop doesn't do made-to-order salads, so I can see the larger number being entirely manageable.

That's wierd. Once a long long time ago, I drank a lot of tequila with a friend, and we suddenly went into mission mode and climbed the up back fire escape of a frat house where some guy she liked lived. SEE! This is for all those sceptics. Of course, scientific method cares little, if at all, about anecdotal "evidence."

I haven't thought about this in months, but about a year ago, I tried Diet Cricket soda, a green tea and cola hybrid, and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Here's a link to a thread on the brand and my thoughts on the diet version. Really, I'm so used to drinking Diet Coke that the bitterness doesn't bother me -- in fact, I sort of like it. It's the same with diet tonic -- the extra bitterness is not a problem. As for other sodas, I find that diet root beers in general tend to be more like regular than any other category.

I like most varieties, but some of them I only like certain ways. I'm not a huge fan of nuts in baked goods (with certain exceptions) -- I really don't like them in brownies, for example. But two of my favorite cookies are pistachio crumbles and praline crisps, both of which are mostly nuts. I like macadamia nuts, but the combination of macadamias and chocolate leaves me cold. They're great made into brittle, though. On the other hand, I love toasted hazelnuts or almonds with chocolate. For the walnut haters, try this: pour a pound of walnuts (halves and pieces) into a big bowl. Cover with boiling water and let sit for a few minutes. Drain. Stir in 1/2 cup sugar, 3 Tbsp oil and 1/2 to 1 tsp cayenne (I mix the sugar and cayenne together so it's evenly distributed). The heat and residual moisture will turn the sugar into syrup. Bake at 350, stirring a couple of times, for about a half hour. You want them to be deep golden brown but be careful that the sugar doesn't burn. As they're cooling, salt them to taste (you'll need more than you might think, because of the sugar). The blanching process removes much of the bitterness, and there is something in the sweet, hot, salty combination that makes them irresistable, even to walnut haters. For cashews, if you want something different: Roast them until they're deep golden brown and salt them (if you buy them already roasted, give them five minutes in the oven to deppen the color and warm them). Then mix them with sliced shallots, scallions, serranos or Thai bird chiles. Right before serving, squeeze a half a lime over the mixture and give it a quick stir. You want the cashews to be barely warm for this -- too hot and they won't be crunchy, but the warmth brings out the flavors of the chiles and shallots.

My current favorite rum cocktail is basically a daiquiri made with Velvet Falernum instead of simple syrup: 2 oz. white rum 1/2 oz. Velvet Falernum 1/2 oz. lime juice dash or two of peach bitters Shake, strain and serve up.

Yank Sing and Harbor Village are widely thought to be the best dim sum places downtown. My experience is not terribly extensive, but I think both are very good. Harbor Village probably has a slightly more unusual (and probably more authentic) selection, or at least it did several years ago, which is the last time I ate there. I've never had a bad lunch at Yank Sing. Even their take-out food is good.

Cool. Will you be starting a beer column?

Well, it's not friday, and it's not five o'clock, but I'm off work and have my first two days in a row off in a month or so, so that counts, right? Trillium, you probably remember my mentioning my earlier abortive attempt to find sour oranges, so I have to admit I didn't use them. But serendipitously, I was skimming over Diana Kennedy's newest book and happened upon her suggestion for a replacement in Mexican cooking, which is a combination of Meyer lemon, lime and regular orange juice. Well, lo and behold, I have all those on hand, plus the other ingredients, so here I am drinking your fabulous drink, with my weird sour-orange-juice substitute. It's very good this way, but one of these days I'll find sour oranges and make it the way it was intended. It's a sort of cross between a Corpse Reviver II (gin, lemon juice, triple sec, with a splash of a pastis) and my own After School Special (gin, Lillet, Meyer lemon juice, and orange bitters), but the Chartreuse is a brilliant addition. To me, it will always be a "Friday After Five," even though I'm drinking it on a Wednesday (no, make that a very early Thursday morning).

Anything labeled "cherry brandy" will be substantively different from Maraschino -- sweeter and less bitter. Cherry Heering is probably the best known of the non-Maraschino cherry liqueurs. As for Maraschino, I've only tried Luxardo, so I have no basis of comparison with other brands. I think there's a big difference for cocktails between the brandy-based orange liqueurs like Grand Marnier and the triple sec/curacao family. I like Grand Marnier and similar liqueurs, but the brandy flavor can be unwelcome in some drinks. It's not that making drinks with Grand Marnier instead of triple sec is a bad thing, but you should know that the flavor profile can be very different. It's definitely worth buying a bottle of a high quality triple sec to compare. As far as choosing a brand, the first thing to look for in the non-brandy orange liqueurs is the proof, which can vary substantially. You want a high proof, not because of the alcohol, exactly, but because the lower proof triple secs tend to be god-awful sweet. Cointreau is fabulous, of course, but I find that Marie Brizzard (at almost the same proof as Cointreau) is virtually indistinguishable in cocktails at just over half the price. Gary Regan, in his Q&A here, recommended the Van Gogh version, but I haven't tried it, so I can't comment personally.

From the world of drinks: "'Tini" (or even worse, Tooni) for martini "Grandma" for Grand Marnier Tuh-kill-yuh for tequila (yes! you're so clever! No one's ever thought of that before!)

Audrey, this sounds interesting. I have a couple of questions, though: Is there any difference in texture or taste between "cooked" and "uncooked" syrup? Do you add the lime juice to the lime infused syrup, or just use them together? If you do add the juice to the syrup, when do you do it? What's the shelf life? I'm one of the few here who like Rose's, but it is too sweet on its own for my taste -- I add about the same amount of fresh lime juice to it to get the acidity level I like. So if your syrup approximates Rose's but can be made less sweet, I'd like to give it a try. Thanks.

Here's a website; however, I'm not sure if it's "official." But it does contain recipes, so it may help you out: El Floridita [beans, here's a little information on the bar and the cocktail by the same name (from the CocktailTime website and Paul Harrington's book): El Floridita]

I agree. Without a blind study showing that different alcoholic beverages produce markedly different personality traits, my money's on the psychological explanation. There are so many psychological factors involved in drinking alcohol, including choosing which beverages to drink, that it seems to me you'd have to have a way to rule all of them out before you could assume that the beverage itself was responsible for the effects. That is, maybe it seems that tequila makes Person A "crazy" while brandy produces a "mellower" attitude, but perhpas it's just that A chooses to drink tequila when he's feeling "crazy" already, and chooses brandy when he's calmer. Or, maybe it seems to person B thinks that gin makes her "mean," but it could be that the friends she tends to drink gin with bring out her "mean" side. Many people say that champagne makes them "happy," but it's certainly a fact that many times, we drink champagne at happy occasions, so it stands to reason that we'd be happy when we drink champagne. In other words, the psychological state (whatever it is) is the basis of what we drink, rather than the drink being the cause of our psychological state.

Can't stand Rachel's "veggies," either -- but that term makes my skin crawl when anyone uses it.

Sorry, Squeat, who're you going to believe, a couple of dictionaries, or cocktail books? Seriously, all of the cocktail books I have, including Dale DeGroff's (despite his apparent disdain of Rose's, as noted above by Bond Girl), specify Rose's or "lime cordial (such as Rose's)" in their ingredients. DeGroff specifically says, "Be careful about switching fresh lime juice for Rose's lime juice; real Gimlet drinkers want the taste of the preserved lime juice. When the drink is made with fresh lime juice and sugar, it is a sweet Gin Rickey, not a Gimlet." Paul Harrington calls the drink with fresh lime a "Gimblet" -- although I've ever heard that term elsewhere, and I'm not sure about where it came from. (And incidentally, your dictionaries are incorrect about the soda too -- seems to me that they've got Gimlets and Rickeys mixed up.) That's easy. Rose's.

It's got a preservative, if that makes it artificial. Otherwise, it's water, concentrated lime juice and high fructose corn syrup. And of course it's not a substitute for lime juice, any more than limoncello is a substitute for lemon juice, or blackberry cordial is for fresh blackberries.

That's where I disagree. To me, that's like saying that fresh lemon juice, simple syrup and vodka is better than limoncello. The mixture would certainly taste more like fresh lemons, but it's not better because of it, just different. It's the same with Rose's. I completely agree that Rose's is no substitute for fresh lime juice, but that point cuts both ways -- fresh juice, with or without simple syrup, is no substitute for Rose's. I agree that for almost all cocktails, fresh lime is a necessity. But I can't agree that a Gimlet is better with fresh juice. I can't even agree that it's a Gimlet, although it's an okay drink on its own. You can't just substitute fresh lime and simple syrup and call the resulting drink a Gimlet. Or can you? I don't know nearly as much about cocktail history as you and Splificator and Dr. Cocktail, but from everything I've read, it seems that Gimlets call for lime cordial. That being the case, wouldn't a drink with gin, fresh lime and simple syrup would have to be called something else? Incidentally, I do think that a little Rose's goes a long way (but that can be said of many cocktail ingredients). My Gimlet recipe is 2 oz. gin, 1/4 oz. Rose's and 1/4 oz. of fresh lime juice (shaken together with the gin and Rose's, and not just squeezed in at the end). For tequila Gimlets, I use more Rose's -- almost half an ounce.

I've heard that Angostura's lime cordial is comparable to Rose's, but haven't tried it myself. Every other brand I've tried has been pretty bad (sorry, but I don't remember any of the names -- I've just tasted them in gimlets I've ordered at various bars). I stick with Rose's.

I mix it with San Pellegrino's Aranciata, about 1 part to 2 of the Aranciata. It's also good with soda and a squeeze of lemon. Those are two of my staple non-alcoholic cocktails in my classes. Since it's got basically the same flavor profile as Campari, you could use it in any drinks that call for that.

Yes, I've been in that situation. . . I believe the low point was infusing a jug of Vodka of the Gods (left over from bloody marys) with juniper berries in an unsuccessful attempt to make it more palatable. I've often been down to Gordon's and Rose's Lime. Makes it really easy to decide what to drink.

Once when I ordered a Fernet and soda, the bartender inadvertently added ginger ale instead. Turned out to be pretty good.

I forgot bitters: I have Fees Orange and Peach, Peychaud and Angostura. How does Fees Aromatic compare with the others? Also, I realize I forgot a few staples: Maraschino and Pimms, plus mini-bottles of things I only need a little of or use rarely -- Chartreuse, Pernod, Chambord, Ameretto, etc. I'm fortunate to have a couple of stores close by that carry fabulous collections of minis, so if I want to try a new drink that calls for something I don't have, I can usually buy it as a mini to start with, instead of having to buy a full bottle.