slkinsey
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Today's review in the NY Times by Frank Bruni would suggest that the answer to the question posed in this thread is coming periously close to "yes."
[Mercer Kitchen's] true calling becomes clear on a crowded Friday night, when the tables turn quickly, tweaked martinis line the bar and clay pots of crunchy French fries (excellent, as it happens) sprout from every third table. This is the SoHo version of an Applebee's.Ouch!
But you keep wondering if the food they deliver [at Vong] is really as it should be and all that it could be, if the restaurant is receiving Mr. Vongerichten’s most considered judgments and the most dedicated efforts of the chef de cuisine, Pierre Schutz, who’s been around since the beginning.Thoughts?
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Second, Toby Cecchini (Passerby, in NYC) did a nice piece for the NYTimes on May 1, 2005 (search the Times site on "Cecchini maraschino") on this topic. Besides his research, which is interesting, he explains a very effective and accessible way to produce your own macerated cherries after the original (essentially defunct) style. . .
As chance would have it, we have a thread going on making Maraschino Cherries (plus variations) at home. I've had some going with NY State sour cherries, Maraska and a touch of simple syrup for a while.
This particular jar can now be found in one of the refrigerators at Pegu Club.
Luxardo cherries strike me as yet another category of cherry. Not really maraschino cherries, as I understand them.
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Luxardo cherries are incredibly awesome. Seek them out. Hoard them. Eat them by yourself when your friends aren't around. Let those ingrates have the regular cherries.
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btw, maraschino in an Aviation? I use kirsch....what does maraschino liquor do for the taste?
eG Forums threads on. . .
Maraschino is a liqueur made from wood aged and sweetened cherry brandy (kirsch).I wouldn't say that's exactly correct... Maraschino involves a special process in which the fruit is separated from the stems and pits, which are then distilled like grappa and the resultant liquor reincorporated at a later stage with the liquor distilled from the fruit. (More in the Maraschino liqueur thread).
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FWIW, I've always taken "powdered sugar" in the old books to mean "superfine sugar" rather than the sugar-plus-corn-starch powdered sugar we have now.
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Hee! Kudos, Andrew.
This reminds me a little of the "pickled hot dogs" that my mother used to make every so often back in the 70s using miniature hot dogs. Tell us about the drunken weenies? Do you think they would be good slapped on the grill and served alongside a Weenietini?
My mother also used to make pickled lamb's tongues, which would be an interesting experiment in vodka.
A cured venison sausage might be good in gin.
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This weeks Bar Buzz section of New York Magazine has an interesting bit on "Sangria" made with sake.
Chino's mixes mild Okagura sake, riesling, and brandy in a tall glass with slender slices of lime, lemon, and orange and a maraschino cherry garnish.
Hedeh has ons made with sake, orange and pineapple juices, triple sec, amaretto, and a variety of flavored vodkas.
Japonais's peach sangria is made with Momokawa sake, Cointreau, sweet Moscato wine, and passion-fruit and lime juices, with diced fresh peach as a garnish.
Sumile mixes junmai sake and sauvignon blanc with chunks of lime, orange, pineapple and crescents of green apple.
Sushi-a-go-go has a more traditional sangria made with red wine and hunks of apple tweaked with dry sake.
Anyone here ever used sake for sangria?
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I'm going to try to replicate the Velvet Cane I had at Rye. I'll start with something like 2 oz rum, 1/2 oz tangerine, 1/2 oz lime, barspoon orgeat, dash angostura, 1/2 egg white. I have a lot of Rum, but, no 10 Cane. I'll try plain old Flor de Cana white and see how it is. Anyone think the 10 Cane might be critical to the recipe for some reason other than the name?
Actually, I think it will probably make a big difference. Ten Cane is I guess what you might call a "pseudo rhum agricole." I don't think it has as much of a distinctive agricole character as, say, Ed's rhums do. But it is made with cane juice, and it does have some of that character. If you're going to substitite, I'd use either one of Ed's rhums or maybe Barbancourt from Haiti.
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Hmmm. I don't know about Broker's for Martinis (I've never used it for that purpose). But I wouldn't think that the proof makes all that much difference, so long as one uses a decent amount of vermouth. Tanqueray, at 94.6 proof, is the standard Martini gin for Pegu Club's Fitty-Fitty -- and I like it at as much as 4:1.
I think the saffron gin would be Cadenhead's Old Raj (packing a whopping 110 proof, I believe).
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Several of my bartender friends at Pegu and Flatiron (the latter sepecially can get quite busy at times) have remarked that, once you learn how to use the tools, working with a jigger doesn't take any more time than free pouring. They'll go up against any free pouring bartender on banging out a dozen specialty cocktails at speed and hold their own. More importantly, the benefits of significantly better accuracy and consistency are not to be ignored. The jigger-measured drinks will have better consistency.
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. . . to get rid of the dormant TB I must take a drug that requires going on the wagon for NINE MONTHS!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH! AAUGH! AAUGH! AAUGH!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!
You poor, poor man!
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Dave, a lot of it will depend on the strength and saturation of the grenadine you're using.
I use a supersaturated grenadine I made by doing a fourfold reduction of POM, melting in as much sugar as it would hold, allowing it to cool and then thinning it out with fresh POM. This makes for a very strong flavored and very sweet grenadine. So I don't need to use as much of it as others might.
My going-in formula for a Jack Rose is 2:1 Bonded Laird's to lemon or lime juice, and then (sorry!) dashing in the grenadine to taste. It shouldn't be a sweet drink, but there should be enough balance to take the bite off the acid. I'd probably start with a teaspoon and work my way from there.
Jared Brown and Anastasia Miller have some cool stuff on the Jack Rose and grenadine over at their site. Also see this interesting bit on grenadine over at The Cocktail Chronicles.
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From what I see on the web, the term "Bonded" (as it applies to Bourbon whiskey) simply means it is made under government supervision in a bonded warehouse and has to be produced in a single year, in a single season, and cannot be bottled until it is 4 years old. It also has to be at 100 proof.
Bottled in Bond: American spirits produced according to the Bottled Bond Act of 1894. This is a way to avoid paying excise tax until the spirits are aged and ready for sale; also originally indended to ensure that the spirit was actually what it claimed to be. Bonded spirits are aged no less than four years in a government bonded warehouse and must be bottled at proof (50% abv).
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Yes, Laird's Bonded Applejack is now being brought into NYC! As johnder points out, they've got some in at Pegu Club. Spread the word to your local bars that Eber is bringing it in, and they should make the call to put in an order. Also, put some pressure on your favorite local liquor sources. I'd love to be able to tell Astor Wines that, if they order 3 cases of bonded applejack, it will fly off the shelves.
If you've never tried the bonded stuff, it's well worth it. The difference between regular Laird's Applejack and Laird's Apple Bond is twofold:
First, Laird's Applejack is at 80 proof and Laird's Apple Bond is at 100 proof. Proof impacts intensity of flavor, because an 80 proof spirit contains 20% more water than a 100 proof spirit.
Second, at some point in the 60s or 70s, the US government decided that if Laird's wanted to call their product "applejack" instead of "apple brandy," it had to be a blended product. Laird's Applejack is a blend, containing about 35% apple brandy blended with 65% neutral spirits. Laird's Apple Bond is 100% apple brandy, which is why it is not called "Bonded Applejack" (even though that's what we all call it). This, needless to say, has a tremendous impact on depth and intensity of flavor.
I actually still really like the blended product, but what I like about it is that I can still taste the faint backbone of what I have come to love about the bonded product. It still works well in things like an Old Fashioned. You have to be careful, though, not to stretch the blended stuff too much. It's difficult to make something like an Apple Blow Fizz with blended, because the base spirit doesn't have enough intensity of flavor to make its presence felt. It's like going between Old Overholt and Rittenhouse Bonded rye. Personally, I believe that Laird's bonded spirit is far closer to what was used in all the classic applejack cocktails -- many of which are not terribly interesting when made with blended. Try a Jack Rose using blended and Rose's grenadine. Eh? Not too inspiring. Try it with Laird's bonded and homemade grenadine. Suddenly it all makes sense.
It's interesting to read in books by cocktail writers whose palates I respect tremendously (Doc's book comes to mind), and where applejack is described as being fundamentally a "mixing spirit." I think that's an impression that was formed from exposure to Laird's blended product. Laird's bonded is, in my book, definitely a spirit worth sipping.
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Heh. I assume the "monte cristos" mentioned by the OP are cigars and not sandwiches.
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If you're going to be smoking cigars, I'm not sure it makes any sense to go with a subtle spirit like Hedonism.
Frankly, you could do a lot worse than something like Rittenhouse Bonded. It's not expensive, but it has a suave flavor profile. Importantly, it's high proof so it won't water out over ice. Also importantly, it's got enough flavor to stand up to the cigars.
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I think NYC is one of the most dressy cities in America.
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Astor Wines is out of Rittenhouse at the moment, and won't be getting any in for at least another week. I'd really like some for tonight. Any Manhattan sources other than Astor?
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This may initially seem off-topic, but it really isn't.
It really pisses me off that people wear jeans and sneakers to (non-pop) concerts and theatrical performances. I think it's disrespectful to the performers.[...]
As a classical performer, I have to tell you I strongly disagree. I want people to come to my performances, and I'm happy they're there, regardless of what they're wearing. Furthermore, when I'm not performing at a concert, I dress informally, myself. I'll bet if you ask other classical performers whether they feel disrespected because someone came to hear them while wearing jeans, you'll get a lot of laughs from them.
Thanks for that response. I was really hoping to hear from you.
Interestingly, I disagree. But that could be largely a function of the different areas of classical music in which Michael and I work. In opera, glamor is part of the deal. I don't think it's respectful to the performers, to the (usually quite elegant) venue or to the other attendees when someone wears shorts and a t-shirt to the Metropolitan Opera. Met Opera in the Park? Different story. I hold similar views on, say, Le Bernadin and Shake Shack.
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Sounds like you'd like Julie Reiner's "Mint Jules." I'm not sure of the exact proportions, but it's something like a half a large lime quartered and muddled with several mint leaves, simple syrup and Maker's Mark. Shake and strain. It's a good one.
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We've been around the bogus food-related litigation tree before in the eG Forums. Since this one doesn't seem particularly different or particularly spirits-related, I'm going to close this thread up.
If we would like to have a followup discussion to Ed's interesting post on flaming alcohol, let's start another thread.
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Merriam-Webster Online.
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To put on my moderator's hat for a second: we're not going to be making a list of NYC restaurants on this subject.
So, since this doesn't appear to be a terribly NYC-centric subject, I'm moving it to the General food topics forum.
Carry on!
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The thing that I like about Dave's book for a beginner -- and where I think it has the advantage over Gary's (excellent) book in that regard -- is that it has a managably small number of recipes. Unlike any other book of which I am aware, I think a complete beginner could go through Dave's book, make around half of the cocktails therein (30 or so), and come out at the end well on the way to becoming a cocktail connoisseur. I'd rather share drinks with soomeone who had gone through Killer Cocktails as a cocktail beginner than someone who had been drinking Cosmopolitans and Fuzzy Navels for 10 years.
Has Jean-Georges Vongerichten Jumped the Shark?
in New York: Dining
Posted
Except that I didn't get the impression anyone thought that 66 and Spice Market were any great shakes when they were JGV's newest restaurants at the time.