slkinsey

Virtually all the calories in spirits come from the ethanol, unless you're talking about a sweet, low proof liqueur. For example, there is little meaningful difference between the caloric value of a shot of 100 proof bourbon and a shot of 100 proof vodka.

Let's try to keep this on the topic of HFCS. If the conversation takes us usefully in another direction, please just start a new thread. I, for one, found the following interesting: This tells me that anyone buying jam made with sucrose instead of HFCS is actually getting more fructose by doing so.

Phil Ward, of Pegu Club and Flatiron Lounge, came up with an interesting and delicious variation called the "Final Ward." It's equal parts Rittenhouse bonded rye, lemon juice, maraschino and green Chartreuse.

Oh! Myers, I got the book. Very interesting. It currently occupies a place of honor among the cocktailian tomes at Pegu Club so others may enjoy it.

Franny is very fond of Fernet Branca. I had a Fernet and Coke there on her suggestion that was delicious and refreshing.

This is getting off topic for a thread about Campari cocktails, but... Chartreuse is not a "genre of spirits." Chartreuse is the proprietary name of the herbal spirits produced by the Carthusian monks at the monastery in Chartreuse. No one else may call their spirit "Chartreuse." They do produce three varieties of Chartreuse (Green, Yellow and Vieillissement Exceptionnellement Prolongé), but these are all of a piece and clearly variations on a theme by the same maker. I'd say it's similar, albeit with some differences, to Wild Turkey producing rye as well as bourbon at 80 and 101 proofs (the point being that "Wild Turkey" is not a genre of spirits).

...you take your turn with the shaker when you order a Ramos Fizz.

The quality is a lot higher at Central Fish as well. For what it's worth, I like Sea Breeze in the same area a little better.

Maybe. But I kind of doubt it.

You might be a cocktail geek if... ...you're following that line of thought.

I don't know about it being a Rob Roy. I mean, Hedonism isn't exactly Scotch. It's a vatted 100% grain whiskey. On the other hand, it's certainly not rye either. So I guess that makes it not a Manhattan either. Whatever. I bet it would be awesome, regardless. But also never to be, I think. You'd probably have to go through a bottle of Hedonism to find out which vermouth and bitters to use, and just how much of each, in order to make the perfect drink.

I like Mojitos, but have to admit that I don't drink them much any more. If I want a rum and mint Summer drink, I'm much more likely to go for a Swizzle of one kind or another. As a general impression, I think they're more interesting drinks due to the use of bitters and crushed ice.

...if you keep a few promotional bottles of watermelon Pucker in the back just for the giggles.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one. On that note, ...a Hedonism Manhattan sounds appealing to you at 10am. It's always nice to have a super-luxe cocktail for the road before you come home from the bar.

I don't have any more "you might be" items right now. I'd just like to say that I'm now dreaming of a Hedonism Manhattan.

Read the OP's signature. And check out this thread.

"slkinsey... this is your life."

That's what you get for liking cake more than pie, my friend.

...you're aghast that the bar you're in doesn't have a single jigger. ...you sniff your cocktails before sipping them. ...after looking at the back bar, you realize that there is not a single cocktail you'd want to order. ...you carry around a little bottle of bitters. ...you honestly can't understand why some people are spooked by egg white drinks, and think every cocktail bar should make them. To interject a tiny bit of seriousness in an otherwise fun thread, I'm not convinced that "snob" is quite the right word. "Snob" has certain connotations of looking down on other people who are somehow "below you," whether that be due to education, socioeconomics, class, expertise, knowledge, etc. I don't think many of us look down on people who are not into cocktails the way we are. Rather, I think we tend to take the attitude that most everyone would become "one of us" once exposed to the real thing. I would rather call us "cocktail enthusiasts." On the other side of the coin is what I would call "reverse snobbery," which is to say those who look down on spending $12 for a perfectly made cocktail or $19 a pound for prime beef because this seems like a snobbish affectation to them when (lesser) examples can be had for less money. Those who prefer quality are often accused of snobbery in this country.

I wonder how much pizza-eating you have done outside of the general Philadelphia-to-Boston area. I ask this simply because, although I agree with your basic premise that the pizza here is often burdened with too much cheese and toppings, I think this is much more prevalent around the country in general than it is in the Philadelphia-to-Boston area, where the pizza tends to be thinner and less copiously topped. Think of one of those disgusting Pizza Hut "meat lover's" pizzas. . . that's considered standard in most of the country. I absolutely agree with your premise that the assemblage and proportion (and quality) of the ingredients is of primary importance. If you don't have that right, you can never achieve a superior pizza. However, it is fact that wood or coal fired retained heat ovens are capable of producing certain effects that stainless steel deck ovens cannot. So, for example, as much as I love the pizza at Di Fara, the actual crust itself just doesn't match up to, say, Patsy's East Harlem. I have a theory about this. From a post in the NYC Pizza Favorites thread:

In the Savoy era, there are a lot of cocktails that are fairly similar but have different names. Back then, there was no calling something a "Perfect Scotch Manhattan" or a "Perfect Rob Roy" or a "Calvados Sidecar" or whatever. These would (and did) all have different and unique names. Calvados, Cointreau and lemon at 2:1:1 was called the Royal Jubilee, for example. If the proportions changed enough to fundamentally change the taste of the cocktail, it would often have a different name. Thus, in Savoy we have the Allen (Special) Cocktail, consisting of 2/3 Plymouth gin, 1/3 maraschino and 1 dash of lemon juice, and the Aviation Cocktail, consisting of 2/3 dry gin, 1/3 lemon juice and 2 dashes maraschino. Sometimes just the addition of bitters created a change of name. For example, the Astoria Cocktail is 2/3 gin, 1/3 French vermouth and 1 dash of orange bitters, while the Martini (Dry) Cocktail is 2/3 dry gin and 1/3 French vermouth. And the Hoffman House Cocktail is 2/3 Plymouth gin, 1/3 French vermouth and 2 dashes of orange bitters. The last cocktail above is illustrative of the understanding that, with fairly elemental combinations such as gin-and-French-vermouth, even a change in the base spirit is sometimes enough to make a completely different cocktail.

Want to know something crazy? That's the well scotch at Pegu Club now. Actually a very good one to use for cocktails. You don't want something to terribly assertive or smokey.

As JohnL points out, it's the cheap table wine that they're starting to limit. Personally I'd rather drink Don Miguel Gascon Malbec (okay, from Argentina rather than Chile) at around ten bucks a bottle than just about any French table wine at a similar price.

Lyle's Golden Syrup is not what you want. Lyle's is a golden syrup, which is more or less just a superaturated sucrose simple syrup (partially inverted, which is why it doesn't crystallize). The main point is that it is fairly highly refined. The kind of cane syrup you want* is made simply by reducing sugar cane juice. If you can't buy a bottle of cane syrup such as Petite Canne from Martinique, your best bet is to make a rich syrup using dehydrated sugar cane juice from a health food store. * not the same kind as Steen's cane syrup.

Landmarc has had blood sausage on the menu (served with sauteed apples and frites) since the day they opened.