SNAKE OIL

Two mixologists have evolved to a new and higher bar experience plane. San Diego bar menu planners and “essence” creators will create sprays to use in the cocktail as well as a “sampler” sprayed on a small bottle shaped paper that is placed on the side of the cocktail as a garnish. 

How do I know this? Dining at La Jolla’s new Herringbone, my favorite date asked me what was the piece of paper on the side of her Hemingway Daiquiri. I approached the bar and between the bartender and Matt, our waiter, I was given this demonstration of the concoction developed by the San Diego Snake Oil cocktail developers.  For the opening of the restaurant, Snake Oil created the drinks and the sprays. The waiter sprays the mini liquor bottle shaped paper with the Snake Oil created essence. In this case it was Oceanic.

The bar and the menu listed the spray essences – Wood, Floral, Oriental, Oceanic and Musk. Interesting! An appeal to their website disclosed the essences are not for sale, but they hoped I enjoyed the experience.

Shared with the reader is the Tokyo Love Hotel cocktail from Herringbone of La Jolla.

            Sweet tea vodka

            Agave

            Pressed lemon

            “Floral” essence (hints of lavender, St Germaine, honey eau de toilet)

Pair this with the <<Chef Amanda’s>> appetizer  “Bluefin Tuna Crudo 'Rod and Reel'".

 

“And Something Else……………………….”

One evening, over a rye whiskey & Jazz at The Trellis, Carey Carson asked me about my blog. How was I inspired (Thank You Jeff)?  What was the meaning of the last segment of my blog title “And something else”.

I told him I added that to the blog title as Christine was setting up my blog, to provide me the freedom to blog about something other than liquor and food.  And my instinct was correct.

I am not going to bore you with the remainder of the conversation having to do with the necessity of writing style manuals. Cary admitted he gives them as gifts to graduating students.

Ask me about the books I have read recently and it will be only fiction AND exclusively Stieg Larsson.  With one exception. I checked out Elaine Sciolino’s La Seduction. I was delighted with the experience of reading this book. Quite taken with the aspects of French life that she describes from her life experiences in France. Likely learned, or now better understand, French culture and the people. More so than my last experience in Paris 1972.

So interested in different cultures and seek to better understand the French? Read Elaine’s delightful prose on how the French use ‘seduction” in all manners of their life.

Cocktail

A Love Supreme courtesy of Pierre Ferrand Cognac

½ oz of Cognac

¼ oz Chartreuse

¼ oz Grenadine

¼ oz peach puree

Top with Champagne

Trust Your Bartender.

The bartender is your best friend.

Bartenders tend to be an overlooked and neglected species. Having served in that capacity in an ad hoc manner, both in Williamsburg’s Corner Greeks and The Lafayette Restaurant – I can attest to that. So in the words from the Hotel Inter-Continental Stephen Fry Bar menu

TRUST YOUR BARTENDER!

Let the bartender mix you a drink, tell him your mood or desire.

As I write about this exciting town, the music, the food the people, I am recalling Candace at the Drisskill’s observation of W Hotel, “Yes, the Secret Bar, or “The Redroom” and the girls, it looks like Amsterdam”.

To repeat myself on the charming Katherine,   Who so eloquently said -

“No cell phones at the bar. It’s a corporate world out there, find an office.”

Experimenting at the Kenichi Restaurant and Lounge  we ate samplers at the bar and had a great guide  to the experience, while not the bartender, this expert waitress introduced us to fusion oriental dishes.

We started off with a cold Saki, Suisham (in the green bottle). The meal covered an experience from seaweed to Black Cod with lemon confit my ova which had been marinated for 72 hours.

Well then. All said and done there is wisdom to the entreaty to “trust your bartender”. Get to know him or her, establish a relationship, choose to call him or her by another name.  I call The Trellis’ Brentley by the name “Zach”, in turn he calls me “Bob"!

Cocktail

Suisham Saki

When I Met An Elf

When I met an Elf at Austin's Annies Cafe and Bar, 319 Congress Street

Katherine is a self-described "Elf" bartender whose origins are Ulster; another thing we have in common - besides being mixologists, is that our families hail from Ulster and also hail from Massachusetts.

I met Katherine at Annies Cafe and Bar during a recent visit. This Elf had, like those in Eire, pot(s) of "gold". Our conversation started off when I made the observation - I was surprised to observe St. Germaine spirit in the bar's "well". That led to an extensive conversation on mixing and her Blushing Flamingo cocktail concoction.


Blushing Flamingo
       Watermelon infused vodka
       St. Germaine
       topped with Champagne

During our long lunch of superb farmer's market salad with chicken, and wine at this celebrated spot, Katherine the Elf kept introducing us to new concoctions. The samples would  appear in front of us on the zinc lined counter ... an apple liquer, blackberry liquer, watermelon infused vodka, Averna Amaro Sicialiane. All of these while she expertly catered to the other patrons, there for the happy hour that started at 3:00 PM. (Love Austin!)

I was very interested to learn of her opinion on rye whiskey. She too uses Old Overholt. She explained rye whiskey is such a subtle flavor it is overpowered in cocktails and infusions. So what's the purpose in using more expensive rye in a cocktail? Save it for sipping.

Katherine's last bit of advice for us on the topic of music was to go next door to the Elephant Room for jazz. This recommendation was repeated by others during our stay.

         Tip - by Katherine at Annie's, no cell phones at the bar! "its a corporate world ... they need to find a place to go to".

Spirits from Times Past .....

There is an increasing interest in making spirits. A number of persons are developing quite an expertise. I know of some who grow their own hops and make their own beer and mead.

In the March 28^th edition, the New York Times had a piece on a new brand of triple sec, handmade to vintage recipe. The brand is “Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao Ancienne Methode”. I am advised by a reputable source – one Adam Steely of The Blue Talon, this is an exceptional French liquor producer. I had the chance to speak with Adam on Saturday and to see another favorite bar tender – Karen. Adam’s adventures have recently taken him to new pinnacle – Extraordinary Cupcakes!

What strikes me, I have for some time been curious as to what is the best triple sec, not the most expensive, to use for cocktails. Advice I have been given is that the greater the alcohol proof, the more flavor. So I am using Leroux 40% Triple Sec.

The Blue Talon  Adam Steely pursued an exotic Luxardo brand of triple sec, “Luxardo ‘Triplum’ Triple Sec Orange Liqueur”.  Luxardo is an Italian brand that distills a number of other exotic liqueurs and bitters.

Increasingly I learn that the ingredients do make a substantive difference in the cocktail. For instance I learned most recently with the use of home-made grenadine syrup.

TIP

When buying triple sec, look for a higher alcohol proof brand.

El Presidente Cocte’l from the La Floradita Bar of Havana, Cuba. A cocktail that will charm the lady.

           

            ¾ oz white vermouth – sweet

            ½ oz Curacao Red or triple sec with a splash of grenadine for color

            1 ½ oz white rum

            Garnish with Maraschino cherry and peel of an orange

            Mix all ingredients with cracked ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Recipe courtesy of the La Floradita Bar.

Campari!

Campari - The liquor you need to know.

Ingredient Substitutions! Or, what to do when you run out of “beads”. [1]

Perched at the bar with my favorite bartender  [ I never let my  other favorites let on to one another],  Stephanie takes me aside and tells me  3 “men of the cloth” come to the bar Friday night, a Greek Orthodox priest,  accompanied by an Irish Catholic priest and a Reformed Rabbi. Stephanie laments they each ordered an unusual drink. The drinks are – a Masticha on the rocks, a Black and Tan, and rounding out this eclectic order, a Jack Rose. What’s a girl to do!

Any mixologist knows that one of the key knowledge factors she or he must learn is how to recognize the key ingredient and what to substitute when you don’t have a bottle of Masticha. The excellent bartender she is, Stephanie knows  to use Ouzo or Pernod as a  substitute for the Masticha, dark beer in place of Guinness for the second, and Calvados for the apple brandy ingredient in the Jack Rose cocktail.

Like the two DC bar hoppers, written about some years ago in the Washington Post, in search of an authentic Jack Rose, a good mixologist needs to know not only the ingredients but what to substitute when you lack the ingredient specified in the recipe.  Along with this blog and the internet, you should be able to determine what you can substitute.

Jack Rose Cocktail -         Written of by Hemingway

            1 ½ oz. applejack (apple brandy)

            3/4 oz. fresh lime or lemon juice

1/4 oz. grenadine (not the cloying red grenadine – make your own shaking 1 cup of POM juice with 1 cup of sugar, 2 dashes of orange flavored water or bitter, and to preserve, add an ounce of 100 proof vodka.)

Garnish with slice of apple and cherry.

           

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[1] Beads are the new fashion accessory, having recently walked Bourbon Street ; and of course  we are near Fat Tuesday and Lent. Vive le “Vieux Carre´”.