Perpetual Carouse

As if being responsible for the beer that most tastes like piss (I'm guessing...but I do know what the beer tastes like) isn't enough, Anhueser Busch is now bringing us Spykes, little bottled shots of alcoholic nastiness in flavors like "Hot Melons" (seriously!) and "Hot Chocolate." The Spykes website suggests that they're perfect for adding to a beer (to hide the piss-taste, presumably) or to do as a standalone shot.

MSNBC is reporting that anti-underage-drinking folks are up in arms, and AB is playing Rainman on the question of whether or not they're marketing to teens.

As if the ringtones, screensavers, and IM icons available on the Spykes website weren't dead giveaways.

The Chron's got pretty extensive coverage on The Eat Local Challenge. As I mentioned, we're going to be giving it a whirl starting tomorrow.

Already I can see some of the difficulties. Sticking to the budget is going to be the big one. The other is that there isn't really salt, pepper, flour, or a zillion other things I cook with all the time within a hundred miles of my kitchen. I was talking with a friend of mine, and he asked about restaurants. He pointed out that even restaurants that emphasize local products get a lot of stuff from far-away lands.

The way I look at it, this isn't an exercise in limitation. I'm taking it on as an opportunity to enjoy exploring the things around me, rather than fretting over where I'm going to find locally-produced cornmeal. It's rather telling that the most successful of the Chron's guinea-pigs were a retired couple who've been doing this for years, and restaurant-owners, although the less-connected, more time-constricted city-slicker made a good go. I don't have the time, or the experience required to spend my week hunting down every last ingredient. And that's fine for me.

As I mentioned to my friend, I'll be happy with an organic scone or loaf of bread from a locally-owned bakery. If the flour wasn't made in a shed in the back, it's not going to ruin my day. I'm approaching this whole thing as realistically as possible. We can't eat entirely locally. But that doesn't make trying to eat closer to home not worth working on.

Besides, anything that gives me an excuse to eat awesome cheese and drink good hooch can't be bad, right?

Shopping trips: 2
Total spent: $59
Remaining budget: $101

Photo by Denise Siegel

The show was awesome, and only slightly marred by the woman in front of me who would turn around and glare disapprovingly anytime anyone would hoot or holler or otherwise make it known that they were indeed alive and breathing and enjoying this here rock and roll music that was being played. Pity the poor souls who had any sort of real-life emotional response. If you're that picky about your listening experience, stay the fuck home with your iPod, methinks.

Grant was in rock-tastic form, accompanied by a drummer and bassist. It was a much more "plugged-in" show than the last time I saw him, focused on material from the new record, Strangelet. There were a few bones thrown to the Grant Lee Buffalo die-hards, including a killer acoustic version of Honey Don't Think [from Mighty Joe Moon] and an awesome version of Truly, Truly [Jubilee].

When I first discovered Grant via Grant Lee Buffalo, I was living in a student co-op. There were about 150 people in the house I lived in, and we had this giant commercial kitchen. The organized meals usually sucked, so I'd head in there after dinner to cook for myself. I used to cook up a storm in there, and I can remember listening to a lot of GLB on the shitty stereo. One song in particular, Dixie Drug Store [Streaming MP3], captured my imagination, with its tale of a traveler in the French Quarter seduced by the ghost of Marie Laveau. Now I can't help associating Grant's voice with New Orleans, which is funny because he's actually from the same California town that I grew up in.

It's strange how taste memories manage to permeate seemingly unrelated things. Listening to Grant's records now remind me of meals I had in New Orleans and the steak sandwiches with caramelized onion and pepper jack cheese that I used to cook up on the flat top in my Berkeley co-op.

Hangar One's got a new limited-edition hot pepper vodka, made with chipotles smoked by Anthony Paone at T-Rex Barbeque in Berkeley. Get 'em while they're...um...hot.

Incidentally, I'm a big fan of T. Rex, but I have to say that their ribs are neither all that nor a bag of chips (as the kids say). As a food-nerd and a huge BBQ aficionado, I'd ordinarily write off any BBQ place with mediocre ribs, but T. Rex does everything else so well that I am willing to look past such a major flaw. But really, what up with that? They aren't exactly a hole-in-the-wall 'Que joint, but Barbeque is in the name. If you can't throw down mad ribs, calling yourself a barbeque restaurant is suspect.

Today is Day 6 of the Challenge, and... we're going to go over budget.

Tuesday night, we both had dinners out that were at least semi-business related, and thus unavoidable. I also went to see Grant Lee Phillips, so I ended up spending $12 on a couple of beers. They were local beers, at least.

I made another shopping trip for a few things for Wednesday dinner/ Thursday lunch, and since we didn't cook Tuesday night, I bought lunch out. Michael got a free lunch from work, so I'm not counting it.

The money breaks out like this:

My Tuesday Dinner before Grant Lee Phillips show + beers at the show: $32
Michael's Tuesday Dinner: $24.50

Software for Wednesday dinner & Thursday lunch:
2 organic red bell peppers: $5 (probably local, but I'm not 100% certain)
1 loaf of organic local bread: $3

2 local/ sustainable carnitas tacos w/ chips & salsa: $11.50

That brings our total spent this week to $155.

Dinner last night was roasted red pepper, caramelized onion and Fatted Calf bacon sandwiches with Happy Boy greens from the farmers' market on Saturday. I had wanted tomatoes, but there were no local tomatoes to be found. Paying $5 for two smallish peppers totally sucked, especially since I know the non-local, non-organic variety would have cost about a buck at the Korean market where I usually buy them.

My lunch yesterday was also illuminative. I spent almost $12 for Traci Des Jardins' designer Mexican street food. The tacos were delicious, no doubt, but I could have had the exact same meal for about $5 from the taco truck a few blocks away. The taco truck doesn't use Niman Ranch pork, or local organic produce though. I also cheated, and used the excellent (and imported from Mexico) Valentina hot sauce on my lunch. Traci's salsa may be local and sustainable, but it's also somewhat lacking in the flavor and heat department. For twelve bucks I was going to enjoy those suckers.

We're left with five bucks in the budget. Five dollars would probably be enough to get us through the next 24 hours via a flank steak or something and the odds and ends around the house. Today is Dining Out For Life though, and some friends invited us out to Cesar for dinner. If it weren't a fundraiser, and just a regular night out, I would have postponed until after the challenge. It does raise an interesting point though, namely that this sort of conscious eating can make having a social life somewhat challenging.

Ironically in our case, it seems to have supercharged our social life. In an average week, we might dine with friends once... and yet somehow this particular week gave us four opportunities to eat out, only one of which was planned before the week started. I suppose we could have taken a more hardline approach to the challenge and declined these invitations, but we don't get to spend enough time with people as it is. The fact that all these occasions happened this week is purely coincidence.

So tomorrow we're off the hook, and I'm kind of looking forward to it. Not because of the food... we've had great stuff this week. I'm looking forward to not having to bean-count. We've definitely incorporated more local products into our diets than usual, and that's something I'd like to carry forward after this week.

Last Friday, we headed out to Bourbon & Branch, the new-ish speakeasy-style bar in the TenderNob. I was fully prepared to hate it, what with all the New York-style cloak and dagger drama surrounding it (secret location, mandatory reservations, a password).

Turns out I was totally wrong. I love it. With the exception of the giant non-sign out front (yes, I get the joke...but the giant backlit plastic sign kills any aura of Gatsby-era authenticity) the whole experience is almost perfect.

The hostess was accommodating and friendly, even when 66% of our party was late. She showed us to the table (instead of making us wait), and within minutes of stepping through the door we were sipping a wonderful vanilla mimosa amuse while pondering the evening's drinking possibilities.

The tin ceiling, low lights, loungey vibe and Prohibition-era soundtrack were the perfect backdrop for the hand-crafted cocktails. A classic Gimlet got a respectful update with the addition of cucumber and elderflower, and the Sidecar was spot-on. Despite B&B's protest, they actually do make a great Cosmo, albeit a pomegranate-ginger version, which they creatively named... well... Pomegranate Ginger. Drinks are a tad pricey, but considering that a reservation guarantees you a seat, a waitressperson, premium liquors and house-made mixers it's worth the extra $2 or $3 a pop over what you'd spend in another bar. Early reports were that wait staff were slow and limited your table to only a few rounds, but our waitress was quick, helpful, and happy to serve us as many rounds as we wanted.

Once our table reservation was up, we headed through the secret doorway into the library. It was like being in a Scooby Doo cartoon, except with booze. Anyone, reservation or no, can step into the library for a drink.

While I might pop in there on a weeknight if there were no tables available, a Friday night in the library was just like Friday night in any other bar in San Francisco, namely loud and crowded. If anything, the library made me appreciate the relaxing, civilized atmosphere of the main bar even more.

Photo by pbody

Some recipes call for muddled mint, Mojito style (like the excellent julep in this picture from Farmer Brown), but my favorite juleps take a bit of extra work.

Mint Julep

• 3 parts whiskey or bourbon, preferably Woodford Reserve, or Maker's Mark
• 1 part mint syrup
• Finely crushed ice
• Mint for garnish

Fill a glass with ice. Add whiskey and syrup, give a quick stir, and garnish with a mint leaf.

Mint Syrup

• 2 cups water
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 handfull of fresh mint

Heat the water and sugar in a saucepan over a medium flame, stirring until sugar is completely dissolved. Add mint, and let cool. Place syrup mixture in refrigerator for 24 hours to allow the mint to infuse into the syrup. Strain out the mint and discard.

Syrup will keep, refrigerated, for 10 days.

Via Philadelphia Inquirer, a recipe for Bourbon Ball Milkshakes, from Lynn's Paradise Cafe in Louisville. The Paradise Cafe was the site of the breakfast episode of Bobby Flay's Throwdown.

• 1/3 cup chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup walnuts
• 6 to 8 scoops vanilla ice cream
• 1 oz. good bourbon
  (Woodford Reserve or Maker's Mark)
• 1 tablespoon cream
• whipped cream & whole walnuts, for garnish

Whip all the (non-garnish) ingredients in a blender and pour into a tall parfait glass.
Serve topped with whipped cream and walnuts.

Sammy Hagar still can't drive 55, but he can sell his Cabo Wabo-brand tequila for 80.

$80 Million, that is.

In honor of my sister-in-law's birthday today, my kick-ass margarita recipe:

Old-School Scratch Margaritas

• 1 part tequila (Get the good stuff. I'm a Herradura man, myself, but the S-I-L is a Patron woman.)
• 1 part Cointreau
• 1 part margarita mix, from scratch

Shake with lots of ice, pour into a glass (salted, if you like), add a squeeze of lime, enjoy! They're really potent.
You've been warned.

Margarita Mix

• 1 part fresh lime juice
• 1 part fresh lemon juice
• 1-2 Oranges
• Zest of your lemons and limes
• Sugar
• Salt

Juice your limes and lemons into separate containers.

Mix equal parts lemon and lime juices in an large airtight container.
Add the orange juice, lemon and lime zest, and sugar to taste. You're shooting for the mix to be a touch on the sweet side, since it will be diluted somewhat in the final drink. Not too sweet, though. We're making cocktails here, not Slurpees.
Add a heavy pinch of kosher salt. Maybe two if you're making a big batch of mix.
Seal your container, and store in the fridge for 24 hours, shaking vigorously every now and then.
Strain out the zest, and start making cocktails!

Leftover mix can be stored in the fridge for a few days, or frozen for next time.

Next week is San Francisco Cocktail Week. Bars all over town will be serving up special drinks,in honor of the 201st birthday of the cocktail. Yay!

If you need a few drink ideas, check out this week's edition of The Onion, where myself and a few others picked our local favorites. If you just can't wait until next week for the festivities to begin, you can always make your own Margarita, Mint Julep, or even a Bourbon Ball Milkshake.

Over the weekend, I finally enjoyed one of my local food-items-of-lust: a Guinness Stout/ espresso/ chocolate milkshake over at Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe. Rudy's took over the venerable Eugene's a few years back, and has turned the space into a retro style (sort-of) punk rock diner.

Food: Good
Atmosphere: Good
Prices: A wee bit expensive, considering that it's diner food. A burger, some pancakes, and the shake were almost $40 with tip. Burger was good, although Rudy's does commit the sin of not using Heinz ketchup.

Anyway, the shake. It was really good, though sadly a 16oz glass is all you get. No tin with the leftover shake or anything. It's mostly sweet, but there is a certain beery bitterness to it that gives it great depth of flavor. It's the kind of thing that's there if you know what you're looking for, but you could probably pass it off as a regular coffee/chocolate shake to someone who didn't know the taste of Guinness. That would be an utter waste of Guinness though, so keep the shake for yourself.

My only suggestion would be to forgo the Hershey's syrup and use some sort of really dark chocolate instead. The stout gives it a deep roasty flavor that would be awesome playing off some dark chocolate notes. Except if they did that, I'd never be able to drive by the restaurant without stopping. Perhaps it's better as-is.

Free yourself from the tyranny of corporate soda! Do it yourself with the open-source OpenCola.

And, uh, just in case you think OpenCola might be more... virtuous than your standard corporate soda, don't be fooled.

When you make cola, you basically end up filling a glass with sugar and then adding just enough water and ancillary ingredients to get it to dissolve.
-Cory Doctorow, on OpenCola

OpenCola

Flavoring

• 3.50 ml orange oil
• 1.00 ml lemon oil
• 1.00 ml nutmeg oil
• 1.25 ml cassia oil
• 0.25 ml coriander oil
• 0.25 ml neroli oil
• 2.75 ml lime oil
• 0.25 ml lavender oil
• 10.0 g gum arabic
• 3.00 ml water

Concentrate

• 2.00 tsp (10 ml) flavoring
• 3.50 tsp (17.5 ml) 75% phosphoric acid or citric acid
• 2.28 l water
• 2.36 kg granulated white sugar
• 0.50 tsp (2.5 ml) caffeine (optional. use caution)
• 30.0 ml caramel color

Popped into farmerbrown last night for a bite and a cocktail. They serve up one of my favorite drinks right now, the Dark & Stormy. Dark rum, house-made ginger beer, lime, and a touch of nutmeg. It's awesome.

I've eaten there several times at the bar, but this time opted for a table. We weren't in the mood for a full meal, but shared a salad of sweet potatoes and greens in a bright vinaigrette and the cheese grits. Lately, I've been having a fascination with grits and/or polenta. Being freaked out by the amount of corn in everything we eat nonwithstanding, I think I'm on something of a grits kick.

Anyway, the grits were delicious and creamy, but they could have used a good pinch of salt. I suspect that had I eaten them in their true role as a side to something else on the menu (chicken and dumplings, maybe) the salt wouldn't have been an issue.

Every time I go to farmerbrown, I like it more and more. The food is simple and well-executed, and the vibe of the place makes for a fun time out. Chef Jay Foster has a deep commitment to local, sustainable food, which allows me to put fried chicken and po' boys in the "virtuous food" category... plus those firey peanuts at the bar are addictive, man.

There's an interesting article on the 20/20 website about the results of a vodka taste-test. They had a panel of vodka drinkers taste five premium vodkas neat, including Ketel One, Belvedere, Hangar One, Stoli Elit, and Grey Goose. In addition, the panelists tasted run-of-the-mill Smirnoff.

In an apparent victory for luxury marketing over taste, all six tasters uniformly hated Grey Goose, which most had claimed as their preferred vodka. Unsurprisingly (to me at least) my beloved Hangar One did well in the "neat" test. At the distillery, you taste the vodka in exactly the same way: straight and at room temperature, a perfect opportunity to pick up on the fruity tones from the Viogner grapes Hangar One is made from.

When it came to tasting vodkas in a cocktail (in this case a Sex & The City-inspired Cosmopolitan) tasters had an even tougher time picking out their proclaimed favorites. The article unfortunately doesn't offer any numeric breakdown of the results, but it's implied that none of the tasters were able to identify their preferred brand. Given that the cocktail they chose incorporates cranberry and lime juices, as well as a sticky-sweet orange liqueur, I'm not surprised by that, either.

Had they been tasting vodka & tonics, or even a classic gimlet, I'm sure the differences between vodkas would have been more noticeable, although that still doesn't mean Grey Goose would have won.

The 20/20 website suggests that the moral of the story is that well vodka is just as good as premium, but what I take from it is that most people are buying marketing hype, not a vodka that they actually appreciate for its own qualities.

Makes me want to go pick up some Fat Tire. Is it beer-thirty yet?

Aside from being just a cool idiom that ought to make a comeback, The Bee's Knees is also a most excellent cocktail. A recipe, courtesy of the cool kids over at Hangar One.

The Bee Keeper

(AKA The Bee's Knees)

• 2 oz. Hangar One Buddha's Hand Vodka
• 1 oz. Aqua Perfecta Pear Eau de Vie
• 1/2 oz. fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 oz. honey simple syrup (equal parts honey and water)

Shake over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Somewhere, I've got a clipping from a magazine with a lavender version of The Bee's Knees. I'll see if I can dig it up.

In other Hangar One news, they've just released their Fraser River raspberry vodka. It only comes around once a year, and it's definitely worth seeking out. To quote the great Ferris Bueller, "If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up." Lucky for you, luxuries like this only cost about 30 bucks or so.

Apparently, Disney is backing out of their plan to sell Ratatouille-branded wine. According to Consumerist, Disney and Costco (the proposed retailer) are under investigation by the Alcoholic Beverage Control for attempting to market to minors.

The idea that Disney would be marketing booze to minors seems a bit of a stretch to me. More likely, their target was nerdy adult fans of the movie (myself included) eager to drop some coin on Ratatouille-related merch. Speaking of which, I was in Disneyland recently, and there was nary a Ratatouille product to buy. Had there been, I surely would have come home with a lot of it.

And, by the way, the food sucks at Disneyland. All of it. I wasn't exactly expecting Thomas Keller, but really, would it kill them to have something decent? At least you can get a microbrew in California Adventure... which after two days of walking around in the sun was just about the best beer I ever had. Nearly 8 bucks a pop, though.

If you're around San Francisco this Thursday and hankering for a cocktail, check out Stop AIDS Project's Bar AIDS charity event.

Bars around the city will be donating a percentage of their proceeds on August 23 to the Stop AIDS Project. Mix on 18th St. is donating 100% of their sales, and several other bars are donating 25 and 50 percent of their sales. Check the list of participating bars, then go forth and drink!

Chow.com and Square One vodka are hosting a cocktail competition. Amateurs and pros alike are invited to submit recipes for pitcher-sized cocktails using Square One vodka and organic ingredients.

Winners gets a $300 set of bar tools and a trip to San Francisco to pour drinks at an Iron Chef-style battle to determine -er- whose cocktail reigns supreme.

Unfortunately, due to some California booze laws, if you live in California and you win, your prize will be awarded to someone else (but you'll still be able to come to the final event, provided you pay for your own transpo and a ticket to the event). So yeah, you basically get nothing, other than the opportunity to work at a ticketed event for free.

I recently dropped by Hangar One with some friends to see what was up. OK, to taste some vodka... whatever. Anyway, Hangar One is pretty much my house brand, and the fact that the folks over there are so rad is just kind of the icing on the cake. We tasted our way through the regular line-up, in addition to the new basil eau de vi, which was pretty amazing.

I ended up adopting a bottle of the Fraser River raspberry vodka, as well as the white tea Qi liqueur. I'd tasted the black Qi before, and liked it, but the white version totally knocked me out with it's notes of spices and orange blossoms. I haven't quite figured out what my plans are for it, but I'm thinking it would rock added to some jasmine tea with lime.

The great folks over at Lost Canyon are celebrating their newest wine with a release party this weekend. The 2006 Widdoes Vineyard pinot is Lost Canyon's first from this Russian River Valley vineyard, and the winemakers are calling it their Goldilocks wine... as in "just right."

Lost Canyon turns out vineyard-designate pinots and syrahs, as well a viognier, and the new Widdoes may well be my favorite out of all their stellar wines. The harvest was low, and there are only about 300 cases of Widdoes to go around. My advice? Get it while you can.

Taste the '06 Widdoes, and the rest of Lost Canyon's lineup at the release party on Saturday, November 17 from 1pm to 5pm.

Lost Canyon Winery [map]
2102 Dennison Street
Oakland, CA 94606

[Full Disclosure: I have a business relationship with Lost Canyon, but my appreciation of their wine predates that relationship. I am not receiving any compensation of any sort for mentioning their wines here. I just like the stuff, and gladly buy and drink it.]

A couple of East Bay Events coming up:

This Friday, NovoMetro is celebrating the launch of their new print magazine OakBook at Esteban Sabar Gallery. The party coincides with the Oakland Art Murmur, and I'll be there pouring local wines from Lost Canyon. Details here.

And speaking of local booze, Alameda's Hangar One/St. George Spirits have just announced the upcoming release of their new Absinthe Verte on December 21. This is the first domestically-produced absinthe since it was banned in 1912. At $75 a pop, it's certainly not cheap, but it's sure to be delish, if you're into that whole black licorice thing. Helpfully, Hangar One is offering a free shuttle to their tasting room from West Oakland BART every weekend in December. From noon until six on Saturdays, or noon to five on Sundays, give them a call at 510-864-0635 for a pick-up.

Via The Food Whore, I just discovered what is quite possibly the most useless appliance ever: an electric cocktail shaker.

No, really.

I about died when I saw a Boston shaker (ie, a pint glass + a big metal cup) for sale for $47 at my local Williams Sonoma a while back, but this electric shaker takes the cake for stupid overpriced crap. It's even worse than the bafflingly-popular margarita machines that are nothing more than a cheap blender with a spigot.

Why do people buy this stuff? Is it really that hard to shake a cocktail, or to blend and pour a margarita? Nevermind that good margaritas are served on the rocks anyway.

My Boston shaker cost about $5 at a restaurant supply store, and has outlasted at least four "fancier" (though non-electric) mutli-piece metal shakers (all of which leaked), and provided probably thousands of cocktails over the years. It goes in the dishwasher, doesn't leak, and the glass is just a standard pint glass, which means it can be replaced if I ever manage to break it.

The best part is that the electric shaker is called the "Waring Pro Professional Electric Martini Maker." If you ever go into a bar, and the bartender uses one of these, find yourself another bar. And if your friend buys one? Point, laugh, and mock relentlessly.

This just in:

A dude at the Nuremberg airport chugged a liter of vodka rather than throw it out or pay to have the bottle checked as cargo. He was later admitted to the hospital for alcohol poisoning.

In not-really-related news, I watched the airplane episode of Mythbusters last night, and unfortunately they did not address the myth of being able to hijack an airplane with a three ounce bottle of liquid that only has an ounce of liquid actually in it. So we're still stuck throwing out nearly everything before getting on a plane.

Sigh.

Faced with growing competition from cheaper rivals, Starbucks Corp. is selling small cups of drip coffee for $1 with free refills as part of a test in its hometown.

- AP, Via the Chron

It's no secret that I hate the 'Bucks. Mostly, it's that whole thing with the coffee sucking and all, but I'm not into the pretentious faux-Italian either, nor the fact that every Starbucks everywhere looks like every Starbucks everywhere else. But seriously, does Starbucks need even longer lines than they already have? Really?

Via BoingBoing: Trader Vic's is having a warehouse sale to get rid of some of their surplus tiki stuff. If you've ever had fantasies of converting your basement into a tiki bar (and really, who hasn't?) get yourself over to Richmond, CA.

Trader Vic's Warehouse Sale
623 S. 32nd St.
Richmond, CA
Feb. 23-29
10a-7p

Looks like $20,000 coffee machines are the new food fetish objects.

I have a hard time wrapping my brain around spending that much on a coffee machine, even if intellectually I can understand how they might be really, really fantastic. Maybe. I have to think that the point of diminishing returns has to kick in somewhere well south of both these machines' price points, though. My $20 press pot brews up a pretty good cup, after all.

The $20,000 Japanese machine has touched down in SF, so I'll post a full report when I get a chance to check it out. With any luck, I can convince some comrades in Portland to send us a report of the more modestly priced $11,000 miracle machine in use at Stumptown.

Stay tuned.

I stumbled upon this video via a friend of a friend, and I'd have to agree with his advice.

Don't ever make this drink. Ever.

Mint Juleps are awesome... one of my favorite drinks, but what the hell this crime against humanity and good bourbon is, I do not know. This bartender ought to be ashamed of herself.

Robots + Cocktails = Awesome