Edible and Audible

Poland – come for the culture, stay for the food. My wife and I recently took a week-long trip to Poland, partially because we’ve been intrigued by Poland for some time, partially because we really needed a vacation, and partially because the Unsound festival, one of the leading experimental music festivals in the world, was [...]

It’s strawberry season in these here parts, and that means four words – Tequila por mi Amante. Sure, I love eating strawberries in every conceivable way – jams, pies, on top of cereal, and so on and so on. But in recent times I added drinking strawberries to my early summer repertoire and I must say it’s a habit I plan on keeping. Last summer I made my first batch of Tequila por mi Amante, a strawberry-infused reposado tequila and the results were stunning – good in a cocktail, but really hard not to pour over ice and finish off the entire bottle in one sitting. It’s sweet without being overly sugary – the alcohol brings out the natural essence of the strawberry, which pairs really nicely with the spicy reposado.

As a cocktail hobbyist I am extremely fortunate to live near New York City – there is almost no limit on the obscure bottles you can find there, and lately some of the more anticipated bottlings, like Creme Yvette, are launched in NYC first before the rest of the country can access them. Due to arcane (inane?) liquor delivery laws, you’re generally completely screwed if you’re a cocktail enthusiast living in Nebraska, or Idaho, or even Pennsylvania or New Jersey. I happen to live in NJ but the PATH train is my transport to the land of milk, honey, and mezcal. But sometimes even I hit a wall, that occasional bottle that some distributor has the gall to not sell in NY (please note the sarcasm) and suddenly I feel the pain for my fellow enthusiasts who are left waiting for that trip to NY or San Francisco to pick up these elusive products.

Wasn’t planning on doing two posts today but stumbled on this and had to react. If you’re learning to make drinks at home and wondering about the order in which to put things in your shaker, watch this video and then do the exact opposite.

A few links for today:

Life and sounds of a pig
Electronic music artist Matthew Herbert is trying to make an album based on sounds from the life of an industrially-raised pig to raise awareness of where our food comes from. PETA over-reacts.

Illegal Infusions
Bars in California are beginning to be penalized for house infusions, let’s hope this doesn’t spread.

Drinking in the future
Alex Day, formerly of Death and Company, gives interesting insight on why suspenders and handlebar mustaches may no longer be “necessary” in finer drinking establishments.