lsanderson | Drink!

November 29, 2006
Our Towns
From Mexico to Vietnam, via Food Cart
By PETER APPLEBOME

FARMINGVILLE, N.Y.

“Tenemos puercos enteros,” says the sign taped to the front door of the Compare Foods supermarket off Exit 62 of the Long Island Expressway. “We have whole pigs.”

Well, of course, they have whole pigs, a Christmas season favorite for the shoppers at Compare Foods, which has 12 stores across Long Island, catering to an overwhelmingly Hispanic clientele. More

Off the Menu
By FLORENCE FABRICANT

Wine Bars and Lounges

EN SHOCHU BAR The front room at En Japanese Brasserie has been turned into a bar and lounge specializing in shochu, the spirit distilled from sweet potato, rice, buckwheat and other raw materials: 435 Hudson Street (Leroy Street), (212) 647-9196. More

Dark Lord, Alimony Ale, Old Ruffian: Here Are the Brawling Beers
By BROOKS HAMAKER

BRIAN DUNN doesn’t make beer that will make Milwaukee famous, nor does he make beer that’s less filling, though it does taste great. Mr. Dunn, the founder and brewmaster of the Great Divide Brewing Company in Denver, makes strong beer.

When a brewer like Mr. Dunn says that a beer is “strong” he means that the percentage of alcohol by volume is near 7 percent or above. Many craft brewers make one beer in this style. Mr. Dunn makes six. More

Raise a Mixed Drink for Dear Old State U.
By PABLEAUX JOHNSON

STRETCHING for miles in every direction, the tailgate party at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge on the Friday night before the Thanksgiving weekend football game looked like a backyard cookout imagined by Cecil B. DeMille. More

Recipe: Bloody Mariachi (Tequila Bloody Mary)
Recipe: Big Batch Bourbon Milk Punch

All but Lost, Rye Is Revived as the Next Boutique Find
By ERIC ASIMOV

LET me get straight to the point. Rye whiskey is the world’s great forgotten spirit, distinctive, complex and delicious. It offers a tactile pleasure unlike any other whiskey in the world.

Yet it nearly disappeared from American barrooms and from the national consciousness.

It used to be the signature whiskey of the United States. George Washington distilled it. Men fought over it in the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. Classic cocktails like the manhattan, the Sazerac and the Ward 8 were invented for it. Humphrey Bogart swigged it. But the rise of vodka, bourbon and single-malt scotch, along with the decline of the distilling industry in the Northeast, the stronghold of rye production, turned rye into a relic. More

Knock It, Then Try It
By PETE WELLS

NOBODY likes my Pernod and pomegranate Cosmopolitan, but I do.

The name is a part of the problem. In its “Sex and the City” heyday, the Cosmopolitan implied the promise of fresh romance. Now that its promises have been exhausted, it has the bruised and slightly dented air of an ex-husband.

When I offer to make my drink for friends, they act as if I’ve reminded them of something they were trying to forget. When I reassure them it’s not really a Cosmopolitan and tell them what’s in it, things get worse.

“I just don’t see how that could be any good,” one said.

Just after I came up with the recipe, I submitted it along with four others to a magazine. The four others appeared in print. My Cosmopolitan didn’t even make it to the test kitchen. More

Recipe: Horseradish Pomegranate Margarita
Recipe: Malta Fizz
Recipe: The Stray Dog
Recipe: The Love Unit

Tequila, by the Snifter
By FLORENCE FABRICANT

THE newest category of tequilas can look in the mirror and see Cognac. Having spent time in French oak barrels, they aspire to be poured from crystal decanters into snifters.

Unlike the two tequila types that dominate the market — the popular, margarita-friendly silver, and the briefly aged reposado (rested) tequilas — these new tequilas must be aged at least three years in oak, longer than regular añejo (aged) tequilas. They emerge a deep golden color, with rich, honeyed, sometimes smoky flavors that are more typical of brandy or Scotch. The often robustly vegetal character that distinguishes good tequila may have taken a powder.

Though some of these top-of-the-line tequilas are not new to the market, they now qualify for the designation extra añejo, or extra-aged, which was approved by Mexico’s National Committee on Standardization about a year ago. (Flavored tequilas were also approved.) Until then, añejo tequilas needed at least a year in oak, and those aged three years or more had no special distinction.

Now with the market for high-end spirits on the rise, producers convinced the government that longer-aged tequilas, often priced at $100 or more a bottle, needed to be set apart. More

The Weighty Responsibility of Drinking for Two
By JULIA MOSKIN

IT happens at coffee bars. It happens at cheese counters. But most of all, it happens at bars and restaurants. Pregnant women are slow-moving targets for strangers who judge what we eat — and, especially, drink. More

Specialty Tonic Waters, Subtly Sweet
By ROB WILLEY

FOUR years ago, Jordan Silbert had a gin and tonic that changed his life. The gin may have played some role, but the real catalyst was a large bottle of Schweppes tonic water, its label peeling and faded, plucked from the back of a bodega refrigerator.

“You could see it going flat as you drank it,” he said. The tonic was so sweet and viscous that Mr. Silbert said he felt as if his teeth were wearing sweaters. In that moment he understood that building a better tonic water was his calling, and he eventually left his job as director of rebuilding initiatives for the Downtown Alliance in New York to go to business school and pursue it.

Not many people give much thought to tonic water, but those who do think deeply. Until recently, all Mr. Silbert had to show for his meditations were 1,200 single-serving bottles of a lean, briskly carbonated tonic water called Q stacked in a storage unit on 11th Avenue in Manhattan. More

Stand-Up Party Food Without a Punch Line
By MARK BITTMAN

THAT there is some work associated with having people over is a given; if entertaining were truly easy there would be no caterers. It’s the degree to which you want to cater — yes, that’s the word — to your guests that’s in question. And if you want people to rave about your food you are going to have to do better than cream cheese and crackers.

That doesn’t mean, however, that you need to spend days in the kitchen or hundreds of dollars on caviar; there is stand-up party food that can be made without much hassle. More

Recipe: Polpetti
Recipe: Gougères
Recipe: Grilled Chicken Wings
Recipe: Asian Corn Fritters