*their own interpretation of the Mediterranean cocktail. this one’s made with Balinese Arak, which is…unrelated to Med Arak. It’s not an anise-infused brandy, but rather, distilled coconut-palm sap (like Lambanog). The bar creates their Madu by first, ginning-up their base Arak (which is normally sold unadulterated); But they wouldn’t tell me what’s in the infusion though! Anyhow,
I can taste some wormwood maybe? It’s got that Absinthe-y flavor, but w/out any overt anise. and maybe I’m imagining…but it does have a tiny bit of that local durian flavor too. It’s vexxing, but begs for follow-up tastes to figure it out.
the final cocktail includes the lime juice & honey, to complete the Madu.
I’ve only visited Florida once, and someone on Chowhound recommended I try a grouper sandwich. We drove into Hollywood or Jupiter from the freeway to try it. I will see if I posted about the place on TA.We liked it!
Having recently sold our house we are living in a very small 800 sf, 1BR, 11/2 bath condo on the beach. I have had numerous grouper sandwiches since it is my favorite thing to order at several seafood centric restaurants
When grouper filet pricing at the local fish markets began to climb to $30/lb I said I was out. But when out at local seafood centric restaurants it’s the thing I order most often
When at the market I will buy other local fish. But snappers are not far behind in pricing . Mahi and sea trouts are some what still reasonable. But boy do I love a good grouper sandwich
Nonalcoholic hot Christmas ponche, from a largely Mexican & Central American holiday market pop-up. The drink came with a spoon so I could fish out all the nice fruit and sticks of sugarcane.
I’ve always enjoyed grouper, a Thai restaurant near our place in Florida serves a huge fillet with curry or pad thai for < $20. As fish prices have risen, I’ve started to doubt whether they’re really serving grouper. A number of fishermen have shared with me which markets to avoid, some of them are incorrectly noting fish species.
Yes I’ve heard that as well. If you’ve seen enough grouper you might be able to tell the difference by sight. I’ve seen a lot of grouper flesh to hopefully know the difference if it’s in a case on ice. Certainly if it’s a whole fish
I was intrigued when I saw Trevor Felch’s book San Francisco Cocktails in a local shop, but I should have perused it before I agreed to have my wife buy it for me. Most of the cocktails either require you to make various syrups and tinctures or have weirdly specific ingredient lists (Wagyu fat-washed Suntori Whiskey, anyone?). This variant on a Brooklyn, from the Vault at 555 California Street, is one of the few I can reasonably make.
Brooklyn Holiday
1 1/2 oz. rye
3/4 oz. sweet vermouth
1/2 oz. Aperol
1/2 oz. Lillet Blanc
Stir all ingredients in a mixing glass, then pour into an ice-filled rocks glass and garnish with an orange peel.
Spiced butter washed Old Monk rum (saffron, garam masala, coriander, black pepper, red chiles) with a large splash of brown sugar-cayenne syrup and a bit of water, on the rocks. This is delightful!
If anyone is interested in fat washing their own booze, Youtube has some good videos to get you started. I followed this one by Greg at How 2 Drink:
Although my drink was served cold
I’m debating the merits of spicing the butter and then washing versus just putting the spice in the simple syrup. I figure if you’re already goosing the base spirit and you have spices that are fat soluble, the former is the way to go. Anyone else try this at all or have thoughts?
