Bacony yum
Oh, and by the way, Mr. Petrullo, my motherfucking home-smoked bacon is delicious, so neener-neener boo boo to you and your fancy-pants grill.
O bacon! Two pork bellies from Flying Pigs, cured in the fridge for a week in a mix of salt, sugar, and aromatic spices. Then smoked over applewood and hard-wood charcoal (no briskets or lighter fluid for me, dammit--and definitely no gas) on Memorial Day morning, while I sipped beer and finished a good book.
The bacon is unctuous and rich, smoky. Sweetened with apple and salty and well-spiced from the week of curing. We had Berkshire bacon, from Fresh Direct, for breakfast on Monday, and good as that was, mine was better. I do think that the rich aromatics might provide a bit much flavor for simple bacony breakfasts, but it'll be a great seasoning. Jen plans borrachos, with the bacon subbing in for the salt pork.
Gimp your grill
This is ridiculous:
Last fall, Dave and Allison Petrullo of Commack, N.Y., installed a custom-built Cal Spas grill on their patio with an outdoor refrigerator. They spent more than $100,000 renovating their backyard with a new synthetic deck, masonry, a whirlpool and a pool waterfall, so $6,500 more for Mr. Petrullo to have a brick sanctuary with a Cal Spas grill as its central altar seemed like nothing. "I told him to just go for it," Ms. Petrullo said. "And get your dream barbecue."
Though they have actually cooked on the grill only three times since they installed it, it has been a hit with Mr. Petrullo's friends, who congregate around it at parties and give it a going-over like a pack of high school boys around a Corvette, Ms. Petrullo said. "They like to lift up the hood and play with the knobs," she said. "They open the doors underneath, and they open the fridge next to it to check it out."
You spend $6,500 for a grill you use three times and then show off to your buddies? I'd much rather have a $40 Smokey Joe that I use at least THREE TIMES A FUCKING WEEK for roasting veggies, smoking meats, and searing bison steaks. I love that little grill. I'm smoking bacon on that little grill tomorrow. Has Dave Petrullo ever motherfucking smoked bacon?
Don't get me wrong: I want a bigger grill, but right now, I'm just eyeing the Performer model from Weber. But even that "bigger grill" is only $370, not some $6,500 conspicuous-consumption ego stroke.
Sure, it would be delish to have a custom job with built-in fridge, hot smoker, and sink. But that ain't happening while we live in NYC, and it's hardly my A1 consumer-lust fantasy anyway.
Some folks just got more money than sense.
New mag for drinks nerds!
Having seen a number of bloggers discussing the new magazine Imbibe, I dispatched my lovely wife last week to track down a copy, to read during our flight to Alabama. She found the first issue for sale at Borders and brought it home for me. I'm still working my way through it, but so far, I'm really enjoying it.
Imbibe is a drinks magazine, and as such, it covers a range of beverages--coffees, teas, beers, spirits, and wines. (I'd love to see features on specialty colas, root and ginger beers, and other soft drinks.) The first issue contains articles on hotel bars, the drinks culture of Oaxaca, Ted Haigh, Trappist ales, and organic wines. It's a fun magazine that fills a heretofore open niche.
A lot of magazines have come and gone in the last couple of years--Radar (twice) and Chow are the ones I most lament. This seems to be a hard time to keep a new magazine afloat, but then perhaps it was ever thus. It's hard to say how long Imbibe will succeed. Nevertheless, I've voted with my credit card and purchased a subscription. (Actually, due to incompetent use of a web browser, I seem to have purchased two subscriptions. I've been on the web for a decade; I have no excuse.)
As I mentioned earlier, the premiere highlights twelve hotel bars. Among the bars featured is Bistro Moderne in Houston's Hotel Derek. The write-up discusses a Moderne specialty cocktail, the Texan, providing only the ingredients (Woodford Reserve bourbon, Sauza Conmemorativo tequila, and lime juice) and not the proportions.
I was intrigued but nervous about the bourbon/tequila mix, but since we have both ingredients at home, as well as plenty of limes, I wanted to try it. I had no idea what proportions to use, so I winged it. In a mixing glass, I poured three ounces Very Old Barton bourbon, two ounces Herradura Añejo, and one ounce lime juice (for two cocktails). I sampled just a bit of that and found it a little harsh, so I added half an ounce of simple syrup. I shook that over ice and strained it into two cocktail glasses.
Jen and I both liked it, but we felt it was lacking complexity. The sweetness was fine--any more than half an ounce of simple syrup would have been too sweet. I started thinking about bitters, and since triple sec is a common companion for tequila, I thought about Gary Regan and his orange bitters.
Good thought. Our second batch went as follows, and it was, we felt, a better mix:
1½ oz. Very Old Barton bourbon
1 oz. Herradura Añejo tequila
½ oz. lime juice
¼ oz. simple syrup
3 dashes Regan's Orange Bitters
Shake over ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
I'll happily entertain suggestions for garnishes. I left the drink naked. Salted rim? Lime twist?
Meanwhile, let's all raise a toast to Imbibe's long life.