Every region in Mexico has many types of Molé, but the common denominators are chillies, seeds, nuts and some type of fruit, sometimes fresh, sometimes dried. The preparation can be arduous, taking hours to make, which is why it is usually made for special occasions. Is it as good as a traditional molé? It’s not…
Happy Bottled-in-Bond Day!
(Plus Rittenhouse Rye Review) On March 3rd, 1897 the US Congress passed the Bottled in Bond Act. This act was the very first food related consumer protection act passed in this country, beating the Pure Food and Drug act by almost a decade. So what does Bottled-in-Bond mean? While not many people pay much attention…
The Trouble with Top Tens (Including My Top Ten Whiskeys!)
‘Tis the Season for Top 10 lists, and my feed has been full of Top Whiskey Lists since September. While I do pay attention to them, I have mixed emotions about them as well. For one thing, everyone’s taste is different, so these lists are incredibly subjective by nature.They can also change as one keeps…
Pizza For Everybody!
I grew up in Atlanta, not that far from Emory University. There was a restaurant about 15 minutes from our house in Emory Village called Everybody’s Pizza, but it closed about seven years ago after 41 years in business. One of their specialties was the “pizza crisp”, an incredibly thin and, yes, crispy crusted pizza…
Summer in a Bowl
Happy July 4th Weekend! One thing that symbolizes summer all across the country is corn. Boiled, grilled and in corn fritters are some of my family’s favorite ways to enjoy corn in season, but number one on th elist os Corn Chowder. That might be because summer on the Northern California coast can tend to…
The Sourdough of Whiskey and Playing With Fire
Today’s whiskey tasting teaches us two different aspects of whiskey; Using a Sour Mash and what Toasting and different Char Levels do to the flavor. To do that, I tasted the Michter’s Sour Mash Whiskey and the Limited Edition Michter’s Toasted Barrel Sour Mash Whiskey. So what is a “Sour Mash”? The “Mash”, or sometimes…
Four Roses Small Batch Review
When I first started drinking whiskey several years ago I stuck mainly to (Highland) Scotch and Irish Whiskeys. I tried a few bourbons but they weren’t really my thing, with the exception of Four Roses Small Batch on ice. A few years later when I decided to try and become a Certified Bourbon Steward, it…
The Best and the Best, or Two Great Tastes That Go Great Together
Working as a cheesemonger has some advantages, in this case access to a piece of Rogue River Blue Cheese, which was named the Best Cheese in The World. Now I’m not really a blue cheese fan, but I have learned in my career in the food biz to “turn off” the Like/Dislike part of my…
It Was the Best of Drams, It Was The Worst of Drams…
A Recap of my “30 Days of Bourbon” Experience. The only way to figure out what you like is to try different things, and this was a great excuse to do just that. The past year or so I’ve been focusing more and more on American whiskey, partially due to posts from my fellow Bourbon…
The 30 Day Bourbon Challenge – Day One
September is Bourbon Heritage Month and the folks over at Bourbon Banter have started their annual challenge. Over the next month I’ll be sharing my daily drams as well as some interesting tidbits about bourbon history. I can’t guarantee I’ll get a blog post up every night, but will share a pic on my Instagram…