New City Reader, Food Edition

I recently took advantage of Target Free Thursdays at the New Museum to view their exhibition The Last Newspaper, which uses the newspaper "as a platform to address issues of hierarchy, attribution, contextualization, and editorial bias." As someone who relies on newspaper archives almost every day, I was fascinated by the way the curators played with the print news to create new narratives based on the artists' idea of the journalistic emphasis.

The exhibition spans three floors of the New Museum; one floor is almost completely devoted to the people creating stories, including the talented editors behind New City Reader.

New City Reader is an ephemeral piece of ephemera: a pop-up newspaper exploring a different theme each week until the Last Newspaper exhibition closes on January 9th.

I was honored and thrilled to be asked to contribute a piece in New City Reader's food issue, which is still freely available at the Museum (and soon-to-be-online). 

Nicola Twilley, of the always fascinating and inspiring blog Edible Geography and one of the food issues' editors, asked me to write about commemorative cocktails.

Commemorative cocktails, as I wrote in the piece (and which you can read in full on Nicola's blog), are born out of an incredible assortment of historical events, from monumental achievements and epic heroes to fleeting trends and otherwise insignificant peculiarities, such as the Strikes Off cocktail (to mark the end of the 1929 General Strike in Great Britain) and the Moonshot (a industry-created cocktail to mark the Apollo 11 flight).

Other features in the food issue include an interview with Alan Stillman, he of T.G.I. Friday's fame; an app idea for a Coffeehouse Commons; a fantastic mapping project to chart the food prep kitchens in the city; and one of my favorite pieces called Is This a Bodega?, Jeff Sisson's crowd-sourcing project wherein users are asked to identify bodegas around New York in order to document every bodega in the city.

The Last Newspaper is on view until January, 2011 and back issues of the New City Reader can be viewed online or by going to the Museum. 

Oh, What a Night...

Looking through the world famous Savoy Cocktail Book can make you thirsty: thirsty for their clever and creative drinks; thirsty for more information about Harry Craddock, the bartender at the Savoy Hotel in London who wrote the lovely book; and thirsty for a modern cocktail book that can make drinks sound as good as this one.

Well, some of my thirst was momentarily quenched last night after I made a Savoy cocktail at home. The drink is called One Exciting Night, but unless you call watching My Nine News with Harry Martin and Brenda Blackmon exciting, than I'm afraid I didn't live up to the name's slightly high expectations. The flavor, on the other hand was completely satisfying. Equal parts sweet and dry vermouth, gin, sugar, and a splash of orange juice work well together and I wouldn't shy away from making it again...but next time I'll attempt to do right by its title.



One Exciting Night
(from the Savoy Cocktail Book)

1 dash orange juice (I added more than a dash. Call it a splash)
1/3 French [dry] vermouth
1/3 Italian [sweet] vermouth
1/3 gin (the Savoy specifies Plymouth for you purists)

Frost edge of glass with castor sugar. Put all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake well and strain into Port Wine glass. Squeeze lemon peel on top.

Horseradish Vodka

Summer cocktails tend to be sweet: rum punch, margaritas, caparinhas, mojitos. So when your mouth is screaming for some raw and definitely not sweet flavor, consider simplifying your cocktail routine with horseradish vodka.

A few years ago some friends gave my boyfriend and me a bottle of homemade horseradish vodka as a housewarming present. That bottle was enjoyed immediately and often and by nearly everyone who came over.

That first bottle is long gone. So now we make our own. We buy raw horseradish, cut it up, stick it in a bottle with the vodka and keep it in the freezer.

I still enjoy a minty, sweet drink littered with fruit remnants all summer long, but a shot of this vodka - slightly viscous, shockingly clean, and amazingly pungent - is yet another delicious drink option to enjoy this summer.

Cocktails for Stormy Weather

If I wasn't at work today I'd be at home reading, cooking, or perhaps, possibly, drinking.

Mind you, I'm no lush. Far from it, in fact. I've even been called, yes, a teetotaler. But something about nasty weather, be it cold and rainy or hot and stifling, brings out the bartender in me.

At home I might just have a shot of horseradish vodka, but this most delicious libation deserves a writeup of its own - perhaps in April when we celebrate this bitter herb.

In the meantime I'll just have to be satisfied with something made up, or knowing me, from a book. On my desk I have the Savoy Cocktail Book and there are more than a few recipes in here that strike my fancy. How about the De Rigueur Cocktail with whisky and grapefruit, or the Devil's Cocktail with port and vermouth, or even the Orange Bloom cocktail?

And there is always the well-appointed new bar that recently opened in my neck of the woods called, appropriately enough, Weather Up. It's on Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights and although the prices might keep my visits to a minimum, their Brooklyn cocktail - served ice cold and packing a punch - is sure to pull me back in again. That is, of course, when the weather improves.

De Rigueur Cocktail (adapted from the Savoy Cocktail Book by Henry Craddock)
1/2 Whisky
1/4 Grapefruit juice
1/4 Honey
Cracked Ice.

Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass.

Devil's Cocktail
1/2 Port
1/2 French (Dry) Vermouth
2 dashes Lemon Juice (or perhaps orange or grapefruit bitters?)

Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass.

Orange Bloom Cocktail
1/4 Italian (Sweet) Vermouth
1/4 Cointreau
1/2 Dry Gin

Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass and add a cherry.

Washington's Beer Recipe

Today is George Washington's birthday. To celebrate I present to you his beer recipe which is included in one of his notebooks, located in the Manuscripts Division at the Library.

If making beer is too difficult (amateurs!), why not just toast G.W with a round or two at Fraunces' Tavern - the historic inn where Washington bid farewell to his officers at the end of the Revolution.


To Make Small Beer (from George Washington, 1757)

Take a large Sifter full of Bran
Hops to your Taste -- Boil these
3 hours. Then strain out 30 Gall.
into a Cooler put in 3 Gallons
Molasses while the Beer is
scalding hot or rather drain the
molasses into the Cooler. Strain
the Beer on it while boiling hot
let this stand til it is little more
than Blood warm. Then put in
a quart of Yeast if the weather is
very cold cover it over with a Blanket.
Let it work in the Cooler 24 hours
then put it into the Cask. leave
the Bung open til it is almost done
working -- Bottle it that day Week
it was Brewed.

Libra Cocktails

I was in the mood for a throwback cocktail. Something unique, something perhaps campier than the usual fare at bars and lounges. I was feeling nostalgic for a time when eggs made regular appearances in highball glasses. I began searching through CATNYP for some cocktail books from the 1940s and '50s and I found just what I was looking for: Zodiac Cocktails by Stanley S. MacNiel (1940). Organized by astrological sign, bound by wood panels and held together with leather straps, Mr. MacNiel isn't your typical Mr. Boston, and I, for one, am thankful for it.

So raise a glass to all those birthday-celebrating Libras, as I present to you some cocktails.

(Adapted from Zodiac Cocktails, 1940)

Libra: Its natives are just, detached, impersonal, pleasure-loving, intellectual, suave, aesthetic, amorous, and easily thrown off balance.

Libra Cocktail:
1 glass rye whiskey
Dissolve 1 piece of Rock Candy in it. The juice of 1 lemon can be added, if desired.

South Pole Cocktail:
The juice of 1/2 lemon
3 dashes of Curacao
1/2 Benedictine
1/2 Apple Brandy (or Calvados)

Shake well and strain into glass.

Venus Cocktail:
1 egg
1/2 glass rum
1T. powdered sugar
1 glass brandy

Beat up yolk and white of egg separately. Then mix the yoke and white together. Use stem glass or ching mug, adding the spirits, then fill with boiling water, grating nutmeg on top.

Snow Fizz:
The juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2T. powdered sugar
1 glass gin

Shake well, strain into medium size glass and fill with soda water. Add 2 sprigs fresh mint.

Cocktails and Dames

The Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails (LUPEC) is a very worthwhile organization that sets out to preserve "cocktails that are endangered or even believed to be extinct." From their home office in Pittsburgh, PA, LUPEC's aims are not only to resurrect vintage cocktails, but to also advise on how to be a "really excellent bartender." They hold regular meetings, such as Cinco de Mayo: Revolution, Feminism and Tequila! (the minutes are online), and their website features cocktail recipes, member bios, and polls measuring the favorite time of day to enjoy a cocktail.

Meanwhile, back in New York, we have the Dames of Beef. While the Dames also enjoy a stiff drink, their "meetings" take place in the restaurants of a departed era in New York City history. Restaurants where one receives "sides" with their main course, and perhaps even a salad to start. The group began in 2003 by friends who shared a love of the 1940s and '50s, old-school New York, and sought it out in the modern city. Many of the first restaurants they went to were steakhouses, hence The Dames of Beef: Keens, Frankie & Johnnie's, etc. According to a 2006 article about the group in the New York Times, the group consists of 12 women, and unfortunately has initiated a 'no new members rule'.

In that case, I think it's time to start a New York LUPEC chapter.

The Lily
1/3 dry gin
1/3 Creme de Noyau
1/3 Lillet
1 dash lemon juice
Stir with ice and strain into a glass.

(For more New York "Dame" flavor, check out Maeve Brennan's The Long-Winded Lady.)

The Brooklyn

It's been a while since I posted any cocktail recipes, but since Frank Bruni just gave two stars to one of my favorite restaurants, I thought I'd honor Franny's by posting a recipe for a Brooklyn. They serve a delicious one at Franny's, so my brother reverse engineered the recipe to make an equally delicious one at home. Like many cocktails, recipes vary. The Official Mixer's Manual recipe (1934) uses rye and dry vermouth. But I can't vouch for that recipe. I can vouch for this.

The Brooklyn
2 oz. bourbon (We use Maker's Mark, or go to LeNell's for something unique.)
3/4 oz. lemon sour (recipe below)
3/4 oz. sweet vermouth (Martini & Rossi)
Shake ingredients w/ ice in a cocktail shaker and strain into tumbler with a few ice cubes. Top with pinch of lemon zest. Or serve up in a cocktail glass. Maraschino cherry optional.

Lemon Sour: Heat sugar and water in a 2:1 ratio until the sugar has dissolved. Take off heat and allow to cool. Mix with equal amount of lemon juice. Pour into jar and chill in fridge. It keeps for a while, and is great in a variety of drinks.

Librarian Libation

This is a very personal libation recipe. My friend Stacie introduced me to this drink years ago, and I've been enjoying it ever since. I never knew its proper name until I saw it listed among some other recipes at LeNell's Liquor Boutique in Red Hook, Brooklyn. She calls it The French Kiss.

Recipe:
Equal parts sweet and dry vermouth
Serve over rocks with a twist.

Happy Friday.

Librarian Libations

Our weekly Friday drink recipe comes from A Taste of History: 10,000 Years of Food in Britain.

A favorite eighteenth-century drink, brought from India in the late seventeenth century by merchants of the East India Company:

2pt. claret

1/2 pt. brandy

grated nutmeg, sugar and lemon juice to taste.

toast, to serve.

Mix the ingredients and serve in a punchbowl with toasted bread floating on top. A variation of this was milk punch, where milk replaces the wine.