Cocktail tales

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Why are cocktails named as such? Who knows and who cares? All that matters is that they taste fabulous, and are an excellent excuse to buy pretty glasses.

Bar stocked

Tonight’s cocktails (sorry, nae photos. photographer was bartender):

  • Amaretto-Cranberry Kiss, but with white rum substituting the vodka. And a few pomegranate seeds instead of clementine segments as garnish. Honestly, who has time to peel and de-skin/seed a clementine when there’s hoovering to be done and the dog whose hair is the cause of the constant hoovering needs to be walked?
  • Blood Orange Champagne Cocktail, really a re-jig of the classic Kir Royal. No blood oranges were to be found, so gave up and used tangerine juice instead. Next time, will try grapefruit juice. Suspect the slight bitterness of grapefruit will complement the sweet cassis component. And isn’t that a classic cocktail combo? The sweet and the bitter…
  • Lychee saketini. My own lazy-arse invention. There are many good lychee martini recipes out there, but they all require the purchase of yet another one-drink-only lychee liquor or fanxy-arse lychee extract. My cheap version merely requires a cocktail shaker full of ice, 2 jigs (~2.5oz) of sake, 3 jigs of the syrup from a tin of lychees. Shake-a-shake and strain into 2 martini glasses. Garnish with a lychee or two. No doubt, this would be much improved by fresh lychees and fancy lychee juice. One day when I win the bloody lottery, eh?

For eats:

  • Crudites with lemon/pesto/goat cheese dip; does what it says on the tin. Home-made dip beats store-bought hands down, mainly because you can season to liking.
  • Elegant Endives, which are perfect finger food. Just don’t over-fill them. And go easy on the blue cheese…
  • Candied Espresso Walnuts, which turned out a tad too bitter. Will halve the coffee content next time.
  • Pinwheel Cookies, which have been sat in the freezer since Christmas when I realised we already had too many desserts.

Paltry pickings

Conversation flowed fairly freely. Thank you, Iowa Caucus, for providing about half an hour of entertainment. And the new Transformers cartoon series. And Naruto Shippuden (it really is miles better than the original, isn’t it? Or maybe it’s because I no longer have to wince at the English dubbing. Subtitles all the way…). But science and academia was not far from our minds; always swinging back to work. Really need some non-scientists at my parties.

Playlist:

  • Pink Martini – Hang On Little Tomato
  • Ojos de Brujo – Bari
  • Pink Martini – Hey Eugene
  • Sigur Ros – Hvarf – Heim

Pink Martini was liked by most; the mix of different music styles but with a constant latin-type beat makes for good party music. Am currently crazy about Ojos de Brujo, which makes me want to get up and shake my inelegant tush. And Sigur Ros is a good way to end the evening; it chills everyone out. This may be the first party mix that has taken all of 5 min to decide and implement and actually work.

On the whole, a pleasant start to the new year. May there be many more parties in 2008!

For the love of a shopping cart

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Loving my latest bag. No, I didn’t get the Mulberry in the end. Probably wasn’t Fair Trade and all… Instead, I splurged on… A shopping trolley. Yes, the type your granny has. They were ubiquitous in the wet markets of Singapore, lugging freshly sac-ed chicken carcasses down slick tiled alleys between the fish, pork and veg stalls. And they were the province of grannies going for their messages in Edinburgh.

My Tartan Trolley for the 21st century:

Granny Trolley

I am officially an old lady now. Bring on the blue-rinse and perm.

Eating San Francisco

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I treated myself to a little holiday in the wet and windy city of San Francisco while P was away. Right, that’s the craving for wet and windy sorted for the autumn-winter transition. Next up: gale force winds and slush underfoot.

While enjoying walking in the windy rain (sadly no horizontal rain obliged), I popped into a few rather nice eateries. Write ups on each of them to may follow. But in the meantime, some photos:

Braised Beef Claypot

Siew Mai and Pu-Er tea

Intriguing tea cup

Tea sweets plate

Chorizo and Walnut Paste Bocadillo

Macaroon Pistachio ice cream sandwich

Shucked

5 Element Ceviche
Egg Tart Golden... Ball for want of a better translation

You’ll be doing alright, with your Christmas of white

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But I’ll have a warm, green Christmas… 1

With P away, I wasn’t planning to the do the Xmas thing this year. But my hand was forced; there are several people in my megalab who aren’t going home or have any relatives in the US. Well, neither do I, but after three decades of commemorating an event I don’t even believe happened, it could have gone by without my being bothered. Ach well. It’s going to be an anti-Martha Stewart Christmas lunch from me. A last minute decision to have the lunch was sealed by the availability of one last honey-baked ham at… HoneyBake. It still amazes me that there’s a shop that specialises in honey-baked ham. It’s such an easy thing to do. Anyway, I’ll take the cop-out this year and not roast any ducks or geese. It’s just not cold enough to justify a full-on coma-inducing spread2.

I used to enjoy Christmas the most in Scotland. It was the jollility that started winter for me; an excuse to buy new gloves and scarves or add to the winter coat collection. But it’s not quite the same when you’re not marking the change of the seasons.

Also, I’m tired. I’m bone tired. I’ve had insomnia for a couple of months now. The sleep deprivation was not helped by the stress of getting P ready to go home. And now, chores that used to be shared by two have to be done on my ownsome. And the dog developed weird behavioural and gastrointestinal problems due to “separation anxiety”. Blimey, she’s definitely an LA dog. So, it’s understandable why I’m not feeling the festive cheer.

Also, the city is busy and yet deserted at the holidays. Whole Foods was absolutely mobbed with stressed-looking people. My cart and I were bumper car-ed all over the shop. What’s with the crazed food shopping before Thanksgiving and Christmas anyway? It’s not even like the supermarkets shut for the holidays. I can understand buying a crap load of potatoes and stashes of brussels sprouts to feed the army, but why the gallons of milk? Half of it will probably get poured down the drain. The whole wasteful nature of Christmas makes me very humbuggy. Bah.

I often wonder where all these people come from. Westwood is bereft of all its students. My neighbourhood of young couples is also empty; they’ve all gone to parents’ or in-laws’ for the holidays. The dog and I have met fewer people on the street since last week. It feels like a scene from I Am Legend, with a deserted city whose inhabitants come out only to… shop.

Incidentally, it’s nice to know I’m not alone. Happy Humbugs one and all.

1 Sorry Elvis…

2 Question on etiquette: Should I give presents to all my guests? I know some better than others and would rather avoid going down the box of chocolates route.

guitars in the air

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Why the sudden interest in air guitar? Is it a geek thing? Ah, no. It’s that bloody Guitar Hero game. That episode of South Park was hilarious1. And I thought this would be a geeky teenager sort of thing, but no… A couple of 30-something friends recently informed me that the game is awesome and a lot of fun. Next thing I know, the boss will be inviting us round to play Guitar Hero after the Christmas do. Blimey.

At any rate, I’ve been thinking of getting a real-live guitar for a while now. Or some other instrument to fill the small hole in my life that used to be plugged by bashing badly through some Mozart. It’s all very well going to concerts and enjoying listening to the truly talented. Somehow, that’s not as satisfying as playing your own crap, however sub-standard2. As much as I love the tinkle of the piano, it’s getting ridiculous: I have two pianos on two different continents. Do I seriously want a third that I can’t ship to wherever my next job is?

So, I’m thinking quite seriously of getting a slightly more portable instrument. In half-seriousness, I suggested a tuba to Mr P, but he has so far failed to respond positively. Don’t know why… Having spent an evening watching Evelyn Glennie’s mastery of the marimba, I was very tempted to give up science so I could play that beautiful instrument all day long instead. But cold logic prevailed. No marimbas3. Also left off the list are violins, violas, cellos and basses. Can’t do the circular breathing required for woodwinds and brasses4. Bongo drums might drive the neighbours bonkers. I would LOVE to play the timpani, but it only works in an orchestral setting. The current targets are the geetar and perhaps harmonica/s. Both can be fairly melodic and hopefully idiot-proof enough to entertain ourselves with. I’m planning to steal my dad’s new harmonica next time I see him. He doesn’t like it; says it’s too fancy, expensive and painful compared to the cheap ones of his childhood. So, assuming I see him in Bahrain in the next few months, that’s one instrument for the D&P band down. We’ll need another, slightly more rhythmic, sound-producer. The frontrunner is still the guitar.

Which leaves us with the dilemma of: acoustic or electric? Electric has one awesome advantage: less finger pain… And amps. I can finally own an amp. I’ve always wanted my own amp. Well. Somewhere on my long list of things I want anyway. Imagine the neighbours. Think of the poor neighbourhood dogs. Somehow, I think Mr P is going to sit on that idea for the sake of his sanity.


1 One of the few count-on-one-hand TV shows I’ve seen since the dog replaced TV in our lives. Watched it inna hotel-with-a-windmill in Solvang-the-fake-Danish-Californian-town, of all places. Weird life I lead.

2 A bashed-out Chopin or Mozart gives me a certain perverse pleasure. In fact, many of my happy music moments as a child were bastardising whatever music I’d been set to practice and rocking out on Mozart. Clearly, there was a rock/pop-deficiency that my subconscious was trying hard to fill.

3 Nobody tell Mr P, but his Xmas pressie, stuffed lovingly into his already overflowing suitcase is somewhat related. No fear of him reading this blog. In its entire life, he’s not even read a word. He doesn’t even look at the Flickr photos. That man really lives on his own island…

4 And yet I would like to try the tuba….

Jingle bells – Frozen balls

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[to the tune of the jingle bells chorus]1

Is it cold, in the snow?
Have yer balls dropped off?
What is the temp’rature outside,
Are cow pats all frozen?
Hey!

It looks like, it will be
The warmest winter yet
In thirty years of history
You might not need a hat!2


1 Sorry one and all. I get bored when Mr P is not around and make up stupid songs. That said, I do that when he’s aboot anyway. He is an effective filter for the world against my (un)punniness.

2 Mr P informs me that it’s -5ºC and dropping. And how would he know that? Because Ms Awesome bought his parents a fanxy wireless weather station 3 years back…

Menu for Hope

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There’s one day left to enter the raffle for this year’s Menu for Hope. $10 to obtain one raffle ticket with all proceeds will be going to a school lunch program in Lesotho.

My nearest “outpost” is posted at Rasa Malaysia1: West Coast of the USA.

It all looks really good, but I can’t decide which raffle to enter. Better get a move on though; less than 24 hours left!!

Update: Went the wine route… Figured since I spent so much on wine over the summer, I might as well continue the trend.


1 How could I have never come across that blog? Clearly, I need to spend even more time online and less working…

Guinness is… not as bad for you as I previously thought

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One minor quibble about the latest thing-that-used-to-be-thought-of-as-bad-for-you is actually good for you report. Since I can’t find the abstract online, the following quote will have to do:

A pint of the black stuff a day may work as well as an aspirin to prevent heart clots that raise the risk of heart attacks.
Drinking lager does not yield the same benefits, experts from University of Wisconsin told a conference in the US.

So, they compared a pint of guinness to a pint of lager. First off, that’s already misleading because goodness knows what sort of effect lager has compared to say, water, or wine, or tea. Well, maybe somebody does know; I’m just too lazy to do the citation search right now. But to give them credit where it’s due, people are probably more interested in knowing the comparison in health benefits of the category of drink (although you’ll be hard pressed to find someone who swings between lagers and stouts that often).

Thinking some more1, it occurred to me that Guinness has an alcohol composition of anywhere from 4% to 7.5%, and lager, depending on brand, has the same range of alcohol content. Alcohol has known blood “thinning” effects. For the study to have been well-controlled, they would hopefully have used two drinks with the same alcohol content.

On the back of that, curiosity about sugar content (or calorie count) entered my mind, which led me to debunk my lifelong prejudice against Guinness. There’s very little difference in caloric content between Guinness and say, an American Budweiser2 of the same volume. If anything, draught Guinness has fewer calories than Budweiser per volume. The prevailing thought throughout Uni years was that a pint of Guinness was the equivalent of a Mars bar at nearly 300 kcal per regular sized bar. Turns out it’s only just over half of that at 170 kcal/pint.

Quibbles about the research aside, this report at least opened my eyes to one of my ill-conceived objections to Guinness. Now, if only they could do something about that nasty taste…


1 Yes, I’m work-avoiding again.

2 Not that I admit to drinking that insipid excuse for a beer.