We are relaunching the book club! For the month of November we are reading Herbert Asbury's Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld. A great little read by the journalist who brought us The Gangs of New York, Barbary Coast provides a fascinating glimpse into San Francisco's torrid past. We will gather on Wednesday November 30th to drink and discuss. Please look out for further details!
WEBSITE!!!
Hi all:
Please check out our website -- www.2sistersbarandbooks.com.
And thank you for your patience while we re-group the books and booze club.
Please check out our website -- www.2sistersbarandbooks.com.
And thank you for your patience while we re-group the books and booze club.
Books and Booze Club
Welcome back! After our January hiatus, our little club is back! Little Sister is not posting this month because she is a bit swamped with her job promotion (Go, Lil' Sis!). Obviously I am so very excited for her!
In the meantime I thought we should take it back old skool. Afterall, February is a time for snuggling down with an old classic, and for pretending that it really is by design that we are spending so much time inside. So this month, let's read Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers.
And to fortify ourselves during these cold (or not so cold) winter months, a cocktail: Dog's Nose. This particular cocktail does show up in Pickwick Papers, and though it sounds a bit odd, the flavors do really work well together. If you do not have a microwave, warm the stout over the stove. In any event, the goal is to get the stout just warm enough to melt the brown sugar.
12 oz porter or stout, warmed in the microwave about one minute
Stir in 2 tsp brown sugar and 2 oz gin
Garnish: freshly-grated nutmeg
Enjoy!
~ Big Sister
In the meantime I thought we should take it back old skool. Afterall, February is a time for snuggling down with an old classic, and for pretending that it really is by design that we are spending so much time inside. So this month, let's read Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers.
And to fortify ourselves during these cold (or not so cold) winter months, a cocktail: Dog's Nose. This particular cocktail does show up in Pickwick Papers, and though it sounds a bit odd, the flavors do really work well together. If you do not have a microwave, warm the stout over the stove. In any event, the goal is to get the stout just warm enough to melt the brown sugar.
12 oz porter or stout, warmed in the microwave about one minute
Stir in 2 tsp brown sugar and 2 oz gin
Garnish: freshly-grated nutmeg
Enjoy!
~ Big Sister
Happy New Year
Hi all and Happy New Year:
Before I launch into a few drinks for The Gastronomical Me, I want to let you know about a change or two and a resolution on our end. From February on, Little Sister will be making the book suggestions and Big Sister will be contributing the cocktail (or two) based on the book. Both of those two blogs will be posted at the beginning of the month. And our resolution: We will be open for real life, rather than virtual, business in this year. It WILL happen, and when it does the Books and Booze Club will be able to meet once a month to enjoy discussion and drinks together. Until then, we will continue in our on-line forum.
Now for the cocktails:
Before I launch into a few drinks for The Gastronomical Me, I want to let you know about a change or two and a resolution on our end. From February on, Little Sister will be making the book suggestions and Big Sister will be contributing the cocktail (or two) based on the book. Both of those two blogs will be posted at the beginning of the month. And our resolution: We will be open for real life, rather than virtual, business in this year. It WILL happen, and when it does the Books and Booze Club will be able to meet once a month to enjoy discussion and drinks together. Until then, we will continue in our on-line forum.
Now for the cocktails:
The Gastronomical Me, by M.F.K. Fisher
I do not want to be heavy handed in the discussion of our books. But I would be remiss if I did not begin the conversation somewhere. For no reason other than habit, I will begin at the beginning, with Fisher’s defense of the genre of food writing. When asked why, given her experiences on the Continent before and during World War II, she would choose to write about food, rather than war, politics, an examination of moral norms or an exposition into German activities, Fisher replies that to write about food is to write about love, the longing for it, the absence of it, and how one feeds the multitude of one’s hungers. Where there is love, it can be seen through the lens of a drink or a dish. The same can be said of hate. By narrowly focusing her lens, Fisher brings the world beyond her dinner table into focus with a intense clarity otherwise unavailable.
Two such cocktails highlight this parallel structure beautifully. The first cocktail is a sweet drink, and very strong. It personifies the grotesque and the voyeuristic, which is just how Fisher saw those who enjoyed it. The Ohio was apparently the favorite among German military and naval men aboard the ship that Fisher took with her husband in 1943. The description of the evening parties aboard this ship brings to mind the scene in the film Cabaret featuring the musical number “Life is a Cabaret”: sexualized, garish, and horrifying, these scenes of obscene consumption and the subsequent celebration of all that is violently brutal is personified in this cocktail. The one enjoyed by the German officers and their companions featured cherries, brandy, cordials and champagne. I have modified that recipe slightly, so that this drink merely hints at the garish without being an unpleasant nip:
Over ice, stir together
¾ oz blended whiskey (though rye would also work well)
¾ oz sweet vermouth
½ tsp orange liquior (I prefer one not too sweet, like Gran Gala)
Two hearty dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Place two brandied cherries at the bottom of a champagne glass (preferably one with a capacity no more than 6 oz), strain and top off with bubbly.
The Cabaret-esque scene is one of the most disturbing in her entire body of work. One of the most beautiful appears in this same text. Fisher is once again making her sojourn across the Atlantic with her love. He is very close to death and they are savoring every moment together, deeply content in their knowledge of and conversation with each other; both aware that time is short and that they want to say everything: a lifetime of deep conversations, passing jokes and idle chatter in one ocean passage. Personified in the sipping of a single Pernod, they savor each other, deeply, richly, slowly, and with an intense clarity of purpose.
Please share your thoughts on Pernod, The Ohio, and Fisher’s The Gastronomical Me. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
~Big Sister
Books and Booze Club
Hi all:
So hopefully those of you who have chosen to join in enjoyed November's reading. Marco Pierre White lives with such an incredible intensity -- one that I can find inspiring (in a very romanticized way) but ultimately find very disturbing. I do, however, love his drive for perfection...more than perfection. His is really a drive to create the dining experience. Pierre White understands that a dining experience should function like a well choreographed dance, replete with the appropriate setting. It should allow the guest a suspension of disbelief and a reprieve from the ordinary.
I want to suggest a drink for each book we read. For this one, I feel compelled to suggest espresso. We all have our preferred method of caffeine induction and generally the process through which that induction occurs borders on ritualistic. I will, therefore, not suggest the form that this espresso ingestion takes place, beyond saying that a single shot of dark roasted, Italian style espresso (rich, slightly acidic, balanced with some richer chocolate notes) finished with a lemon twist and downed in two or three sips, seems appropriate.
For our December reading, I want to suggest The Gastronomical Me, by MFK Fischer -- a beautiful collection of essays on learning to cook, to eat, to live and to love well. Given that Mary Frances liked to drink, and drink well (some said, like a man), expect a cocktail recipe or two for this month.
Happy Reading and Drinking,
Mikha
So hopefully those of you who have chosen to join in enjoyed November's reading. Marco Pierre White lives with such an incredible intensity -- one that I can find inspiring (in a very romanticized way) but ultimately find very disturbing. I do, however, love his drive for perfection...more than perfection. His is really a drive to create the dining experience. Pierre White understands that a dining experience should function like a well choreographed dance, replete with the appropriate setting. It should allow the guest a suspension of disbelief and a reprieve from the ordinary.
I want to suggest a drink for each book we read. For this one, I feel compelled to suggest espresso. We all have our preferred method of caffeine induction and generally the process through which that induction occurs borders on ritualistic. I will, therefore, not suggest the form that this espresso ingestion takes place, beyond saying that a single shot of dark roasted, Italian style espresso (rich, slightly acidic, balanced with some richer chocolate notes) finished with a lemon twist and downed in two or three sips, seems appropriate.
For our December reading, I want to suggest The Gastronomical Me, by MFK Fischer -- a beautiful collection of essays on learning to cook, to eat, to live and to love well. Given that Mary Frances liked to drink, and drink well (some said, like a man), expect a cocktail recipe or two for this month.
Happy Reading and Drinking,
Mikha
Cocktail Testing
Hi all:
Over the next few months I will be testing cocktail and food recipes. If you would like to participate in these tests, and give your feedback, I would be very excited to host you. The first will be held in the new year, after I return from New York. Keep your eyes and ears open for upcoming events, and pass along this blog to all and sun dry. The more palates the better!
Hugs,
Mikha
Over the next few months I will be testing cocktail and food recipes. If you would like to participate in these tests, and give your feedback, I would be very excited to host you. The first will be held in the new year, after I return from New York. Keep your eyes and ears open for upcoming events, and pass along this blog to all and sun dry. The more palates the better!
Hugs,
Mikha
Books and Booze Club
Dear 2Sisters Family:
I have begun a blog for my forthcoming venture: 2Sisters Bar and Books. In the months and years to come this blog will keep you up-to-date with the events and happenings around my lil' bar. One of those regular events is the 2Sisters Books and Booze Club. Each month a book will be chosen (or nominated) based on its relationship to the world of food and drink. In the future I intend to host a once per month gathering at the bar itself to drink and discuss our readings, though this blog will continue to act as an on-line forum for discussion. For now, we will have to cozy up at home with our booze of choice and our book of the month.
This month (November 2010) I have selected Devil in the Kitchen, by Marco Pierre White. A good friend lent it to me and I devoured it in three days. It is polarizing, dramatic and sure inspire conversation. So grab a drink and hunker down. I'll 'see' you in December!
With affection,
Mikha
I have begun a blog for my forthcoming venture: 2Sisters Bar and Books. In the months and years to come this blog will keep you up-to-date with the events and happenings around my lil' bar. One of those regular events is the 2Sisters Books and Booze Club. Each month a book will be chosen (or nominated) based on its relationship to the world of food and drink. In the future I intend to host a once per month gathering at the bar itself to drink and discuss our readings, though this blog will continue to act as an on-line forum for discussion. For now, we will have to cozy up at home with our booze of choice and our book of the month.
This month (November 2010) I have selected Devil in the Kitchen, by Marco Pierre White. A good friend lent it to me and I devoured it in three days. It is polarizing, dramatic and sure inspire conversation. So grab a drink and hunker down. I'll 'see' you in December!
With affection,
Mikha
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)