First off I kept it simple and had 2 jiggers of Anchor Genevieve with ice shaken/strained/poured.  I was feeling a little hungry but didn’t want a full dinner since I came back late from the workplace.  I know it’s sacrilege but I put in two jalapeno stuffed olives in it.

Using that as a solid foundation for inspiration I got down and started making some originals.

You know the drill… drinks first meanings later.

The T.E.T. Solution

• 1 jigger hennessy vs
• .5 oz lime juice
• 1/4 oz rose’s grenadine
• splash of orange juice
  

Combine hennessy, lime juice, rose’s in a shaker and shake with ice.  Strain and pour over rocks.  Add the orange juice for colour.  Throw in a wedge of orange and serve.

I was actively chatting with a friend of mine and asked him to name this drink.  I also, wanted to use my Rose’s grenadine.  My friend got some inspiration from Steve Berra over at the berrics in the following epic video .  He mentioned the “T.E.T.” as standing for Tough Economic Times.  This drink utilizing really cheap ingredients is the solution to your T.E.T.  I joked that the it should be called the “T.E.T. offensive” since it’s a fighter.  I didn’t want to take away from the original name so it stands as the T.E.T. Solution.

Next up…

The Unnamable

This one had a unique flavour.  It was calpico heavier on the orange.  It was really interesting.  Basically the Calpico (which I always think is really sweet) was balanced out nicely.

My friend took his time trying to name this one without any luck, so he just said, to call it “The Unnamable”.  A drink doesn’t have to have a name to taste good.

Hazy Eye

• 1 jigger gran centenario anejo
• .25 oz rose’s grenadine
• 1 jigger OJ
• club soda
• orange zest

화장실

• 1 jigger Mitchers US1
• 1 jigger coke
• 1/2 ounce lime
• one maraschino cherry

Combine and serve.

The drink is pronounced “Hwa-jang-shil” which means “restroom” in Korean.  My friend said he named it that because that’s what I’d have to use afterwards.  This was a more classic type cocktail with a little twist.  All of these sweet cocktails have gotten me away from my original interest.  The next session will be mixing nice stiff stuff that I like.

To end the night there is a new quote in addition to the, “When times are tight…” quote.

My friend snatched this one from an article

Practicing Thrift Can Give Your Spirits a Lift

I went back for the second time and he was done playing the word search.  I noticed he was sitting in front of a large framed reprint poster of Jackson Pollock’s Convergence.

I mentioned to im the painting he was sitting in front of was a very famous one.  I talked to him a little bit about it.  I pretty much explained that I don’t know a single thing about art.  We stood in front of the painting me and him backs against urinals, and I was telling him the feelings that the painting gave me.  I pointed out how some areas had more smeared or muted areas etc.  I don’t know anything about art, but for me, art in the form of paintings like these are just about acceptance of whatever emotions are evoked by observing it.

He was totally blown away about the painting since he’s been sitting in front of it for about 3 months or so.

I went in the final time and gave him his tip.  I finally asked him his name and his name is Herbert.  He said that his mother would call him Herbert with a French accent and call him what sounded like air-bear.  He said that he’s originally from Louisiana in a city called Morgan City.  I explained how New Orleans is still at the top of my list on places I want to go.

I reminded him about the painting and he said he’d definitely look it up.

]]> http://www.toiletpapertales.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=85 0 http://www.toiletpapertales.com/blog/?p=81 http://www.toiletpapertales.com/blog/?p=81#comments Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:04:41 +0000 toiletpapertales http://www.toiletpapertales.com/blog/?p=81 Went to Busby’s in Santa Monica to partake in some refreshments. The night wore on as follows:

The play list for me was:

1. Hennessy sidecar
2. gin and ginger ale with lime
3. vodka pineapple with lemon
4. jack and coke with lemon
5. then I gave instructions on how to make an El Cantarito
6. airplane bottle size bottle of tanqueray at the liquor store around the corner
7. mojito
8. whiskey sour (maker’s mark)

People I was with were convinced I was a bartender of some sort.  I assured them I was not.  At one point the waitress asked us: “Do you always order jazzy drinks?”  I like jazzy drinks.

The thing you gotta know about the away games (mixing outside of the house) is that when you go to a bar they do not make drinks stiff.  I noticed that on some of my drinks they had the liquor sitting at the top to give me the impression that the drinks were stiff.  It’s fine; I understand it’s a business.  If your goal is to get something going on the T-train (T for trashed) then always make sure to order your drinks really stiff.

As the night progressed, people noticed that I had objectives to what I was ordering.  One guy started to order whatever I was ordering.  I took suggestions on what people like and spiced up some old favourites.  I gave the following recommendations:

One guy liked whiskey + coke so I ordered it with some lemon.  He liked the twist.  I know it’s not a new or original drink, but definitely changed up the old favourite.

Another guy was a Rum and Coke guy and then I had them put lime in it.  Again an old favourite with a little personality.

I suppose the lesson learned is that lemon or lime is a good no cal way to swap up a normal drink.

Finally one person was drinking White Russians all night, so I suggested a Hennessy Separator.  I believe that to have gone over well.

The funny thing about the El Cantarito was when the bartender didn’t got the ingredient list he said that it sounded tasty.  I won’t take any credit for that.  However, the El Cant which they made had required improvisation a little since they had no Squirt.

The switch up was:

1 part orange, 1 part lemon, 1 part lime, 1 part grapefruit + club to the top.  They used a nice blanco which was really good.  Since I am used to anejo it was a good change up.  For the cocktail game I would definitely get blanco to mix things up per different recommendations I’ve received.

What a contrast to the previous year when  I posted a long while ago about my experience meeting Geoff Rickly.  I got to see Thursday twice and Murder by Death twice in a year.  I was also super fortunate to meet Adam Turla and Sarah Balliet.  I told them to come to California more often and they did.  They came to my backyard and due to circumstances was unable to.

Year after year we become shadows of our former selves.  One year I go to many concerts, the next I don’t.  As Max Cohen (in Pi) would say,

…Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers. Three: If you graph the numbers of any system, patterns emerge. Therefore, there are patterns everywhere in nature. Evidence: The cycling of disease epidemics;the wax and wane of caribou populations; sun spot cycles; the rise and fall of the Nile…

One clear example is with physical training.  There are years when I’m firing on all cylinders, and then years when I’m not.  Of course this is scalable to smaller units of time like days, weeks, and months.  I’ve tried to analyze why sometimes my training itself falls totally off for extended periods.  I think it might just be as natural as the wax and wane of caribou.  I think there has to be a balance between not fighting what your body might be telling you and determining whether or not it’s laziness or that you just need to wane your caribou supply.

That’s a deeper question that will vary from person to person.  You read about the greats like Marvin Eder, John Grimek, Saxon, Sandow, the list is infinite, and you wonder if they ever got the lazy bug.  I know a lot of it is retrospective glorfication, they must have since they were human afterall.

The feeling of say being able to only do 5-6 pullups when I was able to knock out sets of 15 is a combination of frustrating and discouraging.  I suppose though that this is an issue of perspective since the mindset should be, “look at what I was capable of, this shows how much more room you can make up.  It’ll be a challenge, but you’ve done it before.”

In short, the feeling of “missing out” is perspective.  Change it.  Also in the immortal words of Mark Twain:

Don’t cry over spilled milk.  It could have been Whiskey.

Speaking of which.  Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk Day just passed.

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to mix drinks for about a total of 10 people or so.  It was my first “gig” or making drinks for total strangers.  There were some interesting constraints I had to work within.  Here’s what transpired.

Priorities

The priorities were arranged as follows:

1. Budget.  When times are tight…
2. Taste.  They didn’t want to taste the liquor.

The audience:  The people wanted maximal coverage.  They didn’t want to taste the liquor. Not heavy drinkers.

The Goods

• 1 x Seagrams 1.5 liter
• 1 x Squirt
• 1 x Tonic
• 1 x Ginger Ale
• 1 x Rose’s Sweetened Lime Juice
• 1 x Ralph’s Brand Orange Juice
• 2 x Plastic Lemon Juices
• 2 x Plastic Lime Juice
• 14 lb. bag of ice

This was all had for just at exactly $30.00 USD.

Non Purchased:

• There was a pre-existing bottle of Smirnoff Vodka.
• Later an individual brought: Jose Cuervo Especial.

The Verdict

As you could tell there is some potential here.  My original intent was to be able to make Gin Fizzes and El Cantaritos as fall backs.  I figured I could do some Lime and Punishment (earlier post) as well.

The uknowns were Seagrams, Jose, and Ginger Ale.  My experience messing with Tonic is still limited as well.

First thing I do with whatever liquors that are new with me are just take a jiggers worth and swish a bit and see what there is to offer.  The Seagrams was actually not as bad as I thought for such a cheap price.  It’s definitely a tame gin that doesn’t have many botanicals at all.  I think it’d make for a good Bronx Cocktail if necessary.  Also, very much an easy to hid Gin.  To me it was like a classless Plymouth.  Although I didn’t have any Plymouth on hand to do some comparison that’s how my memory served me.  For reference, a gins that I like have more personality like Genevieve or Junipero.  Tanqueray Rangpur I think should get an honourable mention as well.

If I were to ever have a Recession Rager, Budget Blast, or Depression Derilicticus, Seagrams would definitely make my list.  If you consider that your purpose I would give it 4 toiletpaper rolls out of 5 toiletpaper rolls.

Jose Cuervo Especial was okay.  My tequila game would definitely be lagging the other liquors (along with Whisky… all in good time).  I was hoping to get another budget mixing candidate but it tasted like a watered down or weaker oak anejo (Gran Centenario is my reference).  I would have to say it’s definitely a hide-able liquor from what I could taste.  Not much complexity to it at all. I’d probably give this one 2.4 rolls out of 5 toiletpaper rolls.

Some other comments on the supplies.  I typically like to use fresh lemons, limes, and oranges, but again budget.  I would also never use a vodka other than Hangar One (Alameda’s finest … and only).

As the night built, I had to adjust my mixing game to the various unique demands of the audience (some didn’t like orange juice, some did etc.) and also work within the constraints of my ingredients.  More importantly I still wanted to learn some mixng lessons as I went, since I got to work with some unknowns, yet still make drinks that suited people’s tastes (since I didn’t buy the goods).

I started with some simple foundation things like El Cantaritos.  I also made some other mixes.  The three main drinks that came out of the ingredients were the following:

Tanqueray Rangpur Original Intent v2

First the ingredients then the name…

1 jigger gin, 1/4-1/2 of Rose’s Lime (depends on stiffness requests), 1 oz lime juice,  4 lumps ice.  Shake, strain, and pour over 2-3 lumps of ice.  Add splash of orange juice for some colour.  Fill to top with Tonic, a few dashes of lime juice. Stir very briefly to mute the final splash of lime.

The reason why I called this Tanqueray Rangpur was because the person I made this drink for says his favourite drink is gin and tonic.  One time I had given him Tanqueray Rangpur neat and he told me it was okay.  I found out later he was sparing my feelings.  So in efforts to create something limey that involved Gin, this is what came out.  The reason why it’s v2 is because on v1 I was under the impression he liked his things a little less flavourful.

The main hinge in this drink is the relationship between the Rose’s Lime Juice and the Lime Juice itself.  Adjust the ratio of the two to get either a sweeter or more sour drink.  If I could revise it I’d probably have added some ginger ale since Tanqueray Rangpur has hints of ginger in the profile.

The next drink…

Audience Of Many

1 jigger gin, 1-2 jiggers of OJ (depending on stiffness request), some lemon juice, add a few lumps of ice, shake, pour over rocks, fill the rest with squirt soda.

Simple gin and juice variant.

Reason for the name is that it suited the tastes of many people (minus those who don’t like Orange Juice).

The final lesson learned which was my favourite.  I might make something similar for myself (stiffening things up a ton).

747, or Aeroplane

1 jigger gin, 1/2-1/4 of Rose’s, 1/2 oz Lime juice, 1/4 oz of Lemon juice (to keep things honest, shake over a few lumps of ice, pour over only a few lumps of ice.  Add a splash of orange juice (for colour, this is optional), then fill the rest with ginger ale.  Squirt a tiny bit of lime juice across the top and serve.

The main lesson I learned tonight was that lime and ginger ale go well together.  I’m sure I could have learned this from a book, but this was fun too.

The reason for this name is that the person who I made this for always gets ginger ale on airpplane flights.  I don’t know why this is but I know tons of people that do that.

Ginger ale and airplanes

By no means am I a bartender or proclaim to even be something like a mixologist.  The reason why I treat the two differently is because I believe their definitions to be different.

Mixologist – Someone who understands flavour profiles, subtle nuances in different of liquors, someone who basically understands what works and what doesn’t.  “What works and what doesn’t” is always going to be a relative term, but what I mean is that someone who can create drinks according to the the audience’s preferences.  What this means is not only catering to someone’s or a group of people’s tastes, but also subtly expanding their tastes to enjoy other types of liquors or drinks.  I suppose it’s a delicate balance between being resourceful, attentive, and innovative.  I know, I know, what a crock.

Bartender – I believe this to be someone who can do certain things that a mixologist can, but also brings other things to the venn diagram of the two.  Bartenders bring in a lot of people skills and can work quickly, has a good memory, a therapist.  Ah who knows, it’s all just fluff at this point to increase the length of these posts.

So the two books I’ve been using are:

Cocktail Boothby’s American Bartender – For any of you Bay Area supporters (no I’m not a chip on the shoulder Bay Arean, but I do have some pride about my geographical upbringing) you should definitely check this book out.  A lot of outdated material, but outdated is interesting as it gives a good picture of the times.  All the drinks in here are American Classics, but also have some modifications to certain ones that show even at that time the ever-evolving state of drinks.  For anyone who has ever tried looking up recipes, you’ll know that for even the same drink you’ll find an infinite amount of variations or “this is the real way” of making certain drinks.  I’m just going to present them how the book presented them.

Notable drinks I’ve made from here:

• (insert liquor type) fizz – 1 jigger liquor of choice, 2 lumps ice, 1 juice from a lemon, 1 dessertspoon of sugar.  Shaken, strained, and pour.  Fill rest with club soda.
• (insert liquor type) sour – 1 jigger liquor of choice, dessert spoon of liquor, 1 juice of a lemon, 1 dessert spoon of sugar, splash of club.  Shaken, strained, and serve.
• Boothby signature cocktail – 1 jigger rye whiskey, splash of angostura bitters, splash of orange bitters, juice of a lemon. Shaken, poured, float out a teaspoon of champagne, add cherry and serve.  * I don’t have the book physically in front of me, so I might be off on this one.
• Breck and Brace – Favourite of the 49ers (the gold rush ones not the football ones).  One glass water, dump out water, Fill glass with sugar, dump out sugar.  In the now frosted glass, pour champagne and a jigger of cognac. This is a mighty tasty creeper.

The second book I used and need to get my own copy of is:

How’s Your Drink?: Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well – This is a really good book that has a lot of historical information on classic drinks.  The recipes are easy to follow and are tasty and give you some interesting stories to go with them.  The only downside of this book is that there is not an area in the book that has each and every recipe consolidated.  You have to flip through the the book just to get to the recipes.  Annoying especially if you have zero short-term memory like myself.

I made quite a few drinks from here.  Perhaps I’ll go back and update with the ingredients and directions.  I must resist saving this in the drafts as it will never published.

• Mint Julep
• Martini Original Intent
• El Cantarito – 1 jigger of teq, 1/2 oz lemon, 1/2 oz lime, 1/2 oz orange, 6 oz squirt (grapefruit soda), fill with ice, one wedge of lemon, lime, and orange.  Stir and serve.  The complex cousin of the Paloma cocktail.
• Bronx cocktail – 1 jigger gin, 1/2 oz sweet vermouth, 1/2 oz dry vermouth, 1/2 ounce oj.  – I don’t remember this one 100%

I should really circle back and clean up these sections.  Ah such are the benefits of this adhocratic internet.

Some of my own creations have been:

Orange County Symphony -  1 shot kumquat vodka, .5 oz of hennessy, .5 dessertspoon organic cane sugar, .5 dessertspoon raw turbinado sugar, .5 oz of orange, .5 oz lime, .5 oz lemon, wedge of orange and lime, 5 crescent ice cubes, shaken until frosted, strained, and pour over crushed ice, add 1 jigger of grapefruit perrier, 1 jigger of grapefruit soda, stir thoroughly, fill to brim with ice, serve with a straw

The symphony is essentially a drink I came up with while quite under the influence of classic cocktails.  It’s essentially a gumbo of ingredients I had.  Very tasty.

Orange County Screw – 2 jiggers of orange juice, 1 jigger of kumquat infused vodka, wedge of navel orange, wedge of lemon, 2 lumps of ice, stir and serve.

A twist on an old classic.

Lime and Punishment – 1 jigger Hangar One Lime Vodka, Juice of half a lime, 1/4 oz of Rose’s sweetened lime juice, shaken over 4 lumps of ice.  Strain over rocks and fill with club soda.

I just liked the name.  I had to test out Rose’s and it’s pretty good.  A little goes a long way.  Depending on tastes of course.

Currently stocked in my bar are (in no particular order):

• Mitcher’s US1 Rye Whiskey
• Hennessy privilege
• Hangar 1 straight
• Hangar 1 Lime
• Hangar 1 raspberry
• Junipero Gin
• Genevieve (Anchor)
• Plymouth Gin
• Gran Centenario Anejo
• Gallo Sweet Vermouth
• Gallo Dry Vermouth
• Angostura Bitters
• Orange Bitters
• Rose’s sweetened lime
• Rose’s grenadine
• Hangar 1 with Kumquats soaked for 2-3 months

Current infusions in progress:

• Hennessy VS with boiled kumquats
• Hangar 1 Lime with boiled kumquats

As usual I’ll write more as things develop.

A good resource that I found for lifting weights the real way (Oly lifts and classical movements) can be found here.  Dan John has written up a really good, easy to read, and most importantly FREE book called “From The Ground Up!”.  This book has something for everyone.  I highly recommend it.  I’m trying a variation on his “rapid ascent” program which is extremely simple:

3 movements:

1. Power Cleans
2. Military Presses
3. Front Squats

Bang through these movements going 3 sets at 8,6,4 reps.  I believe it to be minimal rest from my interpretations of the text.  Once you can complete out the reps add weight!
Simple and effective.  Do it 3 times a week.  It’s obviously simple and can have a lot of variation added to it and acts as a really good foundation.

As you all (all 0 readers of this site) have noticed from my previous posts that I never mentioned owning a barbell.  Well, I still don’t.  In the immortal words of someone I know,

When times are tight, you must do what’s right.

So I’m doing a variation of his workout with dumbbells.  I really need to get that going just to get something going.

Routine looked like:

3 minutes of jump rope for warm up.

• 3 x 50 lb dumbbell clean and press per arm
• rest 90 seconds
• 6 x 50 lb dumbbell in each hand clean and press (I found that the 50 lb c&p was too easy and not strenf oriented).
• rest 90 seconds

• Repeated the 50lb in each hand c&p 2 more times with 90 secs of rest.

• rest 90 seconds
• 4 x 50 lb dumbbell snatch per arm.  I did these as fast as I could.  I know I can snatch more than 50 lb (must build dumbbells!)
• rest 90 seconds

Repeated the snatches 3 more times with the following rest intervals 60, 30 seconds.  I really need to build some dumbbells.

• rest 1 minute

At this point I did some complex pair work

Tried to do some sort of 1 legged squat.  I ended up doing step ups as describe on beastskills.  I did the following:

• 5 x step ups per leg (tried to eliminate non-supporting leg as much as possible, need to find better alternative)
• 50 lb dumbbell in each hand straight leg dead lift
• rest 60 seconds.

Repeated the above 4 times through.

I did some more complex pair work which was:

• 5 x 25 lb around waist PVC pullups.  PVC pullups is where you hang two PVC pipes vertically and grip them and do pullups with them.
• 10 x ring dips
• rest 60 seconds

The ring dips turned out to be more maximal strenf than anything.  Why am I saying strenf??  I did the just-described routine 4 times through.

To finish things off I did 100 double unders.  These were performed as: 30, 10, 10, 10, 10, 7 and random numbers until 100 was complete.

bike to work ~9 miles

Evening

bike home ~9 miles

Interval training today.

Went to the local track and ran some intervals in my Vibram Five Fingers. I did 800 meter repeats. Mentally I was running hard and trying to finish hard, but I know I was moving really slow. This is actually the first time I ran in a long time since I broke 30 minutes for a 5k time. The routine looked like:

• 4 x 800m
• 4×50m

I didn’t do any post-work. I think I may do the secondary parts of the work as the days progress.