Stuff to eat. Mostly around St. Louis.
Aged Egg Nog
Growing up in a pseudo-Kosher, moderately Jewish household, I missed out on all the fun parts of Christmas: the gifts, the ham, the egg nog. I’d sit and spin my dreidel (maybe a euphemism), waiting to hear from all my Jesus loving friends.
My first time tasting egg nog came when I was in 8th grade. I was at a friend’s house the day after Christmas, getting ready to play hour upon hour of Halo whatever when his mom brought us each a big glass of egg nog. My excitement was palpable. I took a big swig—disgusting. Utterly disgusting. Egg nog was dead to me. I’ll stick to Manischewitz, thank you very much.
It wasn’t until a couple weeks ago when Randolfi’s [RIP] head barman, Jeffrey Moll, invited me over to try his aged egg nog. Very intriguing, Jeffrey. His eggnog follows the style of George P. Hunt, sans the party—unless you pay more.
The approach to this nog is to start it on the weekend that proceeds Thanksgiving. In the four weeks that follow, it mellows out a little and thickens up. I have obviously screwed that up already, seeing as it’s December 7th, but I’m sure it’ll be good by Christmas. OR you can make it now and serve it next year—because of its alcohol content, it’s very stable so long as its refrigerated.
Aged Egg Nog
by jeffrey moll
YIELD: 1 BATCH
INGREDIENTS
12 egg yolks
2c sugar
8oz half & half
32oz whole milk
32oz Four Roses Single-Barrel (or Buffalo Trace) bourbon whiskey
8oz Camus VS cognac
4oz El Dorado 12 year rum
salt (a couple pinches)
METHOD
Start by whisking together the yolks and sugar until the sugar dissolves. The mixture should be creamy. This will take ten minutes or so. Drink some bourbon while whisking to get in the mood.
Once ready, work in all the dairy and salt.
Finally, add all alcohol.
Pour the final product back into empty bottles and place in refrigerator for 3-4 weeks, shaking every couple of days. It will be ready by Christmas.
Don’t forget to top with freshly grated nutmeg!
The Cold, Dark, Stirred Bitter Truth
In an ideal world, I’d spend every evening at Randolfi’s [RIP]. I’d walk in with my glorious beard, impeccably tailored peacoat, and shawl collared sweater, brush the snow off my shoulders, and take a seat at the bar. The fire crackles in the Ferrara pizza oven. Tom Waits is on the radio. Head barman Jeffrey Moll would look at me, nod, and get started on my drink. I wouldn’t have to say a word.
I’d stare off into the abyss, thinking of something important. Moll would hand me The Cold, Dark, Stirred Bitter Truth. It’s bittersweet and rich—just like me.
In actuality, I will make this at home in my pajamas, then drink it at my kitchen counter while watching Property Brothers. And you can too!
The Cold, Dark, Stirred Bitter Truth
by jeffrey moll
The Cold, Dark, Stirred Bitter Truth
YIELD: 1 COCKTAIL
INGREDIENTS
1.5 oz El Dorado 12 Year Rum
.75 oz Ramazzotti Amaro
.5 oz Campari
.5 oz Suze
Appr.x 10 drops / 1 squeeze of Bittermen’s Xocolatl Mole Bitters (they’re in a dropper bottle)
METHOD
Place all ingredients in a stirring vessel and fill with ice. Stir for approximately 25 seconds. Double strain into a coupe glass.
Cut a thin, round piece of orange peel and express [squeeze] the oils from the peel into a match flame across the top of the cocktail (this may take some practice, but playing with fire is fun!).
Enjoy while listening to something equally cold, dark, and bitter.
Jeffrey Moll on Amaro
Here’s what I know about amaro: it’s Italian, and Randolfi’s master mixologist, Jeffrey Moll, likes loves it.
That’s it.
I asked Moll to give me the run down on 5 of his favorite amari so I can add them to my bar and impress my friends, and now you can too. Or you could just go over to Randolfi’s, pull up a seat at the bar, and learn something from the master himself. Plus, his name fall cocktail menu just arrived, and it is immense. [Randolfi’s has since closed, but you can still find Jeffrey slangin’ drinks around town]
Averna Amaro
“This amaro was my very first experience with amaro and certainly one of the more recognizable brands. It’s definitely on the sweet side in the spectrum of amari. I get a big hit of rich cola and bitter orange from it. Because it’s one of the more sweet, thick, and ‘chewy’ amari, it’s really nice neat as as an after dinner libation, much like a port wine. It really opens up with a generous amount of soda water and I strongly recommend replacing the sweet vermouth in your next Manhattan—with Averna, it’s known as a Black Manhattan.”
Luxardo Amaro
“This is the amaro that made me fall in love with amari for the first time. I went to Taste with my friend Seth, who was running the bar at MEDIAnoche at the time. I saw it on the shelf and asked for a pour. Right out of the gate, I got a ton of black pepper on the nose. My tasting notes consisted of black pepper, menthol, and cinnamon, if you look a little deeper. I begged Seth to pick up a bottle for the bar at work and it remained a staple throughout MEDIAnoche, Little Country Gentleman, Good Pie 2.0 and currently at Randolfi’s. It has made its way into several drinks and I found that it lends itself best to mezcal drinks, champagne cocktails, and drinks with a healthy measure of oloroso or P.X. sherry. I recommend this amaro neat or over ice. If you throw any sort of bubbles at it, make sure you do it with tonic, or as a spritz with a dry cava and a touch of soda water, garnished with some mint sprigs.”
Amaro Sibilia
“I would call this my “Amaro Graduation Exam”. It’s nothing terribly extreme, but it’s an amaro that’s not for everyone. It’s very dry, very bitter and very expensive. It’s finished with honey from Mount Sibillini, so you’re provided a small window to the local flora where it’s produced.This is the one that I had to try the hardest to find its nuances. Its aroma is very fragrant and floral. At first the taste is dry and bitter gentiane. That way fresh churned earth smells, it’s that. The honey is the hard one to find if you don’t know it’s in there, but once you do, you get it every time. If you can break this one down, you can break pretty much any other amaro you come across. I often use this amaro as a way to put sweeter cocktails in check. Aside from that, my opinion it to drink it neat or over ice, but it does work really nicely with big scotches like Lagavulin 16 and with nocino.”
Lazzaroni Amaro
“I don’t have any sort of romantic story to offer for this amaro. It came into our market and I really enjoy the rest of Lazzaroni’s lineup, especially their amaretto, so I picked this one up for the restaurant bar. Lately, this is the amaro I am drinking the most of at home. Aromatically, it is similar to Cynar, Zucca, or Amaro Sfumato: smokey veg. The taste is spot on for a dark chocolate peppermint patty. At work, this amaro has only made it’s way into one cocktail called “May All Your Days Be Gold” (I’m a bit of a Sparklehorse fan), but at home, I am drinking this as a 3:2 amaro to soda water over ice. I can guarantee that it will find it’s way into at least a few hot chocolates.”
Fernet Amaro
“People who don’t usually drink amaro are usually pretty taken back by fernet. The fernet that most of us are familiar with is Fernet Branca. I often describe it as tasting like Christmas tree-flavored Listerine. Fernets are a special subcategory of amaro. They are much drier, more bitter, and extremely mentholated. Fernets are nothing to trifled with, but they’re nothing that deserves to be feared. I can tell you that in the case of Fernet Branca, I have had three regionally different versions.
The one we get here is my least favorite because of its extreme nature. I have had this same brand from Europe and Argentina and the differences are night and day. The latter two in comparison to our American version are a lot more amiable. They’re still dry, bitter and mentholated, but to a lesser extent, so you get more of the bitter herbs and aren’t overwhelmed like ours. THIS is why I love Lazzaroni’s Fernet so much more. Its just easier to drink and a great introductory fernet-style amaro. I often use this to make Fanciullis and to settle my stomach after I’ve over-eaten. I recommend this one over ice to mute a little of its intensity—definitely with an equal part of soda water and a lemon or orange peel expressed across it.”
Parsley Mojito
I presented Chelsea Little with a hypothetical: let's say there's a guy, roughly 28 years old, who makes terrible drinks at home, so he wants a recipe for a cocktail that has only a few ingredients, is spring-themed, and can easily be scaled for a group of people. Her solution to my my friend's request was something between a mojito and a julep, though I don't know the actual difference between those drinks. Wikipedia tells me it's kind of close to an "English mojito", a drink that no one has ever heard of before. Whatever. As long as it's not made with vodka, I'll drink it.
This creation is great for a spring afternoon. There's something about it that makes me want to put on a pastel sweater vest, talk about the stock market, and maybe even play a little golf. It's either that or it's like being transported to Ina Garten's house. You step out into her enormous Hamptons garden, pick the most perfect bunch of parsley, then go wait in the solarium for her to bring in a big pitcher of it and some immaculately plated smoked salmon. I'm not sure which one.
The eucalyptus adds an extra punch of heady herbal notes. That's Chelsea's thing. It's just like Traditional Chinese Medicine, except it gets you drunk and tastes good. This recipe makes one (1) cocktail, but if you're good at math, you'll figure out how to make a jug full.
Like most of us at home, Olive & Oak doesn't have a crushed ice machine, hence the photos of Chelsea beating a burlap sack with a mallet. You can beat your ice with whatever tools you'd like!
Parsley Mojito
Parsley Mojito
INGREDIENTS
PARSLEY MOJITO/JULEP
1/2 oz lime juice
1/2 oz eucalyptus simple syrup*
2 oz gin
parsley
club soda
ice
EUCALYPTUS SIMPLE SYRUP
dried eucalyptus
1 c sugar
1 c water
METHOD
EUCALYPTUS SIMPLE SYRUP
Go to Michael’s (yes, the craft store) and buy dried eucalyptus. Take equal parts sugar and water, bring to a boil, and stir until dissolved. Put in eucalyptus and let come to room temperature. Remove eucalyptus.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Fill a glass halfway with parsley, then stir/smash to release oils.
Pour in the liquid ingredients, then fill glass with crushed ice. Stir, then top with club soda.
Cocktail #1
The last time I went to Olive + Oak, literally every person at the tables around me had ordered the "#1" cocktail, which, fittingly, is their #1 selling cocktail. It, like many of the drinks that come from the mind of Chelsea Little, goes down a little too easy. It's not a drink that smacks you in the face and reminds you that it's going to get you drunk—it pretends to be your friend, then you get up to go to the bathroom and your legs are a little more wobbly than usual. The #1—which is the number at which it appears in Chelsea's drink journal—is bourbon based. Chelsea did me the honor of letting me pick which bourbon I wanted, so of course I went with Dickel. Not because it's good, but because the name makes me laugh every time. So you've got your bourbon, pineapple cordial (the version below differs slightly), lime, mint, and sage. Oh, and Byrrh, which is probably pronounced like beer or maybe burr. Or possibly bye-rr. I don't think anyone knows. It's like port with herbal flavors mixed in.
Your friends will be impressed by your cocktail making skills when you lay this baby down in front of them. It's a little sweet, a little savory, but it's still got the distinctive taste of bourbon. I think it would be a wise move to go ahead and make extra from the get-go. Everyone's going to want seconds (and thirds...)
Chelsea’s Cocktail #1
YIELD: 1 | TOTAL TIME: 2 MINUTES
Ingredients
1.5 oz bourbon
1 oz Byrrh
1/4 oz lime juice
1/2 oz pineapple juice
3/4 oz simple syrup
sage
mint
ice
METHOD
Pick your favorite bourbon for yourself. Pick your least favorite bourbon for your friends. Pour all ingredients into a shaker with sage, mint (a couple leaves of each will do), and ice.
Shake well, then double strain. Finish with a sage leaf on top so it looks classy.
Dill Last Word
Olive and Oak' bar
You would think the guy who named his website Whiskey and Soba might know a thing or two about whiskey and cocktails, but you would be wrong. I don't know anything. I know that I dislike vodka—my Russian ancestors must be rolling in their graves—and generally enjoy gin, tequila, and whiskey. All the cocktails I know how to make are basic bitch cocktails.
Looking to learn a thing or two about crafting cocktails, I've turned to Olive + Oak's Chelsea Little, a badass bartender and one of my favorite people in town. She and Nate Weber used to do an excellent job of getting me sauced at The Libertine.
I don't think she knew what a n00b I was when it comes to drinks, though. Here's how our conversation went:
CL: I'm thinking I'll make a "Dill Last Word," a play on "The Last Word" cocktail.
Me: Cool. What's "The Last Word"?
CL: It's a classic cocktail made with gin, Green Chatreuse. I use some Aquavit, too...
Me: Cool. What's Green Chartreuse? And Aquavit?
CL stabs me in the face. End scene.
Wikipedia tells me that the drink originally came from the Detroit Athletic Club in the 1920s, which just screams class.
Little's take on the drink kicks up the herbaceous nature of the drink. The glass is lined with Aquavit, a spicy spirit, and she infuses the maraschino liqueur with fresh dill.
It's easy to make and even easier to drink. Keep this handy for springtime get togethers and summertime BBQ's. It's almost like a palate cleansing sorbet that can get you drunk.
Dill Last Word
by Chelsea Little
Dill Last Word
INGREDIENTS
DILL LAST WORD
3/4 oz St. George gin
3/4 oz Green Chartreuse
3/4 oz lime juice
3/4 oz maraschino liqueur
Aquavit
Dill
Ice
METHOD
Combine the maraschino and a handful of dill in a jar. Leave overnight.
Pour a small amount of Aquavit in the serving glass and swirl it around all sides. Pour out (or drink).
Add gin, chartreuse, lime juice, maraschino, ice and extra dill to a shaker. Shake.
Double strain into a coupe glass. If you want to go totally pro, fill a spritz bottle with peppercorn tincture and spray on to finish.
Ices Plain and Fancy
Very rarely does a visit to a restaurant (or in this case, an ice cream parlor) allow me to "review" two separate subjects. The main purpose of this post is to discuss St. Louis' only nitro ice cream parlor, Ices Plain & Fancy. The secondary purpose of this post—and of my visit to Ices—is to test out an apparent miracle drug, Lactaid. While I do dabble in dairy, as seen by my plentiful pizza posts, consuming large amounts of ice cream has been known to make for difficult drives home. What better way to test Lactaid then to have a midday ice cream feast?
With its brightly painted facade, Ices is easy to spot in its Shaw neighborhood location. I park just outside (not too many people are eating ice cream at 2pm on a Wednesday) and head in, greeted by the smell of waffle cones being made. As a chunky youngster who couldn't handle his ice cream, waffle cones were my jam. Those were the days when coconut milk ice cream hadn't been invented, soy milk was still only in Asia, and people who were lactose intolerant were shunned by society. I miss the 90's.
I'm meeting Troika Brodsky, one of Ices' owners and formerly my camp counselor, for this feast. While he talks business with his partners, Max and Darla Crask, I peruse the much larger than expected menu. There are normal ices, like chocolate, vanilla, and rocky road, dairy-free ices made of both soy and coconut milk, Sump Coffee collaborations, and soft serve. There are two fancy ice specials: Campfire Smores and World's Fair Jelly Donut. I want all of these.
Oh, there are also very boozy ice cream cocktails. I cannot make a decision, so I defer all ice cream orders to Max and Troika.
The first ice cream we get is Mrs. Marshall's Old Fashioned. I assumed they had some kind of Old Fashioned concentrate that they would mix into the ice cream base, but that is not the case. Our ice cream artist literally is making an Old Fashioned and pouring it into the mixing bowl. A full cocktail's worth of Old Granddad bourbon, Strongbow Cider, vanilla, bitters, Luxardo cherry, and orange peel all go in and the mixing begins. Because they pour in liquid nitrogen, the alcohol actually freezes, meaning the ice cream you get has retained all the proof of the booze that went in.
Yes. You can get buzzed (or hammered, if you're really dedicated) from these ice creams. The result is delicious—it has all the flavors of your typical Old Fashioned, but it's edible. This is like something out of the Jetsons, a world where all foods can be consumed in ice cream form.
Lactaid update: I take the Lactaid with my first bite of ice cream, as instructed.
Max tells us he's going to whip up something special, but needs a few minutes, so Darla, the wonderful woman she is, brings me a dairy-free version of the boozy Ancho & Lefty: Ancho Reyes, Aztec chocolate bitters, ancho powder, chocolate, cocoa nibs. This is absurd. It is simply too good. I've always been a fan of Aztec chocolate—that mix of chocolate and the heat of ancho or cayenne—but this it out of this world. I stealthily push the Old Fashioned towards Troika and position my chocolate out of his reach. This is more ice cream than I've consumed in the last decade.
Lactaid update: I've had a hefty amount of ice cream in the last 15 minutes and still feel fine.
Max beckons me behind the counter and immediately creates a ball of fire using an aerosol can and a blowtorch. I ask him what he's doing (I'm not sure if this is for ice cream making, for fun, or both) and he explains that he's torching absinthe—it's Sazerac time! Templeton rye and Sirene Absinthe go into the bowl, then the final product is given another spritz of absinthe, a few drops of Peychaud's Bitters, and an orange peel. This thing would sell like beignets down in New Orleans! Troika and I work diligently to eat our three large ice cream bowls.
Lactaid update: Three ice creams in and I feel fine. I'm scared to drive home, though.
We finish things off by literally drinking the now melting ice cream cocktails. After three ice cream cocktails in a matter of about 35 minutes, I'm wildly impressed by Ices and I completely understand the massive lines that form in summer. There's something about the way the ice cream freezes with the nitrogen that gives it a much creamier, smooth taste that I love. Max said something about ice crystals, but I was 3 cocktails deep and all I started thinking about was what color lightsaber crystal I would pick if I were a Jedi. I recommend you go to Guerrilla Street Food for a late lunch, then head over to Ices. Win/win.
Lactaid Update: I hesitantly left Ices feeling perfectly fine, but well aware I had a 25 minute drive ahead of me. Then, of course, there was a car accident, changing my drive to one that took almost 45 minutes. I'm happy to say the Lactaid worked like magic. I'm back in the dairy game, baby!