HUNGRY GERALD

Like The Lone Ranger, parmigiano rides to the rescue of modest Italian cooking. Sour cream does the same for Russian cuisine: Borscht and pelmeny are unthinkable without big dollops of sour cream. Ditto blini and red salmon caviar. Most folks find hamburgers inedible without a pour of ketchup. Hot dogs are sad and lonely without a smear of yellow mustard. HG likes shucked oysters au naturel, the better to inhale their briny goodness. This choice is not shared by many people who blunt the oyster taste with lemon juice, horseradish and unspeakable red sauce. Even the French, devout oyster lovers, serve the bivalves with a shallot vinaigrette. Go figure. HG likes rare steak the Tuscan way. Crushed garlic and olive oil atop the blood rare meat. During the PEI summer, BSK serves many a pot of steamed mussels and bowls of seafood chowders. HG enhances them with scoops of a mayonnaise and sriracha mix. At the cocktail hour, HG gives vodka on the rocks a few drops of Regan’s Orange bitters. BSK always adds a splash of Aperol to BSK’s pre-dinner glass of white wine. After dinner, HG makes a snifter of insipid brandy sing with an addition of Peychaud Bitters. When teetotalers are present, HG gives their glasses of sparkling water vibrant life with a few drops of Angostura bitters.

As HG followers know, HG is a passionate devotee of those highly concentrated, pungently flavorful alcoholic beverage enhancers known as “bitters”. (Check the archive for Bitters Make It Better). HG uses Peychaud’s to give indifferent French brandy a boost and mixes pre-dinner vodka on the rocks with either Stirrings Blood Orange Bitters or Regan’s Orange Bitters (an SJ discovery and recommendation). Angostura Bitters is used by HG to flavor a non-alcolholic midday glass of Pellegrino sparkling water. Recently, HG made a happy discovery: Dr. Adam Emelgirab’s Boker’s Bitters. Boker’s was created by John G.Boker in New York in 1828. It was much used in fashionable bars. Disappeared during Prohibition. Dr. Emelgirab has brought it back, utilizing an 1853 recipe he discovered. He now manufactures Boker’s (and some other unusual bitters) in Scotland. Last night, HG poured vodka on ice. Gave the glass a squeeze of lemon. Added two drops of Boker’s…Swirled the glass. Gazed at the incipient sunset over the Bay of St. Lawrence. Raised the glass. Sipped. The HG palate exploded with flavor. Indescribable. The flavor was something like the Martini favorite of Parisian hipsters where St. Germain liqueur (sweet with an elderflower flavor) replaces the usual dash of dry vermouth. Boker’s, however, creates a much more powerful drink. Boker’s is so good, HG is going to try with other combinations. Maybe with gin and sweet vermouth. Sobriety, get thee behind me!!

HG is very fond of those enhancements to alcohol known as bitters. And, HG makes good use of them. Topping the list is Peychaud’s Aromatic Cocktail Bitters. HG enjoys perusing the old fashioned Peychaud’s bottle which mentions many honors such as the Diploma of Honor. The Grand Exhibition of Altona-Germany, 1869 as well as many other awards from long gone expositions in 1885, 1895, 1905 and 1907. L.E. Jung and Wolff Co. (the makers of Peychaud’s) are proud of their product which they proclaim: “Has no equal for flavoring cocktails and is used in every bar of any prominence.” HG uses the delightful product in flavoring modest brandies (originating in New Orleans, Peychaud’s was first used only with cognac for alleged health benefits). HG also likes a dash in vodka on the rocks. HG alternates by giving his shot of vodka a hit of orange bitters made by a company named Stirrings which originated on Nantucket Island (where HG/BSK once had a summer home). Bourbon, with a few drops of these Blood Orange bitters, mixed with a bit of sweet vermouth and plenty of ice produces a delicious, vaguely Italian cocktail. A refreshing non-alcoholic drink HG enjoys in the summer is a dash of Angostura Bitters in a glass of Pellegrino and ice. (Yes, HG sometimes drinks non-alcoholic beverages but doesn’t make a habit of it.)

After HG’s late afternoon exercise ritual of varied stretches and 45 minutes of swimming in the lap pool, HG tries to mitigate the health benefits he has accrued by diving into a large glass of vodka on the rocks. HG is not a believer in the high priced vodkas. Just hype and advertising. However, HG does enhance his proletarian vodka. Sometimes HG adds a dash of Angostura Bitters or Peychaud Bitters or Fee Brothers West Indian Orange Bitters. (A dash of Peychaud also enhances a mediocre brandy). When HG wants a taller beverage, HG mixes vodka with a bit of Campari, Aperol or St. Germain. (HG does not fancy vodka and tonic). Curiously, vodka was never present in the Belorussian/Jewish immigrant home of HG’s youth. Like many Jewish immigrants of the early 1900’s, HG’s Dad fancied rye whiskey, namely Park & Tilford (pronounced “Pok un Tilfeh”), the favorite tipple in Lower East Side bars. When HG was a journalist in the early 1950’s, HG continued the Park & Tilford tradition at the Mirror Bar on New York’s E. 45th Street. Three shots of P & T for one buck. The house bought the fourth. A nice cocktail interlude.