Apricot Custard

Marmite

I know what it is like to have no context for a certain flavour, to just not "get" it, and maybe even intensely dislike it.   I've wanted to like root beer and all the variants since I came to the USA fifteen years ago, but I simply don't like it.   We didn't have root beer in Ireland growing up (though I vaguely remember it being in McDonald's on Grafton Street in the mid-70s, soon to disappear from the menus.  However perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me, because McDonald's doesn't carry root beer in the US, at least none of the ones I've been in, largely on the East Coast).   I've wanted to like it too, and I'll regularly try it if a friend has some, and I keep thinking perhaps one of the "fancier" brands - e.g. Boylan's - may do the trick.  But it never works - it always just tastes like sweet muscle rub to me.

I mention root beer, because most - though not all - of my American friends can't abide Marmite.   I always have a jar of this in the larder - not that I eat it every day, but when I have a craving I need to get my fix.   My favourite way to eat it is the simplest: just spread thinly on hot buttered toast.  It is so tasty, the warm butter and Marmite are a delightful combination.   I think it always needs a little butter - a very vivid food memory of mine is eating cheddar cheese sandwiches made with Irish brown bread and butter and Marmite whilst fishing at Howth pier in Dublin way back in the mid-to-late 70s.

Parisienne Cocktail

I'm a big fan of dry vermouth with my gin, and always make my martinis at home with a generous ratio of vermouth to gin - sometimes one part vermouth to two parts gin, though usually a 1:3 ratio (and I usually hit it with a dash of orange bitters too).  I also quite like the "Fifty Fifty" style which, of course, is half and half -  they do a good one at Pegu Club, called the "Fitty Fitty".   I just don't buy into the "whisper of vermouth" philosphy.  I know the argument is often that proponents of this approach want to taste the gin - and with so many interesting, and subtley-flavoured gins on the market these days, that's a legitimate argument, but one I always counter with "then try a glass of cold gin".   If we're to shy away from mixing a discernable amount of vermouth into a martini, then shouldn't we also abstain from adding liqours - and juices and syrup - to gin in other cocktails?   

Spelling lessons

I'm back from my brief hiatus!   We got married last week so I have been a little busy.   

We had a small wedding, just immediate family, and went to Balthazar in SoHo for a long lunch afterwards.   As always, the food was delicious, the wine wonderful, and the service was excellent.  I had the best salad I've had in long time as my starter - their Balthazar salad.   According to the Balthazar cookbook, which my brother and his wife gave us as a wedding gift, this eponymous salad was inspired by an whimsical attempt to include ingredients using every letter in the restaurant's name, which gives us: beets, avocado, lemon juice, truffle oil, haricot verts, asparagus, (lemon) zest, and radishes. Now, I'm missing the final "a".  Working from their cookbook, and memory, I can't figure it out!   There's also ricotta salata and fennel in there, and 3 kinds of lettuces - romaine (aka cos), mache (aka lamb's lettuce), and radicchio, but none of those gives me an "a" ...