For years I’ve been ordering my martinis with a twist of lemon. I like the citrus hit. But I recently switched to olives, mostly, I think, because I like the way you get a little something to nibble with your drink.
Haven’t gone the full hog and dived into dirty martinis yet, although I’m curious after reading this epic love poem to them in the WaPo.
Certain drinks become more than the sum of their parts. Drinks are loaded with signifiers. You drink them because your parents did or because they didn’t. You drink them because you like how they look or how someone else looks when she orders one. Drinks speak to us and for us. Never once, in book nor film, have I seen a hardboiled detective order a pumpkin spice latte, nor a kindly grandmother comfort someone with a shot of rye in a dirty glass.
On cocktails as a whole I cannot recommend more strongly (see what I did there?) Mr Embury's finest work. Fantastic read for history, ingredients, craft.
i only recently got interested in the cocktail thing maybe a year or three before covid? Before that it was maybe trying one out every now and again but i was focusing on making my own beer and ginger ale and cider etc. Martinis are still in the "holy crap do you run a car on this stuff?" category but maybe i just havent had a good one yet. Unfortunately i have just jumped on the wagon for a good month or more so the testing phase will have to wait. Suggestions welcome of course :) As olives are pretty salty would some good old fashioned australian saltbush be a good substitute? Give that australian flare?
I did do a sort of pub crawl in the sydney CBD with a mate whilst the wimmen went and watched Dave Gray. The theme was "underground bars" and one of them was The Lobo. They made some good drinks. It was a bit disconcerting navigating the stairs and having staff watch you come in, give you an enthusiastic "hello friend!" right to your eyeball so you couldnt escape, but it was a fun venue despite the weird staff salutations.
Oh my! I'd always assumed anytime you mentioned a martini, it was a dirty one with olives. I had a moment of perfection this evening when I got home from work and just such a dirty martini was being assembled for my enjoyment.
On cocktails as a whole I cannot recommend more strongly (see what I did there?) Mr Embury's finest work. Fantastic read for history, ingredients, craft.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fine_Art_of_Mixing_Drinks
Predates some of the great 21st inventions of course, such as the Penicillin, but it shows all the greats are the base-flavour-enhance structures
https://www.diffordsguide.com/cocktails/recipe/2539/penicillin-cocktail
WARNING: Diffords comes with a high grade Procrastination alert. I mean, TV Tropes level.
i only recently got interested in the cocktail thing maybe a year or three before covid? Before that it was maybe trying one out every now and again but i was focusing on making my own beer and ginger ale and cider etc. Martinis are still in the "holy crap do you run a car on this stuff?" category but maybe i just havent had a good one yet. Unfortunately i have just jumped on the wagon for a good month or more so the testing phase will have to wait. Suggestions welcome of course :) As olives are pretty salty would some good old fashioned australian saltbush be a good substitute? Give that australian flare?
I did do a sort of pub crawl in the sydney CBD with a mate whilst the wimmen went and watched Dave Gray. The theme was "underground bars" and one of them was The Lobo. They made some good drinks. It was a bit disconcerting navigating the stairs and having staff watch you come in, give you an enthusiastic "hello friend!" right to your eyeball so you couldnt escape, but it was a fun venue despite the weird staff salutations.
I prefer onions to olives with a vodka martini. Only a serious bar stocks those cocktail ones.p
“parmesan-infused dry vermouth”!!!
Oh my! I'd always assumed anytime you mentioned a martini, it was a dirty one with olives. I had a moment of perfection this evening when I got home from work and just such a dirty martini was being assembled for my enjoyment.
(My wife describes them as a drink with a snack.)