My Dinner with Mr. Sulu

I was teaching a two day class in Everett Washington earlier this week. The first night we had a wonderful dinner at Ivar's Restaurant in Mulkiteo. A couple of bottles of Chateau St. Michelle Eroica Riesling on the 50% off All Washington wines on Monday Night Special to wash down an appetizer of red curry mussels and an entrée of Alaskan Razor Clams. Good food, new and old friends and conversation.

Tuesday night we went out to dinner at Bobby's Hawaiian Style Restaurant (It was featured on Diners, Drive-In's and Dives) . I was seated next to one of the guys in the class and I kept thinking this guy's voice sounds so familiar. Kevin is a Japanese American and he grew up in Hawaii. He was explaining all the dishes to us before we ordered. I've never been to Hawaii, but I've found some types of Hawaiian cooking to be appealing; who doesn't like pit cooked pig (kalua pork) or raw ahi tuna marinated in soy sauce and other flavorful things (poke)?

Anyway, it dawned on me....this guy sounds just like Mr. Sulu. Okay, so I didn't really have dinner with Mr. Sulu. I just had dinner with a guy that sounded just like Mr. Sulu. Still, it was fun eating a table full of food with narration by Mr. Sulu.

Most of the folks were ordering beer, but since the restaurant was full of faux palm trees and other Pacific Island type decor I thought it might be possible to get an authentic Tiki Drink. I wandered over to the bar and asked the woman tending bar if she made Mai Tai's from a mix or from scratch. She assured me that she made them from scratch and with a very authentic recipe. I ordered one. Alright, I should have asked what was in the "Authentic Recipe". The drink was most notable for it's plentiful rum, so it wasn't all bad. It also included passion fruit nectar and grenadine and while it wasn't a Mai Tai, it was drinkable and after all when you're eating dinner with Mr. Sulu, life is pretty good.

Here's a recipe for an "Authentic Mai Tai" and an appetizer to serve it with at your next Luau

Beach Bum Berry's $100 Mai Tai

1 oz of Saint James 15-year Hors D'Age Rum
1 oz of Appleton Estate Extra rum
1 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz of Curacao
1/4 oz orgeat
1/4 oz Rock Candy Syrup

To make one $100 Mai Tai, crush enough ice to fill a double old-fashioned glass, and put the crushed ice in your cocktail shaker. Next, pour in one ounce of Saint james, one ounce of Appleton, 1/2 ounce of Curacao, and one-fourth of an ounce each of orgeat and rock candy syrup. Then, pour in one ounce of fresh-squeezed lime juice. Shake it up an serve in a hollowed out pineapple, your favorite Tiki Mug or a highball glass.

Lomi Lomi Salmon

Recipe courtesy Bobby Nakihei at Bobby's Hawaiian Style Restaurant, Everett WA from Diners, Drive-In's and Dives on the Food Network

Prep Time: 15 min

Inactive Prep Time:12 hr 0 min

Cook Time:0 min

Level:Easy

Serves: 6 servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup diced salted salmon
• 5 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1 medium round onion, diced
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
• Sea salt
• 1 cup crushed ice

Directions

In a large bowl, cover the salted salmon with water and soak overnight. Drain and rinse the salmon.

In a large bowl add the diced salmon, tomatoes, onion, and green onion, and mix well. Add sea salt, to taste. Chill and just before serving add the crushed ice.

Chef's Note: if unsalted salmon is used, rub the salmon with sea salt or rock salt and let stand overnight, then use in the recipe.

One is the Loneliest Number

Recently I've received some invitations to be a Facebook Friend. Frankly I was a bit uneasy about being asked. I'm not really sure why I was uneasy other than ignorance of what Facebook is or can be at its best. It seems like there are a lot of stupid people out there doing stupid things and in a final stupid act; posting narrations and pictures of the afore mentioned stupid acts on the Online Social Network of their choice - Not something that really made me want to run out and join, I mean I've done my share of stupid things...will I now feel compelled to post about them?

So today I received a third invitation to become a facebook friend. This time there was an explanation of the request that actually made sense and was even a bit intriguing. So I signed up and accepted the friend invitation. Checking back to my Facebook page I see that I now have "1 Friend". Fifty-Four years old and I have "1 Friend". This isn't making me feel all warm and fuzzy, but at least I still have my dogs and cats.

I've contacted the other two folks that asked me be friends and the wife of my first friend has befriended me so I don't feel quite so bad. Definitely not one of the popular kids on campus, but I never was and I can live with that.

Okay, so now I've got four friends and I realize that I don't qualify for the latest Burger King Promotion; Whopper Sacrifice. Defriend ten Facebook Friends and get a free Whopper. I don't think I'd qualify for a free Whopper by going into negative six friends territory and what am I supposed to say? "Hey Chumps" you just asked me to be your friend and I'm throwing you over for a crappy fast food burger" - I've just added you to the other 112,030 people scorned for a free burger coupon!

To add insult to injury, my first Facebook Friend is the person that introduced me to the pleasures of Happy Hour Hamburgers at Clyde Common! Sacrificing a friend like that.....well it just doesn't pencil out.

So thanks Rod for inviting me to be your friend and thanks too to Mike, Robert and Pam. I don't feel quite so lonely now.?

So, Hey Rod, just when are we going back to Clyde Common? I'm curious to see how well they make a Sazerac.

Sazerac for One - Inspired by Chuck Taggart

In your cocktail mixer:

• Mix 1 teaspoon of sugar with 1 teaspoon of water or use a teaspoon of simple syrup
• Add 4 dashes of Peychaud Bitter and 1 dash of Angostura Bitters
• Add a bunch of ice and two oz of Rye - Sazerac Rye if you've got it, but Wild Turkey works just fine
• Stir for thirty seconds

Rub the rim of a chilled cocktail glass with a strip of lemon peel
Add a 1/2 teaspoon of Absinthe into the glass and coat the inside of the glass with it
Strain the cocktail into the glass.
Heretic that I am, I throw the lemon peel into the glass because I really like the aroma

Absinthe is expensive but well worth the price in this cocktail. I bought a miniature for $7.00 and it's made a bunch of cocktails so far and will make many more.

Garnish With A Cherry

A few years ago I picked up a copy of "Villas at Table" at Multnomah County Library's used bookstore; Title Wave Used Bookstore. The book is a collection of Mr. Villas' essays on food and drink.

Most of the essays are entertaining and educational and frankly forgettable. They're articles about restaurants, visits to France, wines of some obscure region or a recipe for Glockenspiels with Horseradish Sauce. You know the type. The article that keeps you interested while you're waiting to be called at the doctor's office. The story you can put down 95% of the way through and not care if you finish it or not. I like books like this, they're kind of like Reader's Digest, good to have when you need a quick read at bedtime or while you're taking care of business.

This book would probably have been donated back to the library system for them to sell again if an unpublished essay called "A Few Choice Words About the Manhattan" hadn't grabbed my attention. The essay outlines Mr. Villas's introduction, at age twelve, to the Manhattan by his father. It continues on with his pursuit of Manhattans in Manhattan prior to the current cocktail renaissance (the book was published in 1988 and doesn't say when the essay was written). One of his biggest obstacles was that during the time period the essay was written many establishments had eschewed the glowing red maraschino cherry in favor of a lemon or orange twist. Mr. Villas took to carrying his own bottle of the bright red gems in order to satisfy his habit.

Villas the Elder's Manhattan
2.5 oz Blended American Whiskey (I'm guessing I used Elijah Craig 12 y.o. Bourbon)
1 oz of Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth
"less than a dash" Angostura Bitters
and a maraschino cherry
Served strained into a 4 oz stemmed cocktail glass

Inspired by fervor of Mr. Villas, I bought a bottle each of marachino cherries, Angostura Bitters and Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth. I don't know what bourbon was in the house when I made that first Manhattan, but I was hooked. Many bottles of bourbon, vermouth and cherries have passed through the doors of my house since I read this article.

James Villas's Perfect Bourbon Manhattan (In his words: "and by "Perfect" I'm by no means referring to the abomination by that name that includes a shot of dry vermouth")
2.5 oz Bonded Whiskey (Bottled in Bond Bourbon is 100 proof)
1.5 oz Cinzano Sweet Vermouth
"a quick dash" Angostura Bitters
A Big Fat maraschino cherry
Served strained into a chilled 6 oz stemmed cocktail glass

Something about the Big Fat Maraschino Cherry has never sat quite right with me. According to the article the Manhattan was invented around 1890 by Supreme Court Judge Charles Henry Truax when he was president of New York's Manhattan Club. The Maraschino as we know it today was invented by an Oregon State University professor named Ernest H. Wiegand. The original Maraschino cherries were made by soaking small sour wild black Maraska cherries, from what is now Croatia, in Maraschino Liqueur. These original cherries were a luxury item and getting one as a garnish was a real treat. I'll deal with my pursuit of the ideal cocktail cherry in a future installment.

Mr. Villas was kind enough to include Judge Truax's recipe for Manhattans in the book. It includes more sweet vermouth than what is common in most of today's recipes. A lot of the older cocktails include a higher proportion of sweet modifiers and I suppose that was a reflection of the tastes of the day.

Judge Truax's Original 1890 Manhattan Club Cocktail
2 oz Rye (or bourbon)
1 oz Sweet Italian Vermouth
A dash of Angostura Bitters
Garnish with a stemmed Maraschino Cherry

One of the really good things about the essay was the fact that there were multiple recipes, using different ratios of whiskey to vermouth, different whiskeys and vermouths. Obviously this is a cocktail that can be customized and tweaked to suit your preferences. This is the kind of research I can get behind.

After making my original Manhattans with a variety of bourbons I noticed that the original recipe called for rye. Hmmm....rye? I headed off to Rose City Liquor and was gratified to see that rye was readily affordable and came in a handy multiple choice selection. The rye I came home with that day, Wild Turkey Rye 101, has pretty much become my house pour for Manhattans ever since.

The Manhattan I'm Drinking Now
2.5 oz Wild Turkey Rye 101
1.0 oz Noilly Prat Sweet Vermouth
2 big dashes of Angostura Bitters
1 housemade cherry

For further reading on Manhattans see This Article by Gary Regan