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Peisho
20th March 2002, 12:49
I never tried vodka before but I heard its flavorless like water and one of the best things to mix with other stuff. Please correct me if this is not true. But has anyone ever heard of vodka being mixed with Nestea green tea concetrate? I bet that would make a good margaretta.

Neil Yamamoto
20th March 2002, 21:48
Glen,

UGH, remind me to never have you mix me a drink.

Good vodka is very clean tasting but is not really flavorless. There will be some flavor elements in it, and these will vary depending on the base material used to make the vodka and the shape of the still, the maker of the vodka, all subject to what the distillery is trying to achieve.

The more highly distilled it is, the less flavor there will be in the vodka. So, yes, vodka mixes well with many other beverages. Fruit and vegetable juices, seltzer water and soda all come to mind.

As to mixing it with green tea, I wouldn't do it myself. If you like it, go for it but it sounds pretty strange to me.

Margaret Lo
20th March 2002, 22:04
We can start with Stolichnaya Gold (actually black & gold label)
Belvedere and Kettle One - very smooth.
Now if I can lay my hands on good caviar.

M.Lo

Jay Bell
20th March 2002, 22:49
Irish vodka is my personal favorite..


good caviar

Is there such a thing? *wretch* ;)

Neil Yamamoto
20th March 2002, 23:02
While I'm more a scotch guy as all know, I recently had some "Moskovskaya" vodka. It was $9.99 for a fifth, $14.99 for a 1.75L bottle. It's imported by Stolichnaya.

It was incredibly smooth when left in the freezer for a few hours and topped any other premium vodka I've ever had, including Margaret's favorites and I really like Ketel One too. So try this out if you get a chance.

Other great vodka

Sky Citrus -for mixing or neat from the freezer
Absolut Raspberry -for mixing or neat from the freezer
Chopin - good on the rocks or from the freezer
Pearl- nice clean flavor, good in a martini if you like vodka martinis.
Grey Goose - good all around vodka.
Goldenbarr - chocolate flavored vodka, mixes well with nut and creme liquores, also good with creme soda or coke.

Sorry Margaret, no caviar for me, give me good homemade blackbread, some kielbasa, and a bit of cheese. Maybe some smoked fish too... Now I'm hungry.

Margaret Lo
21st March 2002, 16:28
Originally posted by Jay Bell
Irish vodka is my personal favorite..

Is there such a thing? *wretch* ;)

A good Irish Vodka must be an oxymoron. I mean really, (need disdainful sniffing smilie here) potato vodkas are simply inferior. Chopin may be acceptable but for the truly refined vodkas can it be anything but Russian? :)
M.Lo

Earl Hartman
22nd March 2002, 02:26
Peisho:

Vodka is, essentially, pure distilled vodka diluted to the desired proof. It can be made from practically anything that ferments, although grain and potatoes are usually used.

Remember when the doctor puts alcohol on a cotton swab and uses it to disinfect your skin before giving you a shot? Well, vodka smells pretty much just like that. Since it is pure alcohol, and thus has no flavor other than that, it is popular in mixed drinks. Although I must side with Neil on the vodka and green tea thing. Sounds positively awful.

Re: caviar:

Blinis topped with sour cream, a dab of caviar, and chopped chives. Try it sometime, with or without a frozen vodka chaser. Mmmmm....The black bread and smoked fish thing sounds excellent as well.

I made some really excellent flavored vodka of my own by putting a few slices of citron zest in a bottle of plain vodka. Really, really good. I don't think you can normally get real citrons in the market, but a Buddha's Hand citron would probably work.

Anybody like Scandinavian caraway-flavored aquavit? Tried it the other day and found it surprisingly good, kind of like drinking a loaf of alcoholic rye bread. A perfect accompaniment to any kind of smorgasboard, I would think.

Earl Hartman
22nd March 2002, 05:32
Oops. Meant to say "vodka is pure distilled alcohol". Hope that makes more sense.

Neil Yamamoto
22nd March 2002, 09:20
Akavit is an interesting drink. Like Earl says, it has a rye bread aroma and taste to it. Some brands of akavit may have other herbal flavoring as well.

Now, by itself, it's not all that appealing to me. It goes wonderfully with a cold lager beer though. You can also try adding a splash to a bloody mary if you like.

With food, chilled in freezer or even at room temperture, it takes on a whole new appeal. Try it with any smoked seafood or meat. It goes very well with pickled veggies too. For you foodies, you can use it as part of a marinade for fish richer in oils, like salmon and black cod, and especially for smoked fish in the brine.

I was told akavit had to age properly to taste right. They figured out that sailing across the equator and back combined with the motion of the ship combined seemed to age the akavit as well as improve the flavor and aroma. Hence, one of the brands is named "Linie" for proof it crossed the equator. So look for a brand that states that it has crossed the equator if you want the real stuff. It does seem to taste different, richer in flavor. Supposedly there is a small fleet of ships maintained to just do that, sail out with a cargo hold full of barrels of akavit across the equator and back.

Looking for a brand to try, the most common ones I see are Aalborg, and Linie but I'm sure there are others.

I wouldn't try mixing it with green tea though.

BC
22nd March 2002, 21:56
Irish vodka? - No thank you.

Might as well ask for some Russian whiskey and soda bread... :idea:

J. A. Crippen
23rd March 2002, 02:13
Irish vodka is typically called 'poteen' as far as I know. Poteen is to vodka how kerosene is to rubbing alcohol. That's a strange analogy, but suffice to say that while good vodka may go down smoothly and leave the mouth and pharynx feeling hot and invigorated, poteen goes down like steel wool and leaves the mouth and pharynx feeling raw and inflamed. Of course, the second drink is always smooth as spring water...

Poteen is good, but only on occasion. And in small quantities. It's the same strength as your average vodka, but oh-my-kami is it powerful. It's not the alcohol that gets you though, it's how hoarse your voice gets after all that coughing...

I once had some genuine Russian vodka that was equally pleasant. It had a slightly cloudy appearance when shaken and had dregs at the bottom of the bottle that appeared to be potato starch. That stuff went down like turpentine mixed with diesel fuel, with a hint of aqua regia for flavor. Chipped my tooth on the bottle too...

A Swedish aquavit that I once had and really liked was flavored with cumin and (I think) anise. It was strange, but very good. It was better with the Swedish masseuse who gave it to me.

As for vodka and matcha, please don't use something disgusting like Nestea's green tea pith. Get some real matcha, real powdered green tea. This can typically be found in small bags or tins like wasabi (don't confuse them!). You can make your own matcha with good quality sencha (green tea without stems) and a suribachi or similar mortar, and some patience. Don't use bancha (green tea with stems) or hojicha (roasted green tea) because you'll end up with something that's too bitter to drink. Matcha itself is pretty bitter because it's ground so fine, and the less bitter the sencha used the better the matcha will be.

Actually, wasabi and vodka might be an interesting experience... I'll have to try it.

Daruma
25th March 2002, 17:16
Poteen or as its pronounced "pocheen" the old Irish favorite, (made in most prisons in the UK too, prisoners don't have many options for fermenting or distilling)
is killer stuff, its made by distilling potatoes/potato peelings and well I only tried it once about 10 years ago and well my head was completely sober but when I went to stand up my legs would'nt work.


:eek:

So after that i'll stick to good old fashioned Scottish Whisky, give me a good single Malt (Glenmorangie being my current favorite)

As to Green tea + Vodka, I have yet to see it, it sounds like a terrible combination, but well they use Matcha/Sencha for lots of things here, I was in Fugi-Shi on saturday, visiting my fiancee's family and they grow a lot of tea there, at the station they had some local produce for sale cakes and sweets made with green tea, hell I've even seen Haagen Daaz Green tea flavoured ice cream - Never had the nerve to try it yet.

Good to see you again Sensei Rousselot, I enjoyed your class, took me a week to recover and well almost lost my job too was an interesting weekend. At the moment I am making plans for my wedding and looking for a better job, one with more sociable hours, when I change jobs I would like to join your class again, until then its really not feasible as I have to work on Saturdays currently, apart from the occasional special circumstanc elike visiting soon to be relatives.

Regards to all.

J. A. Crippen
26th March 2002, 00:25
Green tea ice cream is *wonderful*!!!

If you see some, try it. Don't hesitate. Skip dinner, but have green tea ice cream.

There are some bad versions. I had one that tasted more like corn syrup than tea.

A friend told me of a 'sundae' he once had in Japan, which was green tea ice cream with a clear sugary syrup of unknown ingredients, whipped cream, matcha sprinked on top, and an umeboshi stuck in the top where the cherry would be.

I'd kill to get green tea ice cream in the local supermarkets. But it's just not likely to catch on with westerners, who expect green things to be minty.

Neil Yamamoto
26th March 2002, 01:03
http://www.asianmall.com/

This is a pretty good site for things Asian including tea and other hard to find goodies. Anchorage is a not so good place to be when the craving for food hits. My uncle would routinely ask for food packs to be sent when he was fishing and gone for a couple months.

As for green tea ice cream, you can get it shipped easily if you want to absorb the shippng. http://www.uwajimaya.com/ is online and does mail order. Mikawaya in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo was the first place I saw mochi ice cream, including the green tea ones. Now it's all over the place.

Try http://www.dandydonsicecream.com/icecream/flavors.html if you want to order.

J. A. Crippen
26th March 2002, 07:50
You'd think that getting decent food here in Alaska wouldn't be much of a problem since eating is one of the primary indoor sports during the winter, the other two being drinking and politics (often practiced together). Anchorage has a lot going for it in the Asian cuisine market since New Sagaya finished its remodeling. It now has a full frozen foods section, carrying all those important ingredients that are a PITA to make yourself, like kamaboko and abura-agedofu. Also, Sagaya has started to carry more Asian vegetables; now I can have satsumaimo any day of the year.

Seafood has however never been a problem here. The variety is perhaps not what it could be in Vancouver or Seattle, but there's certainly no problem getting good seafood at good prices. Every time I visit the continental US I'm always shocked by how much good seafood costs. Some things aren't cheap though, if they come from somewhere else.

What's really frustrating is that the Korean population in Anchorage is fairly high, so if I wanted to cook more Korean dishes it'd be easy. Some of the ingredients that are similar in both Korea and Japan come only in their Korean variants, which are often of a poorer quality. I'm thinking particularly of konbu, which I can only find from Korea around town. The Korean konbu I've seen doesn't have nearly the amount of that natural white powder that forms on dried kelp, and it doesn't have much flavor in comparison to the Japanese variety that I get from a friend in Hokkaido.

Now that we're waaayy off topic, perhaps I should come up with some more weird combinations of liquor and Japanese ingredients.

How about vodka with that powdered hondashi that comes in little cans from Ajinomoto? That sounds like an interesting taste experience. To be done only once. Or a great trick to pull on your friends, as long as you don't want to keep them.

An idea that I had when I first encountered sansho was sansho flavored vodka. I still think that would be an excellent drink. I don't know how you could efficiently extract the sansho flavor, but sansho is pretty strong so you probably wouldn't need much of it. The drinker would just have to put up with having little leaf bits at the bottom of the glass.

Yuzu vodka could be good. Or indeed a martini with a twist of yuzu. Wouldn't be surprised if those were already seen in Japan. Yuzu peel would probably go well in any place that lemon or lime peel is used.

Speaking of martinis, maybe a sansho martini would be tasty? Should get some vermouth and try it...

Peisho
26th March 2002, 12:05
Originally posted by J. A. Crippen


and an umeboshi stuck in the top where the cherry would be.




Thats yucky stuff. I dont know anyone that can eat a umeboshi without gagging. You must be talking about plain old ume?
Ume juice or lychee juice in vodka might taste good.

J. A. Crippen
26th March 2002, 21:11
Weelll, vodka and umeshu would just get you umeshu that would knock you out. Nothing more, really.

As for umeboshi, I rather like them. The better ones aren't so salty, which makes it easier to savor their flavor. I've noticed that as with a lot of Japanese cuisine, Westerners tend to approach it with a preconceived notion of what it should taste like. In the case of umeboshi one hears "pickled plum" and expects to get something that tastes akin to a prune. The shock of biting into something salty and slightly sour/bitter is a surprise that turns most people off. But if you are told "it's a salty pickled thing that Japanese people eat a lot of" and then try umeboshi it wouldn't be a surprise and you might not be as turned off by it. I knew what umeboshi were and had them described to me before I ever ate one. Since I knew what to expect I found that I really could like them.

Sometimes being told what something is before eating it will really turn you off though. I have yet to try those preserved duck eggs that can be found anywhere Koreans or Chinese people shop. Just the picture of greenish eggs with black soupy centers on the styrofoam boxes turns me off. I suppose I might have learned to like them if nobody had told me what they were beforehand.

The same goes for fermented yak's milk as well I suppose...

hyaku
26th March 2002, 23:43
I know a Japanese guy that drinks Whisky and milk! A capfull in a cup of tea goes down well but I dont think I would go that far.

Shochu (a distilled drink made from rice, potatoes or wheat has to be Japans number one drink. A bottle of beer or cup of sake is always an excuse to get the bottle out. Thats "all" they drink down in Kagoshima. Then again if I lived in a constant ash shower I think I would perhaps need a drop myself. Okinawa has some one hundred percent stuff too.

They sell it with soda water and a fruit flavour cheaper than a can of coke now. Lychee, apple, apricot, peach, plum etc. etc. So its a nice drink of soda pop with a bit of a bite. Went up this year but there are still lots of cans about at one hundered yen.

Hyakutake Colin

J. A. Crippen
27th March 2002, 05:44
Really? 100 yen? What's the percentage of those, then? And isn't there an alcohol tax in Japan? How do they manage to sell them that cheap?

Earl Hartman
2nd April 2002, 20:36
When I visited Miyazaki in Kyushu, I was "treated" to the local drink of choice, shochu cut 50/50 with hot water (oyu wari). The smell was bad enough, and I must say that the flavor was pretty disgusting as well. The really funny thing about it was that everyone was pissed at the arrogance of the mainlanders who, in their view, had conspired to make "Nihonshu" (Japanese liquor) synonomous with sake made from rice. They were all up in arms about this, harrumphing about how Kyushu had this delicious "national" drink made from potatoes and that since Kyushu was part of Japan, after all, it was in extremely poor taste for the mainlanders to call only sake made form rice "Nihonshu", etc., etc.

Since I have never developed a taste for either drink, it made no never mind as far as I was concerned, but it was funny to hear them vent their wounded regional pride.

Yuzu zest-flavored vodka would be excellent, I think. Also, frozen Bombay Sapphire gin served in a chilled glass with a twist of orange zest is quite good.

Although I have never had it, Russian pepper-flavored vodka is supposed to be good, so sansho-flavored vodka would be in the same category, I think. I would use crushed seed pods rather than leaves, though.

Margaret Lo
2nd April 2002, 23:11
Originally posted by J. A. Crippen

Sometimes being told what something is before eating it will really turn you off though. I have yet to try those preserved duck eggs that can be found anywhere Koreans or Chinese people shop. Just the picture of greenish eggs with black soupy centers on the styrofoam boxes turns me off. I suppose I might have learned to like them if nobody had told me what they were beforehand.

The same goes for fermented yak's milk as well I suppose...

As to the eggs, well growing up in Hong Kong and all, I never liked them either! As a child that is. Now that I'm grown its ok but not by itself. The eggs are very pungent and are usually eaten in congee in little bits together with soft boiled peanuts, pickled vegetables, some pork floss.

So goto Chinatown and have congee for breakfast with the eggs and you'll probably be OK with them.

M

Tetsutaka
3rd April 2002, 01:26
Vodka? Try Pepper Stoli, spicy V8 and a splach of clam juice...

Smooooooooooth

...that is, until you try to operate heavy machinery.

:saw:

If you're short of cash - try a Burnett's Vodka and Old Milwaukee for a chaser.

And good green tea is a completely different experience from booze. I wouldn't dream of mixing the two - that is - in the same glass. :smilejapa

Man, I'm suddenly very thirsty.

Toodles,