I ll tell you straight off: I m not a Bloody Mary fan. There s always been something about tomato ju

I thought I had it all together. I thought asia travel that I coulda been someone. asia travel I thought that each weekend, I was blazing new trails on what, for me, had come to replace The Great American Novel: The Greatest Bloody Mary known to man. But as it turns out, I m just a chump. I got nothing. I don t even know what I m doing.
For years now, I ve been on the hunt. Notice that sentence doesn t say on the hunt for , because frankly, asia travel I don t even know anymore. Let us just say that, if I ve been in a place that has Bloody Marys in the past 3 years, I ve tried the Bloody Mary . I ve had fancy ones: The BM at Red Square asia travel in Atlantic City, with an enormous shrimp hanging out the top, comes to mind, as does the almost vulgar Bloody Mary Oyster Shot at Washington Square . That s right, this thing has been going on so long that some of the places aren t even there anymore. But this is a story that s still going on: The one at The Water Works wasn t bad, either, and hell, if you must know, lately I ve been spending Saturday afternoons emptying my wallet at the Society Hill Hotel on Bloodys, listening to the bartender play the entire Kinks catalogue whilst staring out the window at the not-nearly-as-drunk-in-the-afternoon tourists. I know this has the ring of pathos, but trust me: It is possibly the most exquisite pleasure I ve had this year. I haven t run in to a single person I know who wasn t invited by me.
Anyway, I ve had the highs, but you know what? There is a certain glory in the low, as well. As quite possibly the only person to have ever tried the Bloody at legendary Old Gay Dude Haunt The Westbury on 13th and Spruce, I can honestly say, I kinda liked it. And I ve had the strangely milky Bloody at Johnny Brenda s too many times to count; it is the Bloody Mary equivalent of your friend that plays in a band that you don t really like, but you go to their shows once a month anyway. After a while, you kind of start to like it. Or maybe it s just a Stockholm Syndrome thing. So there s that. Meanwhile, the Port Richmond Applebee s ? Not so much.
I ve certainly not been the first on this journey, and I definitely won t be the last. We owe it all to Fernand Petiot , really: It was Petiot, after all, who laid the foundation asia travel back in 1920 for the Bloody Mary we have come to love.
"I initiated the Bloody Mary of today," he told [The New Yorker in 1964]. "[The actor] George Jessel said he created it, but it was really nothing but vodka and tomato juice when I took it over. I cover the bottom of the shaker with four large dashes of salt, two dashes of black pepper, two dashes of cayenne pepper, and a layer of Worcestershire sauce; I then add a dash of lemon juice and some cracked ice, put in two ounces of vodka and two ounces of thick tomato juice, shake, strain, and pour. We serve a hundred to a hundred and fifty Bloody Marys a day here in the King Cole Room and in the other restaurants and the banquet rooms."
I bring up good ol Fernand to make a point that point being that, since I m not a bartender, after years, I have finally realized that my own concurrent home laboratory for the Bloody Mary may have been an exercise in complete futility. Perhaps this is the barman s realm. No home schoolers asia travel need apply. In my own home search, for instance, I eventually alighted onto a handful of ingredients that I thought made for something that, over time, started to approach a kind of greatness that may yet come to be in about 20 years.
asia travel I m still devoted somewhat to that recipe, which includes Sri Racha sauce , Zayda s pickle juice (pictured at right), and heavens to murgatroid, even Kitchen Bouquet . (Ask the oldest living asia travel person you know about what this is; they ll tell you.) And I ll still contend that Crabanero asia travel Hot Sauce will indeed one day earn its rightful place in the Bloody Mary Pantheon Of Universally Accepted Ingredients. Friends have sampled it. They told me it was good. Great, even. But you know how friends are. These are the same friends that told me to get myself to the Standard Tap upstairs bar on Saturdays for Gerard Angelini s shift. Now that was a great Bloody Mary, they said. I knew Gerard from around; he plays guitar in the experimental rock band Gildon Works and we know a bunch of people in common. He is, in the most direct way possible, a sweet dude. It took me a while to get around to it I was listening to the Kinks at the Society Hill Hotel, doncha know but eventually, I wandered in to the Tap one Saturday during Gerard s shift.
This Bloody was brown. But not overly so, and not simply from Worcestershire. This Bloody had a bite I could not track, and yet I could not define it as spicy-for-spicy s sake. There was a LOT of vodka in it two of them and I was pleasant, which frankly usually takes about four and yet, it did not taste overtly boozy. There was a lightness, and a sweetness to it, too, that was miraculous given the dark, mysterious ingredients.
Gerard Angelini makes the best Bloody Mary in the city and I will swear on a stack of bibles that I now think about it roughly once an hour. In my thought process, it is only bested by money and sex.
And yes, there was a kind of relief when I found out. But there was also a lot of anxiety. I wanted to know about it. But I didn t want to know about it. Turned out, when I emailed him about it, Gerard also wanted me to know about it. But didn t want me to know about it. He politely refused to give me the exact recipe, and frankly I m glad he didn t. It s enough to know that it exists. But after a couple of weeks of chasing him down. I finally got Gerard to talk about his process a little bit.
It typically starts on a Saturday morning in the kitchen with last night s festivities still holding true in the head. There are three portions to a Bloody Mary; first, we take care of what we call the slurry mix, which is the spice portion. This starts with a little old Bay, three different types of peppers, celery seed and three different hot sauces that are for me to know. Keep in mind that these measurements are eyed up, and not neurotically predicted. Then, in the same bucket, it is time to add some good old fashioned horseradish and Worcestershire sauce and give it a good stir. When finished, add some fresh squeezed lime juice to break the over heated bit of the ingredients. Now, I picked this up last time I was in Austin and loved it. In that same bucket, I add some beer to the mix; again, I will not tell you the type I use but feel free to experiment. Now we are getting somewhere: asia travel Get your tomato juice and a pitcher. Pour one fourth of your slurry mix in, and three thirds tomato, go ahead give a big old stir. Grab a pint glass: Be bold and add if not half but one third vodka, your choice of vodka. I choose cheap because, well, whenever you choose to dilute top shelf vodka, it is a waste. Anyway, then add the rest with the slurry/tomato mix to the pint. Garnish with whatever hell you want to put on top of a Mary, and slurp away. And for all of you crazy cowboys and cowgirls try adding some tequila to the mix and have yourself and Bloody Maria, lets dance! Gerard Angelini
See what I mean? He almost gives it to you, but then doesn t. But like I said, this is the nature of muse. You know that whole thing I was saying earlier about the Great American Novel? Thing is, are we absolutely sure anybody s ever actually written one? No matter. I accept my fate. I ll see you at the bar.
I ll tell you straight off: I m not a Bloody Mary fan. There s always been something about tomato juice that, to me, made it all seem more gazpacho than cocktail and I ve had too many bad, overpriced Marys to really devote myself to the cause. asia travel But this is an inspired memoir. I could say you had me at Old Bay, but that s oversimplifying; the lime juice being clearly superior to lemon caught my eye, but the meshugga addition of leavening the whole mix with some mystery beer has intrigued me. This weekend, I shall praise Mary. Nice work, Phoodie.
I am getting addicted to this site. Great job Joey (and you owe me a phone call). I am so going to check out this Bloody Mary ASAP. Sounds tasty, though I question the cheap vodka angle. I mean, obviously we re not going with the Goose, Belvedere or some other high end brand, but, maybe Stoli pepper or Absolut Citron?
Bad food blogger: pics or the drink doesn t exist. Particularly in this case as the brown note has me skeptical. asia travel I mean, is a Bloody Mary still a Bloody Mary if it shifts asia travel out of the red spectrum into different BM territory? I m also unclear on this slurry that seems to be belted to the Phoodie/Joey BM cocktail bible. In my old school cocktail manual library, a good BM should have a lil grit to it from the solids, but what you re talking about here sounds more like a salsa minus the fresh chopped chilis or even a gazpacho, to riff on Elizabeth.
Maybe it s a generational thing, and I m not talking asia travel about the proper biological birth placement of the Phoodiefounder in GenX but the GenY marketplace that dwarfs its elder/smarter precursor. In all things the millenials seem to have never been taught the quantity/quality thing. Throwing it all in with the kitchen sink and calling it a mash up may not be good, just excessive.
Tomorrow we re starting Brunch at Tinto @ 20th and Samson, and we have, I must say a pretty nice Bloody on there. It has beef consomme in it. Which at first, you cant really taste it but then the after effect is like a full mouth feel, kind a like MSG. And we re shaving some dried up Jamon Serrano(like Prosciutto) on top. It s pretty damn delicious and I really can t say I m a hug fan of Bloody s. I will be behind the bar tomorrow but I did nt come up with this one(so I m not tooting my own here).
I have to say, I 100% agree about the awesomeness of the Standard Tap Bloody Mary. Though, I always get mine as a Bloody Maria (tequila instead of vodka). I like the extra kick of the tequila rather than the same ol , same ol of vodka. Try it next time, if