A trip down memory lane

A chilly February night back in 1999, I remember walking west on Belmont in Chicago. I wasn't wearing socks so every time a chunk of snow or ice ended up hitting my ankle it would slide into my sneaker and chill me even further to the bone. But my friend, Mike, & I were on a mission... A mission of wine (beer actually), women (well maybe not women), and song (a ska band called Deals Gone Bad).

So we ventured west from the Belmont El stop to a little German Irish pub called Gunther Murphy's where we imbibed on Guinness and chilled out to some killer ska music. At some point in the evening Mike remarked that it was the first time he'd ever had Guinness. I asked him what he thought of it-- "It reminds me of a milkshake."

And an idea was born! The Beer Float!

A few weeks later that dream came to fruition-- with the purchase of a 4 pack of Guinness pint cans and a half gallon of vanilla ice cream the Guinness Float was born. And surprisingly, it wasn't half bad... that being said the mere idea of attempting it with anything other than a heavy creamy European style beer is quite repulsive. Vanilla ice cream and Budwesiser are not a culinary adventure my mouth will ever willingly choose to endeavor, but Guinness with it's rich malty consistency was the perfect choice for this fine pursuit of the palate.

So my fine readers, what have been some of your more adventurous and/or unusual culinary experiments? Please do share!

Beer 101

As some of you well know I'm a bit of a beer snob. I'm not much of a fan of the mass market watered-down, over-carbonated swill that American "breweries" pass off as beer. And honestly when it comes to that mass-market, watered down, over-carbonated swill-- the Canadians do a much better job of it than the Americans.

So here are a few rules I've come up with:

1. Americans only enjoy over-carbonated, watered-down beer because they've had their tastebuds numbed by decades of bland, cookie-cutter, fast-food.
   
2. American beer doesn't taste bad... it doesn't taste at all. It's fermented water.
3. In a pinch if one must drink mass-market American beer (micro-brews are by and large excluded from these rules), in a pinch, contrary to popular belief, Miller IS preferable to Budweiser and/or Coors.
4. That being said Miller is still inferior to LaBatt's and Molson... Canadian fermented water has SOME taste and thus it is superior to the swill from the USA.
5. As bad as American beer is, Mexican beer is, for the most part, worse. The exception being Bohemian which is a German style Mexican beer which is far more palatable than Mexican style, Mexican beers. If you're not supposed to drink the water in Mexico, why would you drink the beer which is comprised predominantly of water?
6. Good beer is generally darker, heavier, and far less carbonated than traditional American beer. The best of which comes from places like Scotland, Ireland, Germany, England, and Belgium.
   
7. American beer is bad because American brewmeisters see beer as a science... Beer is not a science it's an art and therein lies the fatal flaw of American beer

Any questions?

Say what?

Last week I was in Ottawa on business. Some non-work highlights/observations from the trip:

1. My hotel was walking distance from the Byward Market area. There are a lot of cool restaurants in this area.
   
2. The panhandlers are a bit pushier/more aggressive than in Chicago. There's an air of world-weary defeat in many of the panhandlers in Chicago. In Ottawa they were coming up to me and were quite persistent. I'll give money to street performers and what not, people who do something to "earn it." Accosting me as I'm trying to walk into a pub for a quick pint is NOT the way to get money out of me. This was one of the only downers of the trip.
3. Ottawa is beautiful in the fall. Driving on Colonel By Dr. along the Rideau Canal with the fall foliage was rather breathtaking. I've been to Ottawa several times, but this was the first time I'd ever been there in the fall.
   
4. I tried Haggis for the first time at the Highlander Pub. I absolutely loved it! It helped that it came with a dram of Scotch. And the nice smooth malty Scottish beer (Caledonian 80 Shilling) certainly didn't hurt either.
5. I have a new favorite beer (see above)! Caledonian 80 Shilling is the nectar of the Gods. It was the smoothest beer I've ever had and easily the best tasting as well. Sadly this wonderful brew is not available in the U.S. so I will have to imbibe of it on my visits north of the border.
   
6. I tried Ethiopian cuisine for the first time as well. My friend, Erin, drove over from Montreal and we celebrated our respective birthdays on Wednesday evening-- mine on Thursday hers was on Friday. After dinner we went to the Highlander pub and I introduced her to Caledonian 80 Shilling. Her assessment was similar to mine. Scorpios of a stinger stick together (or something like that), I guess.
   
7. Unrelated to my trip... Over the weekend I was channel surfing and noticed that on ABC Family they'll be showing Poltergeist. Is it just me or is there something peculiar about Poltergeist being a "family film?" Many of the people who starred in the first 2 films died shortly thereafter or even during the filming. And the subject matter isn't exactly what I'd want any kids I know to be exposed to. That being said, it could have been worse, they could have been showing Poltergeist II, which imho is MUCH creepier than the first one (in particular, the late Julian Beck as Kane was far creepier than Freddy or Jason could ever dream of being-- his very brief performance exuded a much greater menacing evil than all of the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street movies COMBINED).
   

Yay

So, here I am in Austin, TX helping to set up one of my company's new stores so it can open on time. And after working several hours to get the store set up, my two fellow co-workers from the home office and I went out for some good Texan food. I had a rack of some of the most delicious ribs I've ever had, a tall glass of delicious dark beer, and a phone call from wifey saying the realtor had called and that we're good to go for the closing on our townhome next Friday! YAY! We have the final walkthrough at 10:15 am, the closing at 11 and our realtor wants to take us out for lunch afterwards to celebrate.

Well 1 1/2 more days in Austin, then back home to Chicago. But it's late and I best be getting to bed, I've been up since 5:45 am and now it's 1:30 am... the next morning.

Current Music: Joseph Williams - Your Song (I love this dude's voice, he could sing the NY Metro White pages and I'd buy it in a heartbeat)