Happy Hour at Air Conditioned Lounge, San Diego, CA
We heard rumors of the AC Lounge's 1/2 price everything weekday happy hours from 4pm to 8pm. We've also heard about their off-menu to-die-for margarita, Joe's BurritoRita. We head over to take advantage.
The bartender is called Burrito Joe -- after a cartoon character he used to draw in college -- and he takes his margarita-making seriously. No sweet and sour in sight. Just limes, sugar, salt, a fine reposado, and a lot of elbow grease to bring it together. At 5 bucks, it's seriously the best not-at-home happy hour margarita we've had in San Diego in a long time. Click to see Joe shake it up.
Continue reading "What Does Your Mexican Margarita Taste Like?" »
Merrily Wine Tasting on a Tiny Budget
In California, we can get good wines pretty dang cheap. They're often on sale or regularly priced for under $7 -- Trader Joe's, Henry's, and Vons all have good deals. But are they any good? We asked a few friends to bring over a favorite wine that cost under $7 in a brown paper bag. Then we got to blind tasting.
We compared way more than seven wines -- eating cheese, chocolate, and crackers in-between sips -- then compared notes. The ratings were all over the board.
Continue reading "7 Under 7" »
What Do You Do with Kumquats, Anyway?
My sister brought over a bag of gobstopper-sized oranges -- kumquats, actually. From a neighbor. Or maybe it was the farmer's market, I'm not sure. They're sweet and tart and bitter. The peels are soft enough to eat.
For happy hour, Gary created a spin on my favorite, the Journalist. The Orange Tabby is like sucking on the best orange candy you've ever had, but not that sweet and more complex.
Kind of like our businesses (the topic of vigorous conversation at this happy hour). Rufus, the orange tabby cat, couldn't agree more.
Continue reading "Orange Tabby" »
May We Offer You a Glass of ... Inspiration?
Inspired by Michael Taylor's recipe for an early martini (think late 1800s to 1930s) in the Washington Post, we postponed our cheap-wine tasting to explore historic martinis. They were made with cheap or homemade gin, so we pulled out our bargain-find New Amsterdam gin ($8/Albertsons, thank you) and mixed the two versions Taylor mentions. One with absinthe (actually, Pernod, tastes like licorice) and one with a splash of orange liquor. We did alter his ratio of vermouth to gin, but the balance of flavors hasn't changed.
I'm not a martini fan (translate: hold the vermouth), but this cocktail was really good. Like a fresh-fallen tree.
Not sure if there's a metaphor here for today's economy, but we do know that out of dark times comes really inspired stuff. We're looking forward to that.
Continue reading "Recession Martini" »
