Marquee Moon

A perfect Saturday - a trip to a nature center with the kids, followed by a whiskey tasting, and a fancy grocery store.

On Saturday, we took the girls to the Irvine Nature Center. We've wanted to go for a long time, but truth be told, the impetus for the trip was that a nearby liquor store (Quarry Wine & Spirits) was doing a tasting of "American Still Life Spirits." The Nature Center was a great time. The girls had a blast and we saw a red-tailed hawk up close. The whiskey and gin wasn't bad either.

Ok, time to come clean. I'm from Kentucky. We moved to Maryland when I was 13 so I consider myself a Marylander. And while I never cared for the Dukes of Hazard I dream of moonshine. Needless to say, I was very excited to taste Wry Moon - Unaged pot-distilled 100% rye Kentucky Whiskey (aka moonshine).

The Wry Moon smells (quite surprisingly) a lot like a silver tequila. When I mentioned this, the guy doing the tasting said it could be used in many of the same cocktail recipes. As for taste, it's spicy like a good rye, but lacks the vanilla and other softer flavors that come from barrel aging. It's a natural for the Ginger Shine (which sounds amazing) or the White Manhattan. But come on, it's moonshine, for now I'm drinking it straight... hocofood@@@

Hellhound on My Ale

A day late and a dollar short! Yesterday, I was looking at the website for Savor and I noticed that Dogfish Head would be serving a beer called Hellhound. I remembered reading that they were doing another collaboration with Sony and figured the beer must have something to do with Robert Johnson reissues.

Today, Beernews.org announced that Dogfish is indeed brewing a beer called Hellhound on My Ale. They note that it will contain lemons. This must be the pale ale with lemons that Sam was talking about a few months ago. And no doubt a reference to the "squeeze my lemon..." lyric from Traveling Riverside Blues.

Edit: I tried the Hellhound. Read my review here. 

Welcome Back Victoria

I just saw that Victoria Gastro Pub won "Best Bar Food" in Baltimore Magazine's Best Restaurants 2011 Readers' Poll. They certainly rank as my favorite bar food. Now if only started playing better music...

It looks like they are also started offering growlers of beer to go this week. I was very excited about the growlers. I'm a little less excited now that I see it's a only 32 oz. growler, costs $15 up front for the growler, and can only be filled after you've bought something else at the restaurant. I'll be interested to see what the fill prices are.

In other words, you can't just walk in and buy beer to go. I can understand the requirement to sit down and have a bite or at least a drink. However, I don't understand why they went with only 32 oz. Oh well, I doubt it will stop me from grabbing a limited-release beer to go the next time I'm there. I'll just be wishing I could have bought 64 oz instead of 32. hocofood@@@




And I think I have officially dated myself by using a Jesus Jones song for the title of this post.

Rice Rice Baby

I’m not sure if anyone has noticed, but I’m trying to use song titles for as many of my post titles as possible. On Sunday, we visited Evolution Craft Brewery in Delmar, DE and they made my job much easier by having a beer called Rice Rice Baby. And I apologize for getting a Vanilla Ice song in your head. Maybe just switch over to Queen and David Bowie now...

I was hoping to taste one of their barrel-aged beers or an IPA or Double IPA but luck was not on my side. Much like my Black Saturday trip to Dogfish, I arrived on a day when the taps were loaded with darker beers. Along with the Primal Pale Ale and Exile ESB, the taps were loaded with the Lucky 7 Porter, the Rise Up Stout, and the Rice Rice Baby. I’d had the Primal and Exile before and both are solid beers. Actually, while drinking the Exile, it occurred to me that it might be a good substitute for Fat Tire (which is finally coming to MD in September). Both are well balanced flavorful beers that go down easy. I’m expecting some Fat Tire in late March and I will do a blind test.

Back to the tasting, the Lucky 7 Porter is really good. I over-did it with dark beers back in my home-brewing days, so I rarely drink them now. The 1997 version of me would have been all over the Porter and especially the Stout. The Rise Up Stout is brewed with local Rise Up coffee (thus the name) and is well-balanced and delicious. The Rice Rice Baby is brewed with an addition of brown rice. The Mrs. hated it. I thought it was kind of neat - like a sweeter slightly stronger brown ale. It offers a lot more malt than hop flavor and a little sake sweetness. I picked up a growler to go and plan to take it to band practice this week. I'll follow up with a report of what my band mates think of it.

In closing - well balanced seems to be the theme for Evo. None of their beers blew me away or knocked me over the head with a hop explosion, but that’s not  a bad thing. In current landscape of extreme beers (double IPA’s, bret, belgo, historic recipes, etc) it’s refreshing to have an up and comer focusing on solid classic session beers. hocofood@@@

She’s Taking my Turtle!

It turns out my two year-old really likes turtles. The girls surprised me with a trip to the National Aquarium on Friday evening. When we went in the fall, the sharks and rays were the highlight. This time, it was all about turtles – to the extent that the girls almost came to blows over a turtle.

To properly set the scene, we need to get into the mindset of a two-year old. From my experience, they like to provide running commentary on everything they do and they are prone to overstating the obvious. Examples: “I’m putting shoes on, I’m wearing my shoes!” “I’m eating pancakes.”

So, there we are in the Aquarium calmly staring through the glass into a scene from Amazonia. There is a large turtle floating in front of my two-year old. Her response “That turtle is looking at me. He’s my turtle, he’s looking at me.” This commentary extends for a few minutes until said turtle begins to paddle toward my four year-old daughter. At this point, the little one begins shouting “She’s taking my turtle, she’s taking my turtle,” and begins pushing her older sister out of the way.

I’m not sure what kind of Crocodile Dundee animal control powers she thinks her sister has, but whatever. A few seconds later, the turtle turns around and we’re back to “He’s my turtle, he’s swimming in the water, he’s a turtle…”

Open That Bottle Night

Apparently this coming Saturday is "Open That Bottle Night." This holiday is new to me, but I think I'll try celebrating. The premise is that we all have one (or more) bottles of wine in our "cellars" that we're saving for a special occasion but more likely slowly converting to vinegar. Btw, my cellar is a 20-bottle wine rack in the coolest corner of my basement...

I know I'm guilty of saving wines. The wife and I went to Napa a few years ago and we have yet to drink some of the better bottles we brought back. I hadn't really thought about how long ago the trip was until just now. My wife was pregnant (in wine country of all places) with our now two year-old. In other words, I've been "cellaring" these wines for about 3 years.

Time to drink up! So on Saturday, no matter what's for dinner, I'll be cracking open one of the remaining bottles from that trip to Napa. I dare you to do the same.  hocofood@@@

V is for Awesome – Part 1

A few weeks ago I made a big change in my life. I traded my US-made Reverend Slingshot Custom for a Korean-made Reverend Volcano. I bought the Slingshot five years ago for a “milestone” birthday. At the time, I was able to spend $1,000 on the guitar of my choice. I spent a few months trying various guitars. Discovery 1: Most of the sub-$1,500 guitars Fender and Gibson make are junk! Discovery 2: Reverends are awesome.

The Slingshot was my go-to guitar for four years. Until last year, I bought a Korean-made Reverend Roundhouse HB. This guitar was my first set-neck and 24 ¾ scale instrument and I instantly fell in love with it. I have a nasal speaking voice and somehow I have nasal guitar tone no matter what I play through. It used to bother me, now I realize that it’s my tone and it suits the music I play pretty well. I think the set-neck and shorter scale length work together to help keep my nasal tone in check.

After not playing the Slingshot (relegating it to back up guitar status) much at all since buying the Roundhouse, I decided to trade it plus some cash for a Reverend Volcano. I’ve always wanted a V and the huge differences in tone between the Slingshot and the Roundhouse forced me to make too many changes on pedals and my amp when switching.

I’ll miss the Slingshot, but it was a good deal. Between the cash and the Volcano, I ended up getting as much (if not more) than what I bought the Slingshot for. The way I see it, I owned it for free for five years. And I’ll always have the recordings I made using it… I’ll buy another US Reverend someday.