I remember the good’ole days, when just the idea of whisky would make me sick. I just could not drink that stuff. Horrible liquid. I have to confess that at those times, whisky to me meant J&B, Ballantines, Chivas Regal, Cutty Sark… ie crap that was easily available at home or at friend’s places.

Then, over the winter break in 1994 or 95, I went ot visit me dad in Namibia and my “step brother” from Tennessee was there. He talked so much about Jack Daniels and blah and blih and bluh, that I finally tried it and it was for sure different and better than the above-mentioned crap. So, I slowly got used to the idea of whiskEy (bourbon) being somewhat drinkable.

Come September 1996 and I move to Glasgow to finish my studies. Made the mistake once and never asked for Jack Daniels again in my whole life. I still remember the scene. Was in a big whisky bar/pub at the intersection between Sauchiehall street and Kelvin Way (now there’s a steakhouse called the Butchershop). I asked for a JandD and the bartender, with a very thick local accent, replied “not in me fecking lifetime”. He turned around and showed me his scotch selection. 20×2 metres of different bottles. My Glaswegian friend explained “the situation” and I survived. Still, the barman made a point in teaching me a “single malt” lesson and started pouring a few different things, to “show me”. Could hear them angels singing (no, I was not drunk).

After 4 years in that paradisiac town, I became familiar with a few standard/conventional distilleries and I was happy. Lagavulin, Oban, Talisker, Bunnahabhain, Aardbeg, Bowmore, Caol Ila, Jura, Craganmore, Glenmorangie, etc… I was happy with this and felt “good” about the fact that I now knew about the classical good Scotches available. As  for many other people, Lagavulin was unbeatable and the others are very good as well. Won’t touch no Irish stuff and bourbons are shite.

That was until a few months ago, when I moved to the next level. Hate you Alan! Hate you Angus! As you can see from one of my previous posts, we had a wee tasting session at a local whisky store, where I had the chance of discovering the fantastic world of independently bottled whisky. Other planet. Other experience. Other dimension. After that, I see no point in purchasing any of the “standard” bottles. I would actually feel “dirty” and here are a few reasons why:

- Whisky in the bottle is EXACTLY the same stuff coming out of the cask/barrel. No filtering, no coloring, no nothing. What you distil is what you get.

- What you get this year might not be the same as last year or next year. Contrary to “commercially” sold bottles, here the bottlers don;t try to get the same taste over and over. It’s all an “inshallah” process.

- What you get is of the best possible quality: the whisky you get is still coming from the “normal” distillers. The independent bottler purchases barrels from them, so what you get in a Macallan is the same stuff you would get in a commercially available Macallan bottle.

- The whisky selection (from producer to shop) goes through 3 decision processes: Bottler choses 10 barrels from 40 available (blind tasting). Store owners blind taste these 10 and chose 2. Selected customers of one shop will blind taste these and a unanimous decision has to be taken about which barrel will be “bottled” ie: both, one or none (am I right Angus? is this how the process works?).

- Because of the previous point, you always get the best of the best.

- Cask strength is your friend. End of discussion.

Anyway, now I can really differentiate between different products and am learning how to “describe” the differences. Still, I would love to take some tasting lessons or do some reading about all various aromas, tastes, finishes, colors that you can get and how to describe them. Have also decided to get a new bottle every second month, if I manage (still 70-100 euros a pop). Right now my bar is very small. Have a “standard” Lagavulin 16yo (that was a present), a 10yo Longrow and a 15yo Bruichladdich. Next one will be chosen between a Cragganmore 15yo, Springbank 12yo or Allt-A-Bhainne 16yo.

In conclusion, I think that if I had to chose between a wine and a whisky, I would go for the Scotch

Cheers,

Fred

PS: btw, I even changed my mind regarding bourbon. The one we had was awesome.

I’m on a roll.

This is the dish that Nadia prepared. Fantastic. I am getting more and more convinced that it was my favorite of the evening. I haven’t seen her preparing it (no pictures), but here are the instructions I got from her:

Osso Buco Bianco River Café

2 inch crosscuts of veal hind shank

½c flour

seasalt and ground peper

½c butter (4 oz)

2Tb olive oil

2 small red onions, peeled and chopped

4 celery stalks, peeled and chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

9 salted anchovies, prepared (washed and spine bones and heads removed)

½ bottle dry white wine

Gremolata

Finely grated zest of 2 lemons

1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped

3 heaped Tb chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

Preheat oven to 300F.

Dust osso buco with flour, salt, pepper. In large heavy-bottomed casserole just large enough to hold all the pieces in one layer, melt half butter and all the olive oil, brown and seal osso buco on each side. Remove from the pan and pour away fat. Then add remaining butter, gently sauté onions and celery until very soft but not brown. Add garlic and anchovies and mash until anchovies have melted, this will only take a second. Pour in the wine, bring to a boil and reduce.

Carefully put osso buco back into the casserole, making sure that the bones are placed so that the marrow can not fall out during the cooking. Cover with parchment paper and the lid, and cook in oven for at least 2.5 hours. Can be made ahead and reheated.

Mix together the gremolata and sprinkle over each osso buco.

This we served piping hot and enjoyed with a Springbank 12 yo, cask strength. Perfect match.

The day after the whisky tasting, we spent a few hours recovering and putting ourselves back together. There was a dinner to prepare. Here’s the menu Alan and I had designed over the last few months:

I shall put the recipes and instructions on separate posts.

We did indeed spend the whole day shopping, cooking, shoveling the snow, and drinking coffee. Finally, at around 18:00, Angus and his wife Kiss arrived (together with the ordered kidneys and the lagerkage) and we were all ready for the feast. We sat down at ~ 18:30 and finished ~ 23:30. It was a real success. Nothing of what we cooked was left. It was a real foodgasm.

I personally loved the whole thing. Great people, relaxed atmosphere, excellent food and drinks, nice chats, no stress. Kind a of a weekend of “oblivion”. I want more and can’t wait to repeat the experience. Where and when should it be? Here again in the summer with a fish based grill session? or should it be in Campbeltown, with an associated trip to Springbank and Islay? Or something else? I’m veeery openminded

Thanks to all for the fantastic weekend!!!!!

Well, after spending the whole day cleaning the kitchen (see previous post), I got cheered up by the arrival of Alan and Nadia from Rome. It’s Gastronauts Meeting!!!! YAYYYY!!!! Let me explain:

A few months ago, while having a mouth watering discussion on facebook with some people, Alan and I decided to organise, asap, a “food and beverages convention”, whihc would take place between my (4th) and Alan’s (11th) birthdays. Considering that the “beverages” was to be provided by one of the discussees at his store in Copenhagen, we decided to meet here and have a beverages session on Friday at Angus’ Cadenhead’s Whisky store and a food feast on Saturday at my place in Virum.

So, as I said, I finished cleaning the kitchen and left for the airport to pick up Alan and Nadia (and the suitcase full of food). Back home, store the feast’s ingredients in the fridge and off we went to meet with Angus at the store. What an experience that was. We tasted 14 different bottles, one better than the other. Here’s what we drunk:

Needless to say, we have no recollection whatsoever  on how and when we got back home. There was a taxi and it was not too late. Then blank, blankety blank.

So that was the first evening of the Gastronauts. What a day. Kitchen disaster, start of Gastronauts, numbness of the white matter…. fantastic.

I shall describe Saturday’s foodgasm in the next post, maybe tomorrow

Wee update. I forgot to tell about our Christmas eve at Manolis and Benedicte’s place in Cambridge.

Very pleaseant evening. Good food, good drinks, our share of emotions and excellent company.

We had a set of starters composed of salmon and cheese tartines, champagne with a great secret ingredient (I’ll tell you later), raw veggies with a great hot anchovie sauce (excellent if you like them hairy fishes), prawns and, finally, oysters with panic. All followed by a nice chicken dish with some tasty red wine.

Now, two notes:

- Oysters with panic:  NEVER EVER EVER open oysters with the wrong tools. A filet knife is not the best idea. Unless you want to carve yourself a pair of stigmatae. Wasn’t that painful Manolis? Additionally, do not try to open them from the “wide” part of the shell. Form the back, that were the “entry point” is.

- The champagne’s secret additive: this was brought from France by Benedicte and is littrally translated as “truffle aperitif“. It’s indeed a truffle liqueur that you add in your champagne. Fantrufflestastic!!!! Even on its own. I hope to find a bottle of this somewhere soon.

Anyway, that’s all for now.

See ya!

This is beer:

This is not:

That’s it. Good night