Back to Basics with Beam

As a high fallutin' whiskey aficionado, I don't spend a lot of time drinking Jim Beam. I prefer me a single barrel, cask strength, limited edition non-filtered, get out your credit card type bourbon. In fact, if I'm drinking Beam, it most likely means I'm in an airport, on an airplane or staring down a six bottle bar at a wedding, convention, bar mitzvah, etc.

But my picky tastes aside, Jim Beam is the world's best selling bourbon (assuming you pretend that Jack Daniel's isn't a bourbon, as everyone seems happy enough to do). And what right do I have to call myself a whiskey blogger if I've never written up the standard Jim Beam line. Not much I tell you. Luckily, a Beam miniature bottle sampler is available for a mere $7.99 which includes Beam white, Beam Black, Beam Rye, and perhaps because misery loves company, Red Stag.


Jim Bean White Label, 40% abv ($15)

This has a light nose with candy, medicinal notes and some rye notes. The palate comes on sweet with some medicinal/rye type notes and ends with a bitterness that carries into the finish. It's not good, but it's certainly not horrible.


Jim Beam Black Label, 8 years old, 43% abv ($20)

The nose on this has some of the same candy notes as the White Label but with a dose of oak that gives it a bit more complexity. The palate is quite acidic without much flavor, then some chocolate malt notes, and then the bitterness kicks in. I actually think I like the White Label better than this. The main flavors in this are acid and bitterness and they don't play well together.


Jim Beam Rye ("Yellow Label"), 40% abv ($20)

The nose has rye but more medicinal than spicy. The palate is sweet with canned fruit and just a touch of spice. The spice is a bit more evident in the finish, but not by much. Tasting blind, I doubt I would have ever guessed this was a rye given out light it is on rye spice. This has been my general experience with Beam ryes, so I did a head to head with some Old Overholt, another Beam rye. The Yellow Label actually has a bit more rye spice than the Overholt, while the Overholt seems to have a bit more oak on it and lacks some of the rough edges that the Yellow Label has.


So there it is, the standard Jim Beam line. If I had to choose between these three Beams, I would definitely choose the rye, which has a bit more character. Honestly, these were not as bad as I expected, though I'll still reserve my Beam consumption to the wedding bar.

Later this week, I descend even further into the bottom shelf!

Welcome to Diageo's Recent Eats

Dear Readers,

Over the past five years, Sku's Recent Eats has prided itself on its fierce independence. We have never held back on a whiskey we didn't like, and we have never tried to please the industry or its promoters. However, while we like independence, we like money more.

When Diageo made an initial offer to purchase this blog for $15, I told them that no amount of money was worth our independence. However, when Diageo raised their price to the low three figures, the most ever paid for a whiskey blog, I decided that some amounts of money were worth our independence.

I want to assure all of our readers, that regardless of the change in ownership, I am still at the helm here, and we will retain our fierce, independent spirit. After all, Diageo would not have made a substantial investment in this blog if they didn't admire our fierce, independent spirit.

Please join us next week for the following stories:

Monday: Is Bulleit the new Pappy Van Winkle?

Tuesday: Roseisle - Why it's the best thing that every happened to whiskey.

Wednesday: Which is the best distillery on Islay, Lagavulin or Caol Ila?

Thursday: Blind Tasting - Bailey's Caramel vs. Bailey's Mint

We welcome you to join us into this exciting era. Now if you'll excuse me, I have $150 I need to go spend.

Sincerely,

Sku

Hawaii Eats: Alan Wong

Alan Wong is the godfather of Hawaiian cuisine. Around twenty years ago, he and a handful of other chefs created a new haute cuisine, blending classical technique with the global intersection of foods and the fresh produce that can be found in the islands. It had been ten years since I visited his flagship restaurant located in a nondescript office building on King Street, and I wondered if it was still great or had faded. I needn't have worried.

Alan Wong offers an a la carte menu as well as two tasting menus: one made up of classic dishes from the restaurant and a pricier chef's tasting menu. Since I hadn't been in a decade or so, I chose the classics, and I was not disappointed.

I won't run through all of the dishes but there are a few that were really memorable. A "soup and sandwich" included a mini kalua pig and foie gras sandwich served with a tomato soup. I expected to love the sandwich, but while it was good, I really found myself loving the soup, which had two parts, a tangy red soup and a rich, cream colored soup, served in a yin yang design.

The seafood lasagna featured lobster and scallops in a cream sauce wrapped in a single lasagna noodle. It looked very rich but the distinct flavors of the perfectly cooked shellfish cut through the richness.

Lastly, the "mini coconut" dessert consisted of a haupia sorbet in a chocolate shell, cut to look like a coconut. It was both amusingly presented and delicious. Haupia is a traditional Hawaiian coconut gelatin-type dessert. I'm generally a big fan of coconut sorbet and this one was as smooth and rich with coconut flavor as I could have wanted and it was well complemented by the dark chocolate shell, like a sophisticated Mounds bar.

Alan Wong, he's still got it.

Alan Wong
1857 South King Street
Honolulu, HI 96826
(808) 949-2526

Hawaii: Shave Ice Update

I've been a big fan of Hawaiian shave ice since I was a kid and discovered the old Island Snow chain in Waikiki. Even though those were likely sub-par examples, it was a revelation. A snow cone that was actually soft like snow, not hard and icy, with tropical flavors and ice cream on the bottom (only later on the North Shore would I experience the beauty of sweet beans mixed into the ice cream). I would sometimes eat a couple per day. When I go to Hawaii for vacation, I still eat an embarrassing amount of shave ice. Here's a run down of a few old favorites and some new ones from this trip. In tasting note fashion, each Shave Ice will be rated on three categories as follows.

1. Ice. The ice should be soft and melt in your mouth. This isn't a snow cone. Points off for big ice crystals or hardness.

2. Flavors. How do the syrups taste. My favorite flavors are strawberry, strawberry and cream and lilikoi, but I reserve the right to try whatever I feel like.

3. Add-ons. I like ice cream and azuki beans (sweet black beans) on the bottom of my cone. The beans should be sweet and soft so that they form a beany, fruity milkshake at the bottom of the cone. This is really the best part of a shave ice.

So, here they are in the order I consumed them.

Waiola Shave Ice, Kaimuki, Honolulu (pictured above right): This is an old favorite but many say it's gone down hill since a change in location a few years ago (there is another branch in Moilili). That's certainly true of the service, which was pretty bad and disorganized, but the shave ice is still very good.
Ice: Near perfect. Soft all the way through.
Flavors: Fantastic. Strong flavors that last through the whole shave ice.
Add-ons: Meh. The beans are too hard and not sweet enough which means they don't blend well with the ice cream and deny you of that lovely beany milkshake. It's like having canned kidney beans at the bottom.


Keneke's, Waimanolo: This storefront plate lunch stand makes a solid shave ice.
Ice: Good, some hardness and an ice chip or two, but mostly soft.
Flavors: Good. Nothing homemade tasting but solid stuff.
Add-ons: Good. Beans are a mashed paste, ice cream is fine, nothing to complain about. And hey, where else are you gonna' get shave ice if you're out there anyway.


Shimazu Store, Kalihi, Honolulu: This is one of the most popular shave ice places on Oahu. It's only been around for a few years but it's definitely got foodie cred. The shave ices here are enormous, the flavor list extensive with lots of innovative flavors. It's also a fun place and the proprietor is very friendly.
Ice: Very good. The inside of the cone is as soft as can be, but the outside of the cone tends to harden, possibly due to the size of the thing. This encourages you to burrow into the middle which leaves you with an icy outside shell, which is not a great situation to be in.
Flavors: I was actually not very impressed with the flavors. The lilikoi had an artificial-candy taste instead of a natural lilikoi flavor. The strawberry and cream was fine but not as rich as the Waiola version.
Add-ons: Beans were good, ice cream seemed a bit too sweet.

Aoki's, Haleiwa: I've stopped hitting the more famous Matsumoto's on my trips to the North Shore because the lines are just too long so instead, I went to nearby Aoki's.
Ice: Okay. Not super soft.
Flavors: Not very good. Flavors were weak and indistinct. Everything just tasted like sugar and citric acid.
Add-ons: Very good. Beans were sweet and mixed in well. Proportions of beans and ice cream were perfect.

Bonus - Snow Factory, Moiliili (pictured above). Technically, this isn't shave ice, it's shave ice cream, but the format is similar. Instead of ice, they shave a giant block of ice cream and add syrups and other add on such as mochi, cookies, etc. The add ons here are more similar to a Korean bingsu then a traditional Hawaiian shave ice.
Ice/Snow: The shaving of the ice cream creates a great, melt in your mouth flavors.
Flavors: Fruit flavors tended to be better than more traditional ice cream flavors. Maybe it's just the psychology of eating this as a shave ice, but I thought the lilikoi worked better in the shaved format, then say peanut butter.
Add-ons: Most were pretty good. The mochi balls go well with the ice cream, but the best were passion fruit pops. Little gelatinous balls that explode with passion fruit when you bite them. These reminded me of the "cherries" they serve at Jose Andreas' Bazaar and other molecular gastronomy treats.


Summary: Overall, I would say Waiola still has the best flavors and ice. Keneke's may be my favorite for the add-ons. Even though Shimazu is a big hit with pretty much everyone these days, I didn't think it lived up to the hype.

Hawaii Fish Market Smackdown: Nico's vs. Uncle's

Out on Pier 38, just off the Nimitz Highway, are two well loved fish restaurants: Nico's and Uncle's. Literally across the paring lot from each other, hese places are very similar, offering a range of poke, fish & chips and fresh seafood dishes. Nico's seems to get more tourist love while Uncle's seems to be more favored by locals. I'd never tried either of these spots on previous visits, so I figured I would give both a try.

Nico's has a sort of sports bar vibe and a more limited menu. I had a special of furikake seared ahi which was very good, but the other dishes were mostly just okay. A fish chowder was fairly bland.

Uncle's fish dishes reminded me a lot of the old Sam Choy's on Kapahulu. I really enjoyed a dish of opakapaka in garlic cream sauce with crab meat. The fish was well cooked and the sauce was rich and full of garlic. We also tried the butterfish with miso dressing. The butterfish was cooked well but the miso dressing was overly sweet. We also enjoyed a poke trio, including a spicy poke and a kukui nut poke. And Uncle's does a great li hing mui maragarita - just the right amount sour and salty and not too sweet.

Overall, I liked Uncle's better than Nico's, but I didn't go nuts over either place as some people seem to, and both are fairly expensive, though fresh fish does tend to be pricy.

Nico's Pier 38
1133 North Nimitz Highway
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 540-1377

Uncle's Fish Market
1135 North Nimitz Highway
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 275-0063

Hawaii Eats: The Whole Ox

The Whole Ox is a gourmet butcher shop that serves breakfast and lunch on wooden picnic tables out of a store front on Keawe Street just off of Ala Moana Boulevard.

The food is similar to what Angelenos would be familiar with from places like Animal with a casual vibe. In fact, this place would fit in well in LA with its emphasis on local produce and organic meats.

We stopped in for breakfast and tried a sampling. The menu is limited, but all of the dishes looked good. Less than a month after the California foie gras ban went into effect I was excited to get my foie fix with the eggs benedict foie gras (pictured below), which was an eggs benedict on a homemade biscuit with foie in place of the Canadian Bacon (they offer the Canadian Bacon version as well) and some stewed dried apricots, all covered in a light hollandaise. The foie was just slightly overcooked but the poached eggs were perfect, and the whole dish worked well.

Sausages with biscuits and gravy was not quite as strong a dish. The gravy lacked flavor. The sausages were a very dense, merguez type sausage which I liked a lot. The biscuits, the same ones used on the benedict, were a bit dense as well, lacking the fluffiness I tend to like in biscuits, which made the whole dish a bit heavy.

Smoky pork hash (pictured, top) was fantastic. Hash dishes are very popular on the islands and this pork hash had chunks of shredded, smoky pork, reminiscent of kalua pig, with nicely cubed potatoes. Corn beef hash was good but not as good as the smoky pork hash.

A special of "piggy grill cakes" (or something like that) was a rectangular pattie made from pork and steel cut oats. It was fried crisp and had a nice porky flavor. The oats provided texture more than anything else.

Most breakfast dishes were in the $10 range (the foie gras benedict was $19).

Overall, this was a fun place and one I'd definitely return to. I appreciated both the creativity of the dishes and the emphasis on local and organic ingredients.

The Whole Ox
327 Keawe St
Honolulu, HI 96813
(808) 699-6328

Hawaii Food Week

I just got back from a wonderful vacation in Oahu, Hawaii and will spend the week writing up some of the great food I had (not including the above). Stay tuned.

Check out all my previous Hawaii coverage here.