DIY: Drinking Chocolate

One of the most annoying food terms that has cropped up in the past few years is drinking chocolate. We used to have a perfectly good word for this...hot chocolate, but apparently, coffee chain marketers thought people wouldn't pay $4-$8 dollars a shot for something they mostly associated with a bag of Carnation or Swiss Miss, so they came up with a new item: drinking chocolate.

I fear that this conjugation will inevitably be expanded. Will fresh-squeezed juice become drinking fruit? Will fine Scotch be dubbed drinking barley? At the cheese counter will I be forced to order some eating milk?

The saddest thing about people buying little cups of drinking chocolate, especially the overly sweet goop at Starbucks (if they even still sell that stuff; I'm not a regular), is that if you happen to own that specialty cooking tool known as a stove, you can make hot chocolate that's better than pretty much anything you pay $8 for at a cafe in Brentwood.


DIY: Hot (Drinking) Chocolate

For about 6 servings, I use 6-9 ounces of good dark chocolate.
Scharffen-Berger is my cooking chocolate of choice, and I usually use equal parts semisweet (62%) and bittersweet (70%), but use the combination and type of chocolate that suits you.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over medium heat. When it is fully melted and smooth, begin adding milk very slowly while stirring. I usually add it about a quarter-cup at a time and then mix until fully integrated (creating a shiny ganache) before adding more.

Add milk to taste. I like a super-rich drink, so I usually go about two cups of milk, but most people prefer more. Then heat until warm.

Once it's ready, take it off the heat to prevent the chocolate from seizing (separating and becoming an ugly mess).

Serve and enjoy.

Special tip: hot chocolate of this sort is really enhanced by a night in the fridge, which allows the flavors to meld. What you end up with the next morning may seem very thick, but just microwave it or reheat on the burner. In theory, making it a day ahead of time would be a good rule, but in practice, liquid chocolate is hard not to consume immediately.

I've done a lot of hot chocolate experiments, using cream, half & half, and other additives in different proportions, and I've come to believe that just milk and good chocolate makes the ideal cup.

Oh, and remember, this stuff is caffeinated!

Whiskey Wednesday: Tennessee Smackdown

Grab your coonskin cap, put some BB King on the juke box and break open your copy of Inherit the Wind, it's time for a Tennessee Whiskey Smackdown!

Ahh,Tennessee Whiskey, that nearly-Bourbon whiskey, filtered through sugar maple charcoal and made by only two distilleries: Jack Daniel's and George Dickel.

Scots and Kentuckians alike shiver when they are reminded that a Tennessee Whiskey, not a Scotch or a Bourbon, is the world's biggest selling whiskey. That's right, not Johnnie Walker, not Jim Beam...Jack Daniel's is the world's best selling whiskey.

I've tasted my share of Bourbons, ryes and even American single malts, but like many American whiskey drinkers, I've largely ignored the land south of Kentucky. I made up for it by sitting down with three different Tennessee whiskies to see how they compared, both to Bourbon and to each other.

One thing is certain: the price is right. All of the bottles tasted are in the $20 range for a standard 750 ml bottle.


Jack Daniel's Old Number 7, 40% alcohol

Jack truly needs no introduction. As noted above, it is the best selling whiskey in the world. Its label graces thousands of t-shirts, leather jackets, aprons and jars of barbecue sauce. It is as ubiquitous as whiskey gets.

Well, Jack is popular for a reason. It's an easy-drinker. It has a nice, sweet taste and a light mouth feel. It's a light, perfectly decent whiskey and, though it lacks much in the way of complexity, it is smoother than some similarly situated Bourbons. It's amusing that, for all its rebel image of bikers taking swigs on their hogs, Jack is mostly smooth and sweet. As for me, it's not my favorite; it lacks the boldness that I seek in whiskey.


Gentleman Jack, Rare Tennessee Whiskey, 40% alcohol

Gentleman Jack markets itself as a more refined, slightly more upscale Jack. It has a sweet honey aroma, which is followed up on the palate by fruit and candy flavors. It's much sweeter than Old No. 7 and tastes a lot less like Bourbon than its black labeled counterpart. Frankly, I found it too sweet and lacking in complexity. If I want liquid candy, I'll drink a liqueur.


George Dickel, Superior No. 12, (what is it with Tennessee whiskey and the numbers?) 45% alcohol

George Dickel is forever the other Tennessee whiskey. He is Ashlee Simpson to Jack's Jessica (Shaun Cassidy to Jack's David for us older folks), always in the shadow of his more successful sibling.

But what George lacks in stature, he makes up for in flavor. George is a solid, oaky whiskey with some real complexity. The sweetness of Jack is replaced by some of the flavors you get in a good Bourbon: polished wood, tobacco, leather. Having met George, I don't think I'll be hanging with Jack much anymore. This is a sophisticated whiskey and one that clearly deserves more attention than it's getting.

On second thought, I think the better sibling analogy would be George as adventurous Branford to Jack's smoother, people-pleasing Wynton Marsalis.


And the winner of the Great Tennessee Smackdown is...

George Dickel, hands down, a great whiskey that could stand up to good Bourbon. Jack comes in second with its perfectly drinkable, if not particularly exciting old No. 7 and Gentleman Jack, which I found too sweet, picks up the rear.


Next Wednesday: A Whiskey Bar in LA?
In Two Weeks: You've met Jack and George, now meet Johnnie

Hidden Gem: TiGeorge's Chicken

If you've ever been to the great Haitian restaurants of Miami, you know that Haitian cuisine is a scrumptous, earthy, powerful thing. It's like an even bolder version of Cuban.

We don't have a lot of Haitian options on this coast, but we do have a shining light at TiGeorge's Chicken on the southern most strip of Glendale Boulevard in an area sort of between Echo Park and Downtown.

The thing about TiGeorge's Chicken is, I don't like their chicken. It's floppy and rubbery, lacking any crispness; it has the fatty taste and texture of underdone duck. I don't get it.

What I absolutely love is their veggie plate, which includes crisp plantain fritters, black beans and rice, a small salad, and my favorite, deep fried acra...delicious fried nuggets of ground herring and taro root (apparently, in Haiti, herring is considered a vegetable). All of this is served with their superb, garlic-packed Ti Malis sauce that goes well on everything. For me, the sauce joins Zankou and Mario's Peruvian in the pantheon of great garlic sauces. Wash it down with TiGeorge's fresh lemonade and it's a near perfect meal.

They also have an enticing sounding pate de poulet (chicken pastries), though they are never ready when I'm there. And they roast their own coffee beans for coffee served black or au lait.

TiGeorges' Chicken
309 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
(213) 353-9994

Spirit News

Absinthe

St. George Spirits reports that the second batch of their excellent Absinthe will be released on February 3. The first batch sold out quickly. See my review here. Southern California locations that will carry it include Hi-Time Wine and K&L. The last batch sold out quickly, so be on the lookout for green fairy sightings come Ground Hog Day.


Whisk(e)y

The Whisky/whiskey debate, which I covered here and here is still raging on the Scotchblog. Check the comments section if you are interested in spirit-ual grammar.

The Chocolate Grail: Amedei

Among serious chocolate fans there is no word more magical than Amedei, the Tuscan chocolate company that is prized by connusieurs. Chocolate guru David Lebovitz names Amedei as one of the five things to eat before you die.

I picked up a couple of bars from the Chocosphere.com website, a must peruse site for the chocolate lover.


Amedei Chuao, 70% cacao, $11.95 for a 1.75 oz bar.

Chuao, not to be confused with the California company of the same name, is a coastal region of Venezuela where some of the world's most prized cacao beans are grown.

The Amedei Chuao has a smooth, chocolatey taste, followed by a distinct fruitiness, which tastes of cherry. It avoids the bitterness that can plague high cacao chocolate but also the acidity that mars some single origin bars. A wonderful specimen.


Amedei Porcelana, 70% cacao, $12.95 for a 1.75 oz bar.

Porcelana is a distinct variety of Venezuelan cacao which is very delicate and hard to transport.

This bar is a whole different ballgame. Where the Chuao is a lovely specimen of dark chocolate, the Porcelana is much more complex, full of bold, dark chocolate flavors, nuttiness and a deep creamy flavor. Though it has the same cacao content as the Chuao, you would swear it is darker.

Five stars for this beautiful specimen.

Next week I will dip into the single origin bars from French purveyor Michel Cluizel.

Whiskey Wednesday: Young and Smoky Part 3 -- Ardbeg Almost There

The final leg of our tour of young, assertive Islays is a whiskey that is regrettably not available in the US. One of the difficult things about being a Scotch fan in America is that lots of the good stuff just doesn't make it to us. There are many complex reasons for this, and John Hansell recently addressed them on his blog at Malt Advocate Magazine. But whatever the cause, the result is that many smaller distilleries or specialty bottlings pass over the US market, and we consequently lose out on a lot of good Scotch.

One of the things we Americans have been missing out on is an innovative series from Ardbeg, known as the "Peat Path to Maturity." The concept is simple, starting with its first distillation after reopening (Ardbeg was briefly closed in the 1990s), Ardbeg began releasing samples of young Ardbeg over several years to demonstrate how it matures on its way to the standard 10year old bottling.

The whiskey for the series was distilled in 1998. In 2004, Ardbeg bottled its first in the series, Ardbeg Very Young; in 2006, the distillery introduced Still Young and in 2007, it came out with Almost There. These bottlings are cask strength (or close to it) and are not chill filtered.

Now, while this is a fascinating experiment, it doesn't exactly show you how Ardbeg evolves into the ten year old bottling. The Ardbeg ten year old, while wildly popular and critically acclaimed, is not, as the series seems to suggest, merely a bottle of ten year old whiskey. Rather, as with most distillery bottlings, it is a blend of whiskies of different ages, the youngest of which is ten years old (or older). Now, perhaps this will change when the '98 distillate turns ten and we will see a cask strength all-ten year old ten year old, but that would be different than the standard ten which is blended with other, older barrels to create the Ardbeg ten that people know and love.

That being said, it is still a great concept and a chance to try much younger Ardbegs than were previously on the market. As an Ardbeg fan, I had wanted to try this series since its inception, and when a willing relative traveled to England, I got my chance.

Tasting

Ardbeg Almost There, Distilled 1998, Bottled 2007, 54.1% alcohol, Non Chill-Filtered.

Wow! There is nothing almost about this whiskey. Ardbeg can twist more flavor out of smoke than any other distillery, and this bottle is no exception. It has a perfect balance of smoky and sweet, with a salty, oceanside taste as well; and with all that going on, the maltiness is not lost. There is great balance here and if a nine year old is this good, I know there are more impressive things to come from our friends at Ardbeg.

A very impressive Scotch and my favorite of our young and smoky series...too bad we can't get it here...maybe someday.

UPDATE

John Hansell reports on his Malt Advocate blog that Ardbeg will indeed release a special ten year old cask strength as the final leg of the Maturity series. Known as Renaissance, the new bottling will be out soon, but, unfortunately, as with this entire series, it will not be available in the US. Woe is us.

Next Wednesday: Tennessee Smackdown - Jack vs. George

The Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog: An LA Institution

How do you make something better? Add bacon!

To hungry downtowners, the push-cart bacon wrapped hot dog is as much a symbol of the city as the Hollywood sign. It's usually a plain, unsnappy, supermarket hot dog wrapped in bacon and charred on a portable makeshift grill, topped with ketchup, mayo, mustard, grilled onions, peppers and jalapeños. The whole is definitely more than the sum of its parts in this great snack.

There are many purveyors and I can't say that I've tried enough to do a round-up, though that's a fun idea, but my go-to stand is on Lafayette, south of Wilshire, just outside the Parking Violations Bureau Office...it almost makes me look forward to paying parking tickets.

Do you have a favorite bacon wrapped hot dog stand? Let me know so I can compare and contrast.