Left Coast Libations is a seriously f’n beautiful read. This year it’s been nominated for best cocktail book by Tales of the Cocktail. Someday I’ll go to that conference. New Orleans. Heaven. I think I’ll line up a liver donor first.
Anyway, if you’re up for some adventure, there are quite a few recipes in there worth the considerable effort (and expense) they’ll generate. My current crush: Chris Ojeda’s Fragola e Aceto. According to the book, Chris is at Varnish in LA, which has a great reputation. Perhaps I’ll go if there’s not the typical LA ‘are you beautiful or famous enough to be here’ check at the door. Name-dropping, vodka-chugging, $2,000 dress-wearin’, read-my-screenplay sayin’, headshot-shovin’ industry wannabes remind me of why I left town.
The Fragola e Aceto is not my recipe, so I won’t be reprinting it here. (Buy the book. It’s cheap.) I will say that it involves a muddled strawberry, gin, simple syrup, lime, black pepper, balsamic vinegar, and basil foam. Yup. Basil foam. I wanted this drink bad enough to make that shit. It’s delicious. It damned well better be, for the effort it takes. Here’s what it looks like, if it’s made by someone who doesn’t know exactly what they’re doing.
Fragola e Aceto
I have two drinks on the books now that call for foam: this one, and Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s margarita with Cadillac foam and sea salt. I’ll be experimenting more. Foams seem to add a nice counterpoint to whatever’s in the drink, and a wonderful texture. You’ll need a whipped cream cannister to make them and a healthy disregard for the potential risks of consuming raw egg whites. I will be buying some cream of tartar to add to the foam mixes in the future; the meringue-like mixtures break down pretty quickly after dispensing and look… icky.
Excuse me now, while I go find someone to chase off my lawn.