This February 1941 menu (click to embiggen) for the Warner Bros. Studio Cafe made the social media rounds recently. I thought it would be fun to see what everyone would order if deposited back on the Warner’s lot. To keep it fun, let’s limit ourselves to a $1.05 tab (equivalent to $22.00 in December 2022). Gratuity will be covered by the advanced being that sends us back in time. If folks enjoy this, maybe it’s an occasional feature.
What’ll ya have, Mac?
I don’t speak Spanish. I listened to more music sung in Spanish this year than in English. (A heavy percentage of the music I listen to is instrumental, but still.) Estrada released her debut solo album and a follow-up EP in 2022, and since many of the other artists I enjoy must have record contacts that prohibit embedded video from their personal accounts, she gets the nod.
(2 votes, average: 8.50 out of 10)
Loading... This selection was inspired by recent talk among the Citizenry about adding maple syrup to coffee. I’d consider this a three-season cocktail, rather than something exclusively autumnal.
Flips are a class of cocktail dating back to the 1600s, though modern versions more closely resemble those of the late 1800s. A cocktail is considered a flip if it involves mixing spirits or fortified wine with a whole egg and a sweetener. Credit for this drink goes to Jeremy Allen, who devised it at Minibar in Los Angeles; I learned of it via Imbibe. My version omits the port, because most folks likely don’t have a bottle in their home bar.
Ingredients
Method
Combine the rye whiskey, lemon juice, maple syrup & egg in a shaker. Dry shake to aerate. Add ice, shake thoroughly to chill. Strain into a coupe. Top with the bitters.
Notes
Make sure you have a good seal on the shaker when mixing eggs. They can get rather frothy, and things could get messy. I did my dry shaking for 10-15 seconds; you can feel the mixture emulsify, which is your cue to move on to the ice. Use a few ice cubes rather than crushed ice to shake this drink. (I haven’t tried mixing this by omitting the dry shake in favor of the whip shake, but it seems like a good candidate.)
While I only had a couple sips last night, I found it to be a little dry and lacking just a bit of depth, perhaps in part because I only had Grade A maple syrup on hand. Still, I’d suggest sticking to the base recipe your first time unless you know you like your cocktails on the sweeter end, in which case, pour your maple syrup with a slightly heavier hand. (My palate may have been a bit off, as I’d just finished a 5k rowing session.)
I didn’t have any rye on hand, so I used bourbon. My disclaimer here is that whiskey and I agreed to see other people twenty years ago. There are a small number of whiskey cocktails I’m willing to drink on rare occasions.
You don’t have to garnish with ground cinnamon or nutmeg — the Angostura bitters should get you those notes — but you could if you’re partial to a little extra.
As for the egg, food retailers have been making significant inroads in poultry vaccination for salmonella thanks to requirements they place on their suppliers. If you are concerned, the FDA recommends eggs with in-shell pasteurization for preparations like Caesar salad dressing that call for raw eggs.
There are Twins relievers whose names still provoke cringes & winces years after they departed the roster. Let us name them and see if that can inure us to the dreadful performance of Pagán & Duffey.
I really can’t get enough cumbia this summer. Bringing things full circle, several or all of the members of Twin Tones are in Sonido Gallo Negro. I wish there was a better version of a live performance where they are wearing their masks and have the live graphics projected by the theremin player (theraminist?).
Speaking of videos I wish I could feature, both Natalia Lafourcade & San Pascualito Rey seem to be stifled by rights contracts that forbid embedding of live performances at radio stations like KEXP. That was disappointing; tunes by those two were sonic pillars of my trip hoped to feature.
Thanks for hanging out with me this week.
(2 votes, average: 8.50 out of 10)Loading... La Marisoul is the front lady of Los Angeles’ La Santa Cecilia. Los Cenzontles are doing the important work of preserving and promoting Mexican roots music from their base, which includes an academy, in San Pablo, CA. Los Lobos need no introduction, of course.
(2 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)Loading... No, I didn’t go down to Illinois to make this post. Why do you ask?
We have a well-traveled group hereabouts. How do you folks prepare a sonic journey for yourselves to accompany your travels outside your home range? (Context for travel matters and varies considerably, of course.)
Are bespoke playlists tailored to a purpose for your trip or the destination part of getting yourself excited & ready to travel? Or if you’re returning to a place you’ve visited before and that’s gotten under your skin, do you find your ear tuning itself to music you associate with that place ahead of your trip?
What do you bring with you to ensure you can enjoy your music while on the go?
We’re headed out to the Sonoran desert now, via Route 111, Route 86, and the curiously-named census designated place called Mecca. A shambling, trippy, psych & surf tune about a popsicle vendor seems appropriate for the heat coming our way down at the Salton Sea.
When I was at the Ski-Inn* late one night, sucking down pints of Mango Cart to replace the water my body has lost in its effort to keep my insides from cooking during the day, I got to chat with a few local folks. One fella told of a recent summer night in which he went to bed in 115° F heat at midnight, and got up for work before sunrise to find it had cooled off to 110°.
Yes, that makes two cumbia tunes in one week. If we’re playing Bacon rules, three bands I’ve played this week share a common connection to a fourth. Sergio Mendoza leads Orkesta Mendoza & plays keyboards in Calexico; Joey Burns & John Convertino co-founded Calexico; Xixa is fronted by Brian Lopez, a guitarist in Calexico, and Gabriel Sullivan. Lopez & Sullivan also play in Giant Sand, while Burns & Convertino are former members of that band.
* Don’t miss the patty melt, which is made with wonderfully sweet locally-grown onions. If it was good enough for Tony Bourdain, it is good enough for me
(2 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)Loading... Time to get back on our way. Back on Route 62, we’ll pass the site of my first rodeo in Yucca Valley, then shed about 2000 feet of elevation on our way back through the fields of wind turbines in the lower desert and then on out to Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Indio, and Thermal, where we’ll drop to 138 feet below sea level. A road groove is what we need. Where we are headed is a constellation of no-places with names trading on dreams never realized.
(1 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)Loading... 
