Comments on: In praise of globalisation…

By: Perry de Havilland (London)

Perry de Havilland (London) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:27:31 +0000

Well I am also partial to good scotch

By: Alisa

Alisa — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:59:45 +0000

I’m sure you can distract him with chicken salad, Laird:-)

By: Laird

Laird — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:34:20 +0000

Perry, any time you’re over this way I’d gladly stand you to some good scotch, but I don’t have the fixin’s for a martini (and don’t even know how to make one!).

By: RAB

RAB — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:03:52 +0000

You’ll be more than welcome anytime Perry.

By: Perry de Havilland (London)

Perry de Havilland (London) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:54:30 +0000

It’s always martinis time round our Gaff… feel free to drop in with a bottle of something subtle.

Love to!

Though “Birch” sounds a bit stringent to me.

You would not want it in a martini, that is for sure

By: Alisa

Alisa — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 09:51:00 +0000

That is a bit like saying about food “Sauces? Spices? What’s the point?” What is the gastronomic version of a luddite?

Perry has a point there. I now realize that my problem is not with flavoring per se, but with the fact that it is pre-flavored and bottled. In the same way that I like to add the sauce to my pasta myself, or at least to be convinced by the look of it that it was added just a few minutes ago – rather than having been sat in it for a week and then shoved in the microwave.

By: RAB

RAB — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 01:26:14 +0000

Shaken or stirred? It’s always martinis time round our Gaff… feel free to drop in with a bottle of something subtle. Though “Birch” sounds a bit stringent to me.

By: Perry de Havilland (London)

Perry de Havilland (London) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 01:12:01 +0000

But a lot of modern vodka’s do have a subtle flavour… which is why some are better for martinis than others, for example.

By: RAB

RAB — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 01:10:14 +0000

Alcopops dear sir. Fruit juice that gets you pissed without you noticing any trace of alcohol at all; not a grown up’s drink, I think you will agree.

As to sauces and spices, well I heard they were originally invented by the French to disguise the fact that the meat they were serving was rotten.

By: Laird

Laird — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 01:01:16 +0000

Not a fair analogy, Perry. Food has flavor; spices and sauces add to or alter it. But your point was that vodka, by itself, has none. So if it has none but you want the buzz just buy grain alcohol.

By: Perry de Havilland (London)

Perry de Havilland (London) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 23:56:56 +0000

If you have to mix your alcohol with something else what you mostly taste is the something else. So what’s the point?

That is a bit like saying about food “Sauces? Spices? What’s the point?” What is the gastronomic version of a luddite?

By: Brian Micklethwait (London)

Brian Micklethwait (London) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:35:24 +0000

Potato crisps have also got a lot more interesting in recent years. I can remember when there were only about three flavours, and before those, only the one. But those Smith’s Potato flavoured potato crisps, with salt added in a little blue rectangle, twisted into a small bag, were very good.