off the (meat)hook » cocktail

{cocktail} The Kalimotxo

Karen — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:06:23 +0000

I was cooking with red wine just now, and had about half an open bottle, so I thought, heck, it’s Friday afternoon, I’m going to make myself a kalimotxo!

Kalimotxo (pronounced kah-lee-MOO-choe) is a fancy Basque word meaning “1/2 red wine and 1/2 cola”. About 20 years ago we had a Basque exchange student and my family has been drinking them ever since.

A more recent trip to Bilbao and San Sebastian confirmed that this is actually a really popular drink at bars and such, not just some Fernando-specific anomaly as I had previously suspected. In Spain they usually use Rioja, presumably because that’s what they’ve got lying around, but pretty much any hearty red wine will do. Before you start thinking “what the f*** kinda trashy broad mixes coke and wine together?” let me assure you that this is a more tasty and refreshing drink than you might imagine. Some people use ice and some people just use a really cold coke and a room temperature wine. It’s always served in a stemless glass, like a water glass or a highball glass, never ever filled all the way to the top. I don’t know why that is. It just is.

Sure, you can drink these at home, but a kalimotxo is also a great thing to get if you’re at, say, a party where they’re serving only crappy wine and soft drinks, or on a night when maybe you want to take it easy and/or mix uppers and downers without resorting to red bull (iwww). So if you’re in a poor wine situation but really want to get your drink on, you can order a glass of red wine, a coke, and an extra glass, do a little mixy mixy and BOOM you’ve got 2 good drinks! Or, like, if you’re in the Basque country. According to Wikipedia they drink this in other countries too, but of all the places they list the only place I have ever really seen large numbers of people ordering this at a bar is in Spain.

A note about the name: Basque is a crazy-a$$ language with tons of k’s and x’s and z’s. In the rest of Spain you’ll probably see it spelled “calimocho” or “calimucho” or “kalimucho” but it’s all the same thing. And lest you’re not a fan of coke, have no fear: just ask for a tinto de verano and you’ll get red wine and sprite! As the Basque say: ¡Eskerriska!

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{ingenious} Cocktail Umbrella Lights

Karen — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:22:38 +0000

The Lush Collection from Bright Lights, Little City, is all about making light fixtures out of cocktail umbrellas dipped in phosphorescent paint. The shocking thing is that they actually look pretty cool. Because what I just described sounds like what your 2nd grader made in art class.

They look even better turned on, as in the picture on the right. The big ones (shown) are $85 and the prices go down from there for other styles. I was thinking about just stealing the idea and making them myself but at that price why bother?

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{gadget} Gin and Titonic

Karen — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:33:52 +0000

Gin and tonic? That’s like sooooo 5 minutes ago. OK so it’s actually like sooooo British-colonial-India-before-partition ago but I was talking about it as a retro trend. Anyhow, I realize that I’ve only just started writing this and I’m already grossly off-topic so let me get to the point. Here it is: the Gin and Titonic is an ice mold that makes Titanic-shaped and iceberg-shaped cubes to collide and capsize in your cocktail. Death! Destruction! Hazy remembrances of a shirtless Leo DiCaprio… All captured in one magical moment!

It’s not actually that funny to make jokes about hundreds of people who drowned a long time ago, but then again, clinky icy icebergs and ships! In your glass! So much better than a stupid, lame CUBE. Or that crappy crushed ice that melts in 2 seconds. If I WANTED a gin and tonic SLUSHY I woulda gone to 7-11, shoot. I’m talking to you, crushed ice abusers. You know who you are.

Oh, right, back to useful details. You can’t buy it at these places, designed by Fred & Friends, yada yada yada.

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