Cocktail Culture

source: www.projo.com

 Cocktails have been on my mind.

As a cheesemonger, I know that I am expected to have just images of fromage dancing through my head and that the only tipple I should contemplate is wine, since it’s considered (but not entirely accurately) the quintessential accompanying drink, but cocktails seep into my imagination as well.

source: www.annadepasquale.com

This was especially so a few weeks back when I made a day trip up to Providence to catch up with a friend visiting from Singapore and to do some research for an article I am writing for the magazine culture, “the word on cheese.” Also luring me to the city was a special exhibit, “Cocktail Culture: Ritual and Invention in American Fashion, 1920–1980,” at the Rhode Island School of Design’s museum.

It was an intoxicating show, so to speak, with over 200 objects, chronicling changing American mores, as manifested in the most American of social rituals, the cocktail party. Undoubtedly the highlight was the sixty haute-couture dresses, spanning sixty years of changing fashion, from flirtatious and liberated flapper dresses to the quintessential black cocktail dress, a term coined by Christian Dior in the 1950s, to the stylized, flowing “ethnic” wear of the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

View of "Cocktail Culture":
source: www.fastcodesign.com

What I took away from the exhibit, in addition to a thirst for a properly made cocktail, was an awareness of how Prohibition forever changed social interaction between the sexes. Before this embarrassing experiment in American history, men drank in their dark clubs while women sipped tea in stuffy parlors. When alcohol was banished to clandestine gatherings in speakeasies and elegant private homes, women and men mixed, like a well-balanced cocktail. With the repeal of Prohibition, alcohol returned, but the segregation of the sexes did not. The giddy delights of the cocktail party had been established and woven into the fabric of American society. Added to this social institution was a heavy dash of glamor, which the current resurgent interest in cocktail culture tries to recapture. We want to bring back drinks and style.

Unfortunately, it’s too late to see the exhibit. It closes on Sunday, July 31. You can, however, view some images from it and hear a radio piece on NPR’s Web site.

Norman Bel Geddes’
1934 “Manhattan Cocktail Service”:
source: www.dinchin.com

But it’s never too late to have a dose of cocktail culture. Gather  friends, dress up fashionably, and make seasonal drinks. Fruit is a great way to go. Dice up watermelon for margaritas and peaches for Bellinis.  For something novel and intriguing, try fresh herbs, like basil for a take on the classic gimlet. You already know that I am keen about making lavender simple syrup for summer concoctions, such as the Bee’s Nose . I’ve also given thyme a whirl, adding grilled sprigs or infusing simple syrup for yet another version of a gimlet.

The real way to get into cocktail culture, besides putting on a stunning black cocktail dress or a tuxedo and lounging by a piano, is using measured dashes of bitters in your cocktails. Bitters, which originated as healing tonics, is alcohol infused with herbs, spices, and other botanicals. Believe it or not, cocktails aren't technically cocktails without bitters. The most well known brand is Angostura, which you can find in most supermarkets, but with the renaissance of the cocktail have come a wide range of bitters: orange (the classic for a martini), Peychaud's (the sine qua non for a Sazerac), and unusual ones like celery, Aztec chocolate, grapefruit, and rhubarb. Sickles now has a wide range of bitters from Fee Brothers. On sale right now, 3 for $21, these bitters can help you get into the spirit, so to speak!

Cheers!

Diana Pittet the cocktail-shaking cheesemonger

Tunisia: The Taste & History of the Southern Mediterranean

Tunisia had long been high on my list of countries to visit.

Sbeitla, Tunisia
Source: Photographymatch.com

Africa’s northernmost country may also be one of its smallest (approximately the size of Wisconsin), but it is impressively big on history. It was the site of mighty Carthage, Republican Rome’s enemy for three fierce wars--the Punic Wars--that ultimately established Rome’s dominance in the Mediterranean. As a trained classicist, I wanted to tour Carthage’s rocky remains, as well as the nearly intact Roman cities of Dougga, Bulla Regia, and Sbeitla, that surpass Pompeii and Ostia in their grandeur. And there’s the amphitheater of El Djem that is more awesome than the Colosseum.


Grand Mosque in Sousse
Source: girlsoloinarabia.typepad.com

 It’s not just the Greco-Roman world that is woven into the rich texture of Tunisia’s past. It was from Sousse that the Aghlabids, a dynasty of Arab emirs, launched their attack against Sicily in 827 A.D. Sousse, A UNESCO World Heritage City renown for its beaches, exquisite Roman mosaics, and 9th-century mosque, served as the port of Kairouan, the fourth most holy city for Muslims, after Jerusalem, Mecca, and Medina. On the enchanting island of Djerba is the ancient El Ghriba Synagogue, a pilgrim destination after Passover. If you follow the Force more than one of these major monotheistic religions, Tunisia is a must-see destination since several key scenes from Star Wars were filmed in its romantic desserts and troglodyte dwellings.
History and culture were what brought me to Tunisia, on an independent three-week trip in the summer 2003, but it was its food that surprisingly delighted me. It was familiarly Mediterranean, but with beguiling, sun-kissed twists. There was exceptional olive oil (Tunisia is one of the world’s largest producers), capers, olives, tomatoes, fish, peppers, and chickpeas, and pasta, but all prepared in novel ways. One example is leblebi, a hearty breakfast soup made with a chickpea broth, flavored with capers and cumin, thickened with stale bread, and laden with whole chickpeas. It is also rich with olive oil and a freshly broken egg and spicy from the addition of harissa, a fiery paste that is almost as ubiquitous as ketchup.


Ojja - A traditional Tunisian dish with scrambled eggs & harissa

 What truly distinguishes Tunisian cuisine from those of its North African neighbors and the European countries to the north is its heat. The chief source of the spiciness comes from harissa, which can be mixed into dishes, such as a bowl of pasta with a tomato sauce and chunks of potatoes, or put on a plate and drizzled with olive oil, to be daringly scooped up with slices of baguette before the main meal. Even dishes made with couscous, a pasta shape so small and knobby that it resembles a grain, can be on the spicy side; you won’t find this in Morocco.
There are also certain dishes and flavorings that you can’t find anywhere else. The classic is briq, a crispy triangle of paper-thin dough, stuffed with a runny egg and some tuna and capers or with potatoes, and deep fried. This became one of my favorite things to eat in Tunisia and it’s a dish that makes Tunisians abroad yearn for home. A spice blend unique to Tunisia is tabil, the specific spices of which change depending on who is making it. In a recipe to make tabil at home, the cookbook author Paula Wolfert provides a list of the following ingredients: coriander seeds, caraway seeds, garlic powder, ground red pepper, fennel seeds, anise seeds, cumin, turmeric, and black pepper.

If Tunisia is not in your travel plans, you can get a taste of sunny Tunisia at Sickles. Les Moulins Mahjoub offers an exquisite, “haute couture” line of products, which are the result of organic farming and traditional production methods. Favorites for us in the cheese department include the textured couscous, extra virgin olive oil to drizzle on burrata, mountain capers, bitter orange marmalade to pair with goat cheeses, delicate artichoke petals, and, of course, harissa, either sweet or spicy, that you can use for about anything.
And if you need an additional reason to make the trip to North Africa, here’s one from the owner of Les Moulins Mahjoub, whom I recently saw when he paid a trip to Sickles last Wednesday. When I asked him why Americans should travel to Tunisia, he replied that Americas know well the northern side of the Mediterranean and that it’s now time to explore the southern Mediterranean.
I couldn’t agree with him more.

bil-hanā' wa ash-shifā' (Bon Appetit!)
Diana Pittet, the traveling cheesemonger