All hallow’s eve is just around the corner and yes, it’s a wonderful time of the year.
I don’t know about you, but I have always been a huge fan of Halloween. It is the only communal holiday that has survived, the ritual calendar used to be peppered with them, and even if it has been commercialized (what hasn’t?), it still retains a strong whiff of otherness from mundane time. As it should be. Exactly as it should be.
Please note that the butt hole burning properties of hot sauce are, in my experience at least, a complete myth, but it makes for a catchy title. The same, however, cannot be said about stomachs, more than once, including with this batch, I’ve had the unpleasant burning coals in my belly sensation. That being said I keep on going back for more. Not the sharpest tool in the shed, eh?
That bottle of rum in your hands at the liquor store, the one you are considering paying almost 80$ for, is not what you think. You might assume you are holding alcohol distilled from a sugar cane by-product with nothing added, except maybe some time in a cask, but you would be wrong. In perhaps 90% of the cases you would be wrong.
It was not our typical island trip. I hesitated to bring diving gear and at the end of the day decided against it. Mostly out of temperature and currents concerns, that was probably wise.
L’Isle Verte is a small island situated across the Saguenay Fjord close to the St-Lawrence river’s south bank. It’s the kind of place where if you don’t like the weather you just have to wait fifteen minutes and it is only accessible by a tide timed ferry. Big ferry if there’s a car to shift, small boat if it’s only people. The ride can be smooth as glass or really really bumpy. As in, please go inside the cabin sir, it’s about to shake a little. Sailors have cool euphemism.
The gimlet… what a drink. It has many things I enjoy in a cocktail, gin, the taste of lime (sort of), an intriguing colour and the British Navy. It is also the only current exception to drinkskultur rule #5. Shaken together vigorously it is delightful, refreshing, crisp and packs quite a punch. In order for you to have one while reading this, yes I do insist, I’ll start with the recipe.