Nermo

I buy kitchen tools I don’t need, and being a gadget-obsessed guy and culinary daredevil, my urban kitchen is getting crowded. I can’t seem to put myself on a diet, but I’m going to slim down my kitchen.

The plan: I’m emptying all of my cooking tools into a bucket.  Once a tool has been used, it goes into a designated drawer. When a tool from the drawer gets used, it goes into the canister on my counter.

Rules:
1. When cooking, draw first from the canister, then the drawer, and finally the bucket, if no suitable tools are in the drawer.

2. After a month, I can pick ten things in the bucket to stay and the rest go to Salvation Army. Tools in the drawer go back into the bucket, canister tools stay put and the cycle starts again.

3. If the drawer becomes full before the month ends, it triggers the purge that would happen at the end of the month.

4. Knives and appliances are exempt. No way in hell am I getting rid of of my Shuns, Cuisinart, slow cooker or immersion blender.

            

Food2.com just published a review I wrote of the Nirvino Wine Ratings Guide application for the iPhone. For those not in the know, Food2 is the younger, hipper, online branch of the Food Network.

            

Along with CreateShareWear, my other 5 jobs and an active social life, another recent venture has been taking up a lot of my time, hence the lack of posting on this blog.

I created MobileDocent as a digital tour guide for gallery visitors to access to rich multimedia content (text, links, images, audio, video and more), enhancing their experience of the art and objects being exhibited in museums and cultural institutions through their web-enabled mobile devices (iPhone, Blackberry, etc.).

I’ve been working with the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to test my project and we have decided to begin piloting MobileDocent with the January Icons of Attention exhibition of work by Kamau Amu Patton, so stay tuned for updates on the progress of the program, and mark your calendars for opening night party, January 22nd, 2010.

For more info on MobileDocent, visit MobileDocent.com.

            

I’ve been neglecting this blog because I am deeply involved in a couple other projects, and this pesky day job keeps getting in the way, but I am very excited to announce that today is the official launch of the Picpoket, from CreateShareWear, a clothing/art/social media venture that I founded with a friend.  I’ve been coding like a madman all week trying to make the site perfect, and I am awfully proud of what I have built.

The premise is simple, but the overarching plan is exciting.  We are selling custom hoodies (and eventually other clothing and accessories) that hold your video iPod, facing out, so you can show your images and video to the world.  In conjunction, we will soon be launching a social networking site for our users to share their work with the Picpoket community to wear all over the world, and collaborate on collective arts and activism projects.

Check out the site, let me know what you think, visit our blog, and if you want to pre-order a hoodie now, we’re offering a special price, a bonus grab bag of art, and premier status on the social network!

            

Lately, I’ve been writing more about drinks, and decided the topic deserves its own site with richer content than just a blog, not to mention a slicker design and its own Twitter account.

The angle will be the same, explaining and demystifying the things you experience in bars and restaurants, documenting my bar experiments, reviewing products and sharing recipes for amazing cocktails.

All of the drinking articles from this site and new writing will be available at LibationLab.com along with printable guides, recipe cards, and cheat sheet for the home bartender.  I’m looking for other content to include, and am thinking of adding a social network for SF Bay Area cocktail enthusiasts and a database of local happy hour specials.  If you have any thoughts on what else a drinking site needs, please share your ideas.

Tell your friends: LibationLab.com is live

Follow Libation Lab on twitter at twitter.com/LibaLab

Click here to Subscribe to LibationLab via RSS

            

Because I couldn’t just spend the weekend celebrating the 4th and packing for Tales, I:

1. made a batch of hot sauce from farm-fresh chilies
2. created a tincture of shiso
3. made a gallon of traditional umeshu
4. improvised almost a gallon of apricot/pluot “umeshu”
5. infused a bottle of Hendrick’s gin with cucumber and persimmon
6. devised the Tomcat Collins with the aforementioned gin (recipe posted soon)
7. hosted the “Squash Blossom” dinner party with the lovely TSB (we may not be together any more, but we still throw one hell of a dinner party), where I served the aforementioned cocktail the following hors d’oeuvres
8. deep-fried two kinds of cheese-stuffed squash blossoms (chevre and mascarpone) with 4 dipping sauces (southwestern salsa, spicy tomoato, lemony aioli and a green onion sour cream).

            

Tinctures, bitters and infused spirits are all created by steeping culinary components in alcohol to extract flavor.  It really is just that simple and it is easy to do at home, so I will keep an eye out for how they’re being used at Tales of the Cocktail next week and update you on any trends or exciting uses I discover.

At a gin tasting workshop last night (many thanks to Right Gin and Nirvino) I asked a favorite local bartender, Josh Harris of 15 Romolo, what exactly a tincture is, having only recently encountered the term as a cocktail ingredient.

He defined it as being like aromatic bitters: herbs, spices or other ingredients with intense flavor steeped in over-proof, neutral spirits (strong grain alcohol like Everclear) to extract the flavor, which is added to cocktails in dashes or drops. He said that while bitters are a combination of flavors, tinctures are made with a single flavor.  I’ve since seen tinctures online that were composed of more than one flavor, but none so complex as bitters, so a stronger distinction may be that tinctures need not be bitter in flavor.

Note: the definitions of these terms in bar-speak differ from their traditional usage.  Technically, all three are tinctures, defined as an alcoholic extract of plant material with an ethanol percentage of at least 40% (assuming the spirit you are “infusing” is at least 80 proof).  Infusion is the result of steeping plants in water or oil, not alcohol, so infused vodka, rum or gin is a contradiction in terms. Vinegar is also an acceptable medium, so shrubs are really tinctures too.

I would offer recipes, but frankly, all you do is soak stuff in stiff spirits.  Just go try it.

            

I’m preparing myself for Tales of the Cocktail by ramping up my tolerance through daily “exercise” and a little light reading.  My drinks of choice for reading in this unseasonably warm SF summer are a Tom Collins with cucumber infused gin or a variation on the Lynchburg Lemonade made with smoked lemons.

Now follow along in your test booklets as I read aloud:

• -In local news: I discovered that my latest batch of chipotle infused tequila is about 20x too potent, so I can take a small bottle to new Orleans and buy tequila there (unless a quality tequila brand wants to sponsor this endeavor) and dilute it to share with anyone who wants to sample.
• -Worth reviewing: the Times just published a mini glossary of topical cocktail terms.
• -Proof66 will aggregate booze reviews for you(s).
• -It’s stone fruit season, time to make your own plum wine… or cherry, or apricot or whatever you want by following the process described in the linked tutorial.
• -Manolith presents an Illustrated History of Beer (pictured).
• -More vodka infusing advice and a piece from Chow on meat infusions.
• -Lawmakers in Arizona are trying to repeal the no guns in bars law, under the assumption that drunk, gun-toting good guys will serve as a safe deterrent to gun-toting bad guys who want to rob bars.
• -Utah is relaxing their absurd liquor laws because the Tabernacle Choir isn’t enough of a tourist draw.
• -Finally, when I get back from Tales, I intend to spend the rest of the summer touring local breweries and distilleries. If you want to come along, let me know.

            

I am thrilled to announce that I secured media credentials to Tales of the Cocktail, the annual festival/conference of cocktails, cuisine and New Orleans culture, July 8-12, and I managed to get a room at the (supposedly sold out) Hotel Monteleone.

This will be my first trip to the Big Easy, I know nobody there, and I will likely be going alone unless my sister manages to get the Ice Man to send her along.  If you have any thoughts on what I need to see while I am there, please chime in with suggestions in the comments section at the bottom of this page.

Brief overview for those unfamiliar with TotC:

“The event brings together the best and brightest of the cocktail community—award-winning mixologists, authors,  bartenders and chefs—for a five-day celebration of the history and the craft of the cocktail. This year, the most spirited event of the summer invites everyone to “Stir Your Soul” with a spirited series of dinners, cocktail demos, tastings, competitions, seminars, book signings, tours and special events all perfectly paired with some of the best cocktails ever made.

To put the event in quantifiable terms you can taste, Tales of the Cocktail 2008 used 85 pounds of mint leaves, 40 pounds of super-fine sugar, 280 liters of lime juice, 350 liters of lemon juice, 1815 lime wedges, 2115 lemon twists, 2340 jalapeño slices, 50 pounds of ginger root, 12 pounds of cherries and satisfied the taste buds of thousands of cocktail lovers from across the world.”

I am looking forward to learning for personal enlightenment/intoxication and of course I will be sharing my experience with all of you (Hi Mom!) If you will be there and want to meet up, or just want to be jealous of all the fun I will be having, here is my itinerary:

• 7/7/2009 21:00-23:30    Secrets of Benedictine
• 7/8/2009 14:30-16:00    Teaching Technique: Improving Cocktails by Uplifting Your Staff’s Skills
• 16:30-18:00    The Fine Art of Banging Out the Drinks like a Maniac
• 18.30-21.00    Tales of the Cocktail Welcome Reception Presented By Beefeater Gin
• 21.00-24.00    The Hendrick’s Enchanted Portal to the Peculium
• 7/9/2009 10.30-12.00    Mixologists and Their Toys
• 12.30-14.00    The Molecular DNA of Classic Cocktails
• 14.30-16.00    From Brewer to Distiller
• 16.30-18.00    Creative Mixology: Finding Inspiration in the Everyday
• 17.30-19.30    Cocktail Carnival Happy Hour
• 22.30-24.30    Mischieve in the Garden of Agave
• 7/10/2009 14.40-16.00    Sugar: The Science of Sweet
• 16.40-18.00    The Fine Art of Tending Bar
• 22.00-01.00    Birth of the Daiquiri
• 19.00-20.30    Grand Marnier and Navan  presents On The Fly Competition
• 21.00-22.30    Leblon Cachaca Presents the USBG Caipirinha Competition
• 7/11/2009 24.00-02.00    Grey Goose Tasting dans le Noir
• 10.30-12.00    Secrets to Successful Cocktail Photography
• 12.30-14.00    Carnivorous Cocktails
• 14.40-16.00    Hammer of the Gods
• 16.30-18.00    Agavepalooza-Spirit of Mexico: The Agave Elixirs
• 18.00-20.30    Seven Deadly Sins
• 20.30-23.30    Spirit Awards Presented by Pernod Ricard USA
• 23.30-02.30    Audrey & Simon’s  Bartenders Breakfast 2009 The Masquerade Breakfast Ball
• 7/12/2007 10.30-12.00    Buddy, Are Your Bitters Better?
• 12.30-14.00    Asian Influenced Cocktails
• 14.30-16.00    Beer Garden

Let me know if you have any burning questions for the cocktail elite.  What have you been wondering?

            

This isn’t about ideals; it’s about abbreviations.  I kind of hate myself for the title grammar, but I’d rather be awkward than wrong.  Wait, I’m not sure that’s true.

Anyway, I’m at a nerd conference and at this and other moments when I’ve worn my URL on a name tag, people ask me what Nermo means and I create an elaborate, absurd fiction.

The truth of the matter is that I found it by searching expiring web address registrations with 5 characters excluding numbers and dashes.  Let’s face it, all the real 5-letter words are taken, so I was happy to find something that looks like it could be a word.

I’m calling you all to suggest a good meaning for Nermo as an acronym. Maybe the letters N-E-R-M-O can acquire meaning actually relevant to the site.

Alright, start submitting those comments.