Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout

Brewed in the Henry Woods Redwood forest in California,I bring you Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout from the Anderson Valley Brewing Company. I haven't had a stout in awhile since I bored myself on Guinness years ago. This oatmeal stout makes Guinness look like juicy juice.



I'm sure this beer is brewed by bearded, nature worshipping hippies, which is not a bad thing. Alot of the West Coast breweries are owned and operated by the type of crunchy souls who enjoy the finer things in life,without getting too weird and psychadelic. Not too sweet,with a smooth taste and thick feel. When poured into a glass, it is quite dark with an inch of a head consisting of layers of tan. I also found it creamy with a bit of a chocolate aroma. If you're sick of Guinness and refuse to go light,try this one on for size.

The blacker the berry,the sweeter the juice.

Skullsplitter Orkney Ale

This Scottish ale has the best name ever. Named after Thorfinn Hausakluif(skullsplitter),who was the seventh Viking Earl of Orkney around 950 AD. Just a tidbit of history that can gleaned from any bottle of this high-alcohol(8.5%) robust ale.



Any man would snatch up this beer in a second based on the label. It reminds me a bit of McEwans Scottish Ale,the only other Scottish ale I've had. Sweet and smooth,both in taste and smell. It reminds me of whiskey or scotch in beer form,but not nearly as overpowering. I love the buzzy feeling after only 11.2 fluid ounces consumed over a 45 minute period. Pretty fuckin' sweet.

I need to come up with some kind of a ratings system.

Porkslap Pale Ale

If Bass came in a can,it would be Porkslap. The difference being Bass doesn't get a ton more bitter the longer the beer is exposed to air. Porkslap does. If your going to drink Porkslap, drink it fast.



Even though the label is entertaining and it's ironic to see craft beer come in a can, it was still something of a disappointment. This experience will make me think twice about trying a canned craft beer, which seems to be a pretty strong trend lately. I shouldn't judge a book by it's cover,so I'll just play taste baseball with this subject.

3 strikes and your out.

Carib

I have compared beer to Miller High Life in past writings. This is not because I hate the Champagne. I actually dig it when I'm feeling kinda poor but want the love only a bar can provide. It is true that it is about as cheap as my beer tastes go,and don't go that frequently. Miller created a good thing,and stuck with it,but there are also other companies that seem to want to stick to it too. Carib lager is one of those beers.



There really isn't much I can say about Carib that hasn't been said already. I first consumed it during my honeymoon to St. Maarten. It was cheap and plentiful,and Ingrid dug it. When I eyed it the other day for the first time in well over a year,a nostalic voice in my head told me to buy the 6-pack for $8.50...so I did. 3 days later and I'm still working on the six-pack. So it was well worth what I spent. It was also worth the memories of our island adventure. Now that Winter is soon to appraoch ,I need those memories as much as possible.

Ayinger Celebrator...

"Heaven" was closed the other night,just as I got to the doors,so I had to trudge a mile,with Annie B. by my side,down the mean streets of Park Slope(hehe). Destination.....Beirkraft. Beer store #2 in the Park Slope area. Beirkraft has a rather large and nice selection of grog,along with cheese and chocolate and all the other niceties that yuppies need in a one stop shop. Everything is refrigerated,unlike Eagle(Heaven),but the prices are also quite a bit higher on all the goods. I would rather refridgerate my holy liquids at home than to pay more for the same product. I'm sure I'll go back again(when eagle is closed).

Anyway..back to the beer...Ayinger Celebrator Doppelboch


My previous experience with Doubleboch has only been Sam Adams,which I found quite good at the time. Apperently,Doppelbochs are supposed to have an alcohol % quite a bit higher thn other lagers,something Sam Adams must have forgot about. Celebrator is a REAL german Doppelboch. It tasted quite good and made me feel nice once it was finished. Now that I have left New England,there is NO reason for me to stand by Sam Adam's products,not that I ever did,really.

A couple of fun facts about Doppelbochs:

The names of brews typically end in "-ator" to commerorate the original DB...Paulaner Salvator.

During the religious season of Lent, catholic monks were required to fast. Boch beers are higher in nutrients and food energy,which sustained the monks during the holiday. This is why bochs were traditionally brewed and consumed by monks.

Why does all my beer always come back to God?

Friday Night and Bluepoint....

My good friend Annie B. decided to come up for a couple of days,Friday being here arrival date. Like any good Portmouth townie,Annie likes to whoop it up with some good brews with good people in good places. We started off at the BCC (Bushwick Country Club) and ended up at the Brooklyn Ale House. The Ale House was small and smokey(no complaints),and had a great selection of beer on tap. Annie really dug the Delirium Tremens, more so then I did but I still think it's a good brew. I,on the other hand, had the Bluepoint Bluebeer Ale (http://www.bluepointbrewing.com/beer_information.html),straight outta Long Island. I'm not afraid of fruity beers like most people are. My wife,Ingrid, usually hates them. She didn't hate this one. The only blueberry ale I have had before this is Seadog Blueberry Wheat,which tastes great but keeps me on the shitter for the rest of the next day. A big payoff for a couple hours worth of taste sensation. Not so with the Bluepoint,but that probably has something to do with the lack of wheat. Since the wife enjoyed it, I will probably be getting to know this beer in close to a biblical sense over the next couple of months. If you check out the website, you'll also see that Bluepoint has quite a few brews out there. To tell you the truth....I'm not scared, I'll drink them all.



Nuff talk...more beer.

More belgian style from Cooperstown....

More from the my friends at the Ommegang Brewery. This time they have given me Hennepin, a "Saison farmhouse" ale (I'm not quite sure what it means,but it's damn good).



Father Hennepin was apparently the belgian missionary who discovered the Niagara Falls. Although I don't have a positive position on missionaries,anybody who discovered the Falls at least deserves to have a beer named after them. This beer didn't have the flavor complexities I found in the abbey ales,but it wasn't anything to bitch about either. Hoppy and pale,with a great deal more flavor than most pale ales. If you are bored with Bass and live in the North East,I would give this a try If I were you. If not,you're missing out.

Peace Dog!!!!

Witkap-Pater

Last Friday,I found this little 3.5 dollar bottle of goodness on my trip to the most holy of beer stores. I was shocked to find an actual belgian for less than 10 bucks,much less less than 5 bucks.



I had been wanting to try an actual abbey ale after consuming the Ommegang earlier in the week,and I got my chance. Granted,since then I have had several abbeys,but that's a story for another time. This had just as much of the tasty goodness as Ommegang did,probably a little more. It is an unfiltered,so if you are one who is thrown off by sediment at the bottom of your bottle,this beer is probably not for you. Not only was the price right,but the alcohol percentage was not to shabby. Thia was the same night I downed several Iron City beers,so it was low enough to not send me hurling into drunk land. I also like the artwork,minimalist and slightly period. But with enough color to bring out some happy-happy feelings to go along with the buzz.

Good Stuff.

Alderis Porteris

This past weekend I drank my first ever latvian beer....Alderis Porteris. It came in a big bottle and cost my about a buck-fifty. The price was right and the territory was new,it was time to explore.



I have yet to try a dark beer from a formerly eastern-bloc nation that I don't like. This reminded me a great deal of the polish porters I have ingested over the last month. Sweet and kinda thick, with a minimal amount of bitterness and a mid ranged alcohol content. This definitely puts any dark beer Red Hook Brewery offers to shame. If this is what the commies were drinking,paint me red and call me Sputnik.

This past weekend....

I'll have a couple of more beer reviews in the next couple of days. I spent my saturday exploring Rego Park in Queens hoping to try a "Samsa".which is apparently the Uzbeki version of the Indian Samosa. As I got there, I had a dreadful thought that Rego park might not live up to my expectations. Boy, was I right. The only place I was able to find the existance of the samsa,didn't have them that day. After wandering around for a couple of hours,it dawned on me why most of the local business's weren't open. It was "shabbat",and Rego park has a huge Bukarian and Russian Jew community. From what I could tell,the Uzbeki population are most likey of jewish descent also. If I decide to go back again,I'll be sure to make it a weekday or Sunday. It just goes to show I can't hold every community in the same light I hold Jackson Heights and Queens neighborhoods in the vicinity.

Iron City Beer

Anybody who has watched the remake of Night of the Living Dead might remember the end of the movie with the drunk rednecks shooting zombies. If you look closely at the cans there chugging, you can see that the beer is called Iron City Beer. This is just not some gag prop Romero set up to pay tribute to his home city, Pittsburgh. ICB is real,and I found one of the only places Pittsburgh's staple lager is found this far east.



I found ICB in the Beer store of Beer stores. A little polish deli in Park Slope I like to call Heaven. Not only was I able to find a cheap beer I have been craving for years. I also have 500+ beers to salivate over. It is one of those places I'm going to have to make a weekly stop(if only it were close enough for a daly visit).

There is nothing special about the taste of Iron City Beer. If you like PBR,ICB will be right up your alley. The companynhas a long and rich history though. You can check out the Pittsburgh Brewing Companies history here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_City_Beer

It's hard to believe,but after you read the wiki,you'll discover the PBC changed the way we all drink beer,and despite bakruptcy, are still acting as innovators to this day (check out the alminum bottle).

Ommegang....

During my walk from the WRONG train stop after work(complications with the L train),my angry and defeated ass picked this one up at a bodega on Grand St.


Ommegang. It has what appears to be a Belgian name. Belgian-style label. Even taste like a Belgian. But just because it walks like a duck doesn't necessarily make it a duck. This eurotrash wannabe was brewed right here in New York State. Cooperstown to be exact. This is just what I needed to end a painful trip from work to home. Apparently it is a belgian-style "abbey" ale. I'm not quite sure what that means, but if all "abbey" ales are like this it must mean fuckin' awesome. It has a great taste and characterisitics I've only found in some expensive dark beers. This is the best beer I've had this week. Probably in several weeks. This is definetely the beer I'm bringing back to NH by the case when I visit.

Stuffed Zuchini....

A couple of Sundays ago, I made a special trip the a section of Atlantic Avenue known for its high concentration of muslim and middle-eastern restaurants,retailers, and mideast goods. I wanted to check out a middle-eastern grocery (and eat falafel,which could have been the real reason for going). The store I had hoped to visit, Samedi's, was closed. This angered me abit unitl I found a smaller grocery/deli. A half hour and 18 dollars later,I had several cans of food from places like Turkey and Lebanon. One of the cans I happened to pick up was my dinner for this evening.



I didn't want to microwave the stuffed zuchini. I feel the older I get the less I like the taste of things that come out of the microwave. Anybody with me. So I set the oven to bake and heated the goods up for about 10 minutes. The outcome......



The zuchini is stuffed with rice and tomato sauce,with some common meditteranean spices thrown in. The stuffing kinda reminds me of spanish rice, withy less zing. I love spanish rice,so this factor sold me on the product. It's nice to pay 2 dollars for a meal in a can,especially one suitable for vegetarians. But this is what I'm all about. Thrifty foods from the 4 corners of the world. I should probably entertain the idea of making this from scratch. It shouldn't be too hard.

Baltika 5

Straight outta the former Soviet Union comes the Eastern Bloc's answer to Miller High Life,Baltika 5....



Not to diss the first russian beer I have laid my tongue on,seeing that I'm a fan of the Champagne of Beers. But there is not much of a noticable difference between the two,besides the alcohol content. Baltika 5 is 5.2%,which is about 2% more than High Life. I couldn't even really tell,but I'm supposed to be a pro drinker.

So would Baltika be the Vodka of beers if High Life is the Champagne?

my Cheap Indian Dinner......

If you remember my Thums Up post(it was only yesterday),you might remeber that I visited the Patel Brothers Indian Supermarket on Sunday afternoon. This evening meal was made up of a couple of items from that very same visit.

I originally got the idea to visit the store for the purpose of being able to by prepackaged naan. Nan,a spicy indian flat bread that comes in many styles,is something I had only been able to purchase at indian restaurants in the past. I think I also attempted to make it once,but that didn't work out so well. As it so happens, Patel Brothers sells many diiferent types of naan for the right price. I found a big bad that should last me at least a week for about 3 bucks.



To go with my naan as the main course,I heated up some prepackaged Rajma(kidney beans in tomato sauce) that I picked up for a buck-fifty. Half the price of the prepackaged shit you can find at Hannafords and the taste is twice as good. Truth be told,this stuff also was imported form India.



Unfortunately,my camera wasn't operable during the eating of the meal. Sorry to disappoint. I toasted the naan for about 10 minutes while the Rajma heated up and prepared somekind of an Indian shit-on-a-shingle on my plate. Not only did I not need salt,which is rare for prepackaged food, it was spicy enough to the point I had to slow down my eating,and I'm a fuckin'shoveler when it comes to eating. This was definetely worht more than the 2 bucks it cost me. Patel Brothers is going to have to be more of a weekly stop for than once in awhile.

Hedonism Ale...

Today's beer hails from Reading,Pa's Legacy Brewing Company. I happened upon it after work,even though I had planned to purchase a bottle of LoneStar,which I'll probably get to tomorrow. Hedonism is the name,Ale is the game.

a temp image until my camera has charged....


Hedonism kinda reminded me of Bass. Same level of bitterness that you find in most IPA's and just as tasty. The biggest difference is the alcohol content. Where Bass is some where in the vicinity of 5%,Hedonism hit me with good 7%. Two Pbr's for the price of...um...well 2 Pbr's. The label kind of remind's me of something Dan Blakeslee might draw for Magic Hat if he were comissioned to do so. But this was not a Magic Hat-style beer,regardless of marketting. Would I by this beer again?yes. Is it in my top 10? No,but it is really hard for an Ale to ever get there.

Tamales in a 3 dollar bag.....

Dinner tonight consisted of 2 tamales from a bag of 6 that cost me 3 bucks at the local grocery store. The Grocery store carries alot of food items from latin american countries. Not hard to believe cosidering the majority of the people in my community are latino. This gives me the opportunity to shove shit from all points " South of the Border" down my throat.

This is what a three dollar bag looks like...



This is what the product looks like after baking for about half an hour...


This is my first experience with tamales in their proper form. In New England we use the word to describe the green matter found inside a lobster during consumption. New Englanders use odd words for "shit",which is pretty much what that green matter is. I had never eaten anything rapped in corn husk,so it was niced to know in some parts of the it is actually put to good use. I had the hardest time eating the husky,outer layer,but the creamy cormeal found inside made up for it. It's unfortunate all I had to dress my food with was "Texas Pete's",which I have had for over a year since I prefer something with flavor. Next time I'll be sure to spread salsa and/or cheeseover them. I should also try the frying method of cooking. It would probably make the husk easier to chew.

Not bad for my first time up to bat. Hopefully next time it's a homerun and not just 1st or second base.

Delirium tremens an pink elephants...

Today after worked I marched right down to a grocer,with an amazing beer selection, on Curry Lane. My target was a Belgian I have had on my mind since my first trip to the Bushwick Country Club. Hell,they like it so much,they advertise in on the overhang in the front of the bar.



Don't be thrown off by the pink elephants,alligators dancing,and overall foppishness of the label. This beer is pretty serious. I'm not one of those assholes that critique beer like they were a wine-snob,but I can tell you this beer is tasty as well as packing a punch. An 8.5% punch that is. I was feeling quite light-headed after I finished off 11.2 oz bottle. It takes atleast half a six-pack of PBR to get that kinda reaction outta me. Although the flavor was complex like alot of belgians, it started of kind of bitter. Eventually the bitterness went away after about 1 half hour of air exposure. Too bad I've been spoiled by La Fin Du Monde,or I probably would have added this to my tastiest beers top 5. It was still damn good. Besides,everybody likes a circus.

Thums Up....A Coke Product from India....

While I was browsing,in awe,the Indian supermarket "Patel Brothers" yesterday,I happened upon this Coke product from half-a-world away. Some of you might know me to be something of a soda addict,at the very least a conniseur(in my own words of course). So it's not very surprising I had to try it.


The first thing you might notice is the bastardized english for a name. Granted,I don't speak hindi so I might be missing out on something important. I plead ignorance. What I do know is a good soda. Coca-Cola has been known to put out a great deal of bad products(remember NEW COKE),but this isn't one of them. It tastes a great deal like RC Cola,but spicier. What else would you expect from the indian version of America's most popular soft drink.

I give it 2 "thums up"(HaHaHa!!!!! Wicked funny,guy!!!) I will be buying this product again the next time I visit Jackson Heights. I might even buy a six pack,I'm that crazy!!!

About this Blog......

I live in Brooklyn and I love to try new things,a great deal of the time more than moderate. Living in NYC is a wet dream for anyone who loves the two greatest things on this Earth.....Food and Beer. Since I have lived here(which is not very long), I have been overwhelmed by the amount of food and drink opportunities the Big Apple provides me with.

So this is a Blog about my food and drink experiences. More specifically, ethnic and local food,and beer you can't really get anywhere else,especially if you lived in NH for most of your life. I don't mean to take pictures and write about my experiences at all the fancy-shmancy restaurants in the city,although it might happen on occassion. I'm kinda poor,so I'm mostly going to write about perogies, Puerto Rican sodas,grocery store/bodega finds,and beer up the wazoo(I can't believe I used that word). Everyday things I like to pick-up on my way to and from work.

Nowhere else in the world do you find the gastric opportunities that you do in NYC. Nowhere.