Tales of the Golem; or, the Modern Epimetheus

That sugar cane that tasted good

I think our Burns Night party this year was the most successful yet, and the most culinarily interesting. In past years it's been a struggle to get the guests to partake of the haggis, but this year we had a few people who were, as they say, into it. And many more who were interested in the scientifically-correct blind Scotch tastings.



Lessons learned: Scapa (Charlie) appeared to be the winner of the evening. Also popular were Oban (Bravo), which I think was the most expensive bottle, and The Famous Grouse (Echo), which was the cheapest, and the only blended whisky in the experiment. Talisker (Alpha) had of course a distinctive taste which I like to describe as a "glass full of dirt." The loser and least well received: Glenfiddich (Delta), the world's best-selling single malt.

Brad brought by some salmon with capers, dill, and rye bread, which he claimed was the authentically Scottish way to eat salmon. Later some cast doubt on whether this is really Scottish or not, but more importantly, it was really damn good. I don't even like rye bread but this was good.

Eugene brought some absinthe "straight from Europe." It was okay. We didn't have any sugar cubes so we had to use spoonfuls of granulated sugar.

Tried a ramekin of Haggis Jacobean, which is haggis heated with whiskey and topped with cream. Meh. Not particularly good.

We battered and deep-fried some Milky Way bars. Sixty seconds at 350 degrees seems about right. Fewer takers for these than I expected, but some who claimed not to like Milky Way bars under normal circumstances admitted that they were good.

This is a two weeks late blog post about a party that itself happened about a week later than it was supposed to. So sue me! I am kidding. You should not sue me. You have not suffered any economic damages.

posted by Richard Mason @ Sunday, February 03, 2008