Umami Mart

It’s mid-January and by this point many of you are off to the races as far as your resolutions are concerned. You’ve detoxed, cleaned up your diet, and are hitting the gym as frequently as a Playboy bunny who’s about to be cut from the squad. However if you’re like me, 2010 didn’t really start […]

It’s safe to say I haven’t quite got the jump on my New Year’s resolutions yet. In fact I think I need to call in a do-over. You see, in my case New Year’s Eve was only the beginning of the holiday madness, as all week long I played host to my brother and some […]

So you say it was a tough year, huh? Well, look at it this way: you’ve almost made it out of this Millenium’s first decade. And what a decade it’s been. I mean, this was the decade that the internet hit puberty and really came into its own; the decade that gave birth to Google—do […]

Christmas is nearly upon us, and while most folks are building jolly snowmen and merrily singing carols, every year there are those who wake on Christmas morning to the sad realization that they had been placed on the naughty list, with only a few lumps of coal in their stockings as their best hope of […]

At some point very soon you’ll feel like you’ve filled your noggin with too much nog from all the holiday parties throughout the month. Before you reach the point where the three letter word ‘egg’ begins to conjure four letter word thoughts, I’d like to share with you a few recipes for delicious egg-based relatives […]

While he ate his sandwich and sipped his beer, a bit of conversation came back to him. Blaisedell, the poet, had said to him, “You love beer so much, I’ll bet someday you’ll go in and order a beer milk shake.” It was a simple piece of foolery but it had bothered Doc ever since. […]

Every now and then I come across old cocktail recipes that have little to no history or lineage to trace back to; bona fide boozy bastards, where all background checks turn out goose eggs. They’re listed in a few old cocktail recipe books, and if you do an internet search you’ll have no problem coming […]

There’s no two ways about it, I likes me a good Manhattan. I likes me one any time of year really, but I especially likes me one during fall. There’s something about the bracing combination of whiskey and sweet vermouth that warms my soul and embraces my palate like a hug from a fond, familiar […]

“A good Sherris-Sack…ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish, and dull, and crudy vapours which environ it, makes it apprehensive, quick, inventive, full of nimble, fiery and delectable shape, which delivered o’er to the voice which is the birth, becomes excellent wit.”–Shakespeare’s Falstaff It would come as a great surprise to […]

Perhaps you were thinking that the cocktails presented here in Happy Hour are too fussy. And perchance you wondered if there are drinks you could make that could astonish your tastebuds without inducing exhaustion from the process. You do, after all, have lots to do until the end of the year–plan the Thanks-stealing menu, prepare […]