NNTP-Posting-User: clb Xref: pale-rider.INS.CWRU.Edu ba.food:34589 Geoff M. wrote: > > >Dennis Suchta alleges: > >> Your father didnt teach you about margaritas - they do not >> use a blender. They are "shaken" drinks with the ice >> strained out. > >On what planet? Gee, Geoff, you really do need to get out more :-) >I'll take your word for it, but until now I'd only heard of >two variations: the familiar "alcoholic Slurpee" that's >familiar to yuppie trendoids at places like El Torito and >Acapulco (which, I suspect, serve about 95% of the margaritas >consumed in the U.S.), and the sort served on the rocks. This >is the first I've heard of the shaken-and strained variation. >You see the non-blended variation advertised a lot on those >glossy little paper tents that the restaurants place on tables, >typically as touted as house specialty drinks (like El Torito's >Cadillac Margarita) that are made with premium tequilas and >liqueurs like Triple Sec, but it's my experience that almost >nobody orders them. Why would they? Margaritas aren't marketed >toward conoisseurs, after all. Not at El Torito, anyway, I suspect. >I've only seen one margarita >served on the rocks, and it was one that I ordered myself just >out of novelty. All right! 'Nuff of this! Would Geoff and Meg be amenable to doing the Drunk Yuppie Dickhead-Off at Picante in Berkeley? Not a slushy margarita to be seen on site and some of the best mex food in the area. (On second thought: I want to be able to go back to Picante since that is my favorite Mex place. But the next time Geoff drags his butt up here, we're going.) >The reason for the popularity of the blended margarita isn't >difficult to figure out: it bears a comfortably close resemblance >to the Slurpees that most of the people who order them had been >quaffing down at the Sebm-Lebm until the year before. As with >the Harvey Wallbanger and the Tequila Sunrise, the primary con- >stituency of the margarita is people who either aren't used to >drinking or don't like the taste of real liquor -- typically >young people and women. Actually margs are one of the few things that don't taste entirely like liquor that I like drinking as a cocktail (as opposed to as a digestif). My normal tastes run to red wine or neat whiskey (very un-girly of me, I know). Margaritas are easy to make badly, though, so if I don't know the place, I probably won't order one. ObFood: Gotta go to Trader Joe's and see if they still have the "Margarita Mix" - lemon and lime juice, sweetened. It is sweetened a bit too much for my taste but makes a refreshing drink slightly cut with water (tequila for insta-marg optional but also yummy). More ObFood: Bucci's in Emeryville has a talented bar staff (excellent margs) as well as serving tasty Italian food. I ate there Friday and had a lamb shank in red wine sauce with polenta that was to drool for and left me no room at all for their toothsome desserts. CLB ------------------------------------------------------ Charlotte L. Blackmer http://www.rahul.net/clb Berkeley Farm and Pleasure Palace (under construction) Junk (esp. commercial) email review rates: $250 US ea
San Francisco, CA
Upscale Mexican Food in Chicago
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-980117 (UNIX) (SunOS/5.6 (sun4u)) Xref: pale-rider.INS.CWRU.Edu ba.food:34599 Pete F. wrote: > I have not been there for a while, as the food at the Townhouse > always seemed a bit better. Should I give it another try? I think it is a nice place to eat as well. For lunch they serve a pretty good meal. For dinner, I would probably go would probably not come to emmeryville to eat. > How do you feel it compares with the Townhouse? I too think the food at the townhouse is a bit better. They seem to be a bit more creative with the lunches they prepare. I had a porcini ravioli there last week. It was outstanding. They have, in my opinion, a bit more variety in the menu, as well. If given a choice, one over the other, it would be townhouse, but many of the people I work with would just as soon go to Bucci's. Price for lunch is about the same, I think. By the way, as a reformed shaken and strained margarita kind of guy, I would like to bear witness to the "dickhead-off" if it every happens. :)