I can grill a decent cheeseburger. It's a simple thing, really, not "fine dining" by any means. Even so, it has to be done right. I bet my burgers are nearly as good as those at the Wall Street Burger Shoppe in New York City. The difference is, they charge $175 for their cheeseburger. I kid you not. The price just went up from $150.
Chef Kevin O'Connel says the burgers are worth it because they include a Kobe beef patty, black truffles, seared foie gras, aged Gruyere cheese, wild mushrooms and flecks of gold leaf on a brioche bun. He says they sell 20 or 25 a month.
When the revolution comes, and the hungry masses storm the Bastille, somebody will probably have to answer for this hamburger. Until then, let them eat cake!
Robert Mitchum in "Thunder Road," as an outlaw running bootleg whiskey in a fast '57 Ford Fairlane. Mitchum also wrote and sang the song. I've always been a fan of Mitchum and his sleepy anti-heroes that were doomed from the start. He managed to live outside the law, and still be honest. Unless, of course, he was playing the villain, which he did so well in "Night of the Hunter" and the original "Cape Fear." (Speaking of prohibition, Mitchum was also busted for pot in 1948 and served time in jail. Pot prohibition still hasn't been repealed, but that's another story.) I've painted Robert Mitchum several times, and here he contemplates a ring, as well as his own uncertain future.
In 1932, the Democratic Party platform included a plank to repeal Prohibition, and Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran for president promising a repeal. In 1933, the state conventions ratified the Twenty-first Amendment, and liquor was legal once again. Suddenly bootleggers were out, and whiskey was back in business. Big business. Nowadays giant corporations make and market the vast majority of booze, but you can still find good, small-batch, artisan distilled whiskeys. And you no longer have to hide it from the cops.
You've got to hand it to moonshiners who tended stills during our stupid governmental ban on liquor. While creepy Christian moralists like Carrie Nation and the teetotalers in the Temperance Union railed against demon rum, these bootleggers made whiskey and sold it to people who felt like having a drink. One of those small-batch, artisan distillers was my own grandfather. It was a stupid law, and my grandpa was anything but stupid. Of course, we've still got creepy Christian fundamentalists telling people what to do, but they lost this battle once and for all. I'll drink to that.
Here's a short history of whiskey making in America:
Here the Grateful Dead perform "Brown-Eyed Women," a bootlegging song, in March of 1986:
The holidays are a time to eat, drink, and be merry. Last year, red wine drinkers got a good buzz when Professor David Sinclair from Harvard Medical School published papers suggesting that Resveratrol, aSIRT1 activator found in red wine, could reduce the impact of a highfat diet, increase stamina twofold, and significantly extend life span of mice. Now you could rationalize drinking for your health! No longer were you just a boring drunk, a gin sop, a booze hound -- you were something of a health conscious individual. Wine was medicine.
Sorry to kill your buzz. Sadly, it was estimated that one needed to drink upwards of a thousand bottles of winea day to achieve the beneficial effects of Resveratrol. With the exception of lab rats and a few of my relatives, no one can drink that much.
The good news: An article published today showcases several new related drugs that have been identified. Sinclair and other researchers have tested some 500,000 molecules, and come up with alternatives to Resveratrol. In fact, the most potent SIRT1 activator they've isolated is a thousand times more powerful! The science baffles me, but the salient point is that these new breakthrough drugs may someday be available to the general public, perhaps in pill form. Soon, it may no longer be necessary to drink a thousand bottles of red wine a day. So relax. Take a breather. With any luck, you may get to be part of clinical studies that begin on humans in 2008. Until then, drink responsibly.
The burger in question, courtesy of Reuters
