. Favourite Beer of the Week - special Christmas edition

Trois Pistoles is one of those Frenchy-Canadian Unibrou beers that come in the big corked bottles with the jolly high abv.

It looks like this:

and it is named after a town that looks like this:

that has a building that looks like this:

which on the beer bottle label looks like this:

and is the setting for the "Legend of the Black Horse", which I could only find in French, so I ran it through a google text translator, and it said this:

The mysterious animal appeared without anyone knowing where he came from and was used to transport the stone from the church down to the coast where they erected a new building. But it was the devil himself that one should never remove his bridle. Unfortunately, someone ignored the recommendation and the horse disappeared, work not yet completed. And that is why there is still a stone missing, as can be seen when visiting the village church in Trois Pistoles.

Crap legend. But it's a nice beer. It tastes like all the other Unibroue beers - rich and thick and sweet and malty. I drank it on Christmas Eve while I was making leek and artichoke crepes, except the cans of artichoke hearts I had bought turned out to be cans of 'heart of palm', which looks quite strange, like this:

but taste fairly similar to artichokes once you've added leeks and cheese and mushrooms and nutmeg and stuff.

And then it was Christmas.

Amen.

. Doodles

 

. It Isn't Christmas

...without a cat in a box.

. Merry Christmas

. Favourite Things

Special guest blogger TonyBarony's favourite things of 2009

Favourite Movie
District 9


Favourite DVD
Let The Right One In


Favourite TV on DVD
The Mighty Boosh season 3


Favourite Podcast
Adam And Joe


Favourite Album
Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear


Favourite Comic Book
The Complete Essex County


Favourite Video Game
Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony


Favourite Non-Video Game
Bananagrams


Favourite Beer
Howling Wolf Weizenbock on tap at Monks Kettle


Favourite Bar
Miraloma Club


Favourite Brunch
Dosa on Fillmore


Favourite Socks
Smart Wool Hiker Street Crew

. Favourite Beer of the Week

In the olden days of Germany (which were before the 15th century) the Germans used rye to make their bread and their beer. Then one day there wasn't enough rye to go around, so they passed a law banning rye in beer, and the Germans started drinking Pilsner instead. The law was repealed in 1987.

In the olden days of America (some time in 2001) the Americans started sticking rye in their I.P.A's, and they called it rye P.A.

Bear Republic's Hot Rod Rye (the first rye P.A ever) was recommended to me by our good friend Erik Marr, who runs a small maggot ranch in Austin, Texas:



To be honest, I can't tell the difference between rye P.A and IPA.
I can tell you it goes very well with chocolate cake and several games of Bananagrams.

Nif tried not to win every game of Bananagrams, but she couldn't help herself, except for the very last game which was a draw. This was me -

For some reason I forgot to photograph Nif's tiles.

. The Best Thing

We went to a pot luck party. There was a white elephant gift exchange. We got the best thing.

. Work

I might be working 13 hour days, but at least they buy me mango sticky rice for dinner.

. Foot Warmer

. The Last Piece

. Signs

. Study Buddy

. SF Open Studios 2009

October 24th & 25th, 11am-6pm
185 Clara Street (btwn 4th & 5th, Folsom & Harrison)

. Michela and Brent got married

The wedding was most spectacular. Unfortunately I did not manage to video any of the spectacle due to an abundance of jolly good wine. After two glasses, this is what happened to Nif's high school friend, Miya -



We were at the best table (table 15) with a bunch of fancy musician types. Laurie and Bill and Jayne & Greg the Kiwis. Greg (or Grig as he prefers to be known) reminded me a bit of Mark Gatiss from the League of Gentlemen, although I never told him that.

Bill and Greg had an arm wrestling competition - Bill lost, and so -



Should I stop uploading these movies in HD? Are they taking to long to buffer? Let me know.

. The Streets of San Francisco - Valencia at Liberty Street

. Tomales Bay

. Least Favourite Beer of the Week

The Telegraph Brewing Company describe their Reserve Wheat Ale as "Not for the faint of heart." Fortunately they also note that it is "Available in extremely limited quantities," which hopefully means I won't have to drink another one. Yuck. It's like a really nice Wheat Beer that someone mixed with the sourest lemons they could find, shook it all up, and put in our fridge. I think it's supposed to be refreshing or some such nonsense. It's just nasty.

I thoroughly do not recommend this beer to you while you cook Peppered Mushroom and Cheezly Pie with roasted rosemary onion potatoes and a green salad on a Saturday afternoon while Nif is out at trapeze class and your friends have all gone to bed because of that annoying eight hour time difference and your other friends are down at Delores Park with four thousand other people merrily burning their collectively exposed regions and you can't find your sun block because it's not in the bathroom and it's not in the car and it's not in your bag (it's in your coat pocket) and in situations like this, cooking pie is what you do best.

But not with this beer.

. a pie

I made a pie. It's what I do best.

. Favourite Beer of the Week

Sam Smiths Imperial Stout was originally brewed (ten miles from where I grew up) for the fancy Russians of the Czarist courts. It was apparently made high in alcohol so that it would survive the trip to Russia, although I can't help thinking that might be a load of old crap like the claim that IPA's were high in hops and alcohol to survive the trip to India. I've been fooled by these beer historians before.

Trust no one, is my advice to you.

And get 'em in.

I recommend drinking this beer around 5 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon while cooking Black-Eyed Pea Fritters with Spiced Coconut Sauce and Turmeric Basmati Rice.

However, I do not recommend cooking black-eyed peas for Nif. They creep her out. Something about their eyes. If you have a cupboard full of black-eyed peas and don't feel like eating them all yourself then try mixing them with other foods of a similar nature (such as cannellini beans). And then blend them in the blender until their eyes are all mashed into pulp. That seems to do the trick.

The coconut sauce had star anise in it. I had never cooked with star anise before. It is very pretty.

Oh, and the beer is jolly nice too.

. All Grown Up

Our minions have flourished and number well over 100. Fear us. You have no choice but to take one of our strapping seedlings into your home. The San Francisco Indian Summer is nigh, and you'll have nothing to soak up that sun. Please don't pretend you have a/c. How many would you like? Baker's dozen? Baker's 50?

. Summertide Undertakings

. A Decade Ago...

A decade ago today we bought our first car and stuck my head in the trunk. My hair was still quite large, but the trunk was larger.

Ten years later, things are not so large.