Hip Hops: October 2006 Archives

It's rumored that Queen Elizabeth I started every day with a hunk of Stilton and a tankard of strong English ale. For that dear old battleaxe, beer was just for breakfast. With this super simple flapjack recipe, it'll be beer o'clock before noon for you too.

And there's more to come with this recipe, because a dear fellow traveler of ours, stationed in Taipei, tells us that in Taiwan you can buy a pancakes with a fried egg and chili from a truck on just about every corner. Like it's a taco or something. So, look for a non-vegan version of this recipe soon.

Beer Cakes
2 envelopes dry yeast
2 cups flour
1/2 cup, plus 1 tsp white sugar
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 cups, plus one splash Stone Levitation Ale
3 Tbs. warm vegan butter
1.5 cups diced scallions
1/2 cup minced parsley

1. Activate the yeast by mixing 1/8 cup warm water, a splash of beer, and one Tsp. of sugar in a small bowl. Stir, cover, and set aside for ten minutes.

2. Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Gently whisk in the Levitation and the vegan butter.

3. Check your yeast. If it looks like a baby blob out of control, whisk it into the batter. Add Scallions and parsley and cover. Let the batter sit for ten minutes.

4. Heat a large skillet and grease it with vegetable oil. Dump 1/3 cup globs of batter onto your pan, flipping them when they start to bubble on top.

5. Serve with maple syrup, alongside other breakfast treasures.

Beverage: Stone Levitation, and lots of them
Soundtrack: The Velvet Underground's Sunday Morning.

Cenntenial surf, Amarillo undertow, Simcoe tsunami: Wuhuhuhuiiipout.

Pizza Port, the home of Port Brewing, is where all the dudes who work at Stone Brewing Co. go to drink after work. We know because we were there. Two blocks from the ocean in Carlsbad, California, Port Brewing is holding down the "San Diego" style of craft beer. Carlsbadalicious.

Wipeout IPA, one of three India Pale Ales the company makes, is badical. One large pizza, an order of mozzarella sticks and way too many beers later Wipeout crowned itself King. With a bitter bite and 7% alchol by volume, Wipeout uses no less than five hop varieties: all of them present in the complex finish of this strong willed 'session' IPA. It's less acrid than many of the Imperial IPAs being churned out of west coast craft breweries but harder on the tongue than Stone or Alesmith's standard IPA. Lacking the acidic cat pee notes often present in many American IPAs, this brew finishes like a hearty huff from a sack of strong weed: spicy, piney and totally "SoCal."

Dairy Pairy: Cypress Grove Chevre's Bermuda Triangle
Soundtrack: The Beach Boys' Let's Go Surfing

All the beer talk around here and you'd think that Hot Knives didn't like to get soused once in a while. Wrong. Not only do we like cooking with whiskey, we like to sip, shoot and chug it, sure as you're born.

We thought we had the old American mash down: Jack for long nights; Beam for cheap ones; Maker's Mark for show-off ones; and Knob Creek for those rare instances when we're not broke or already drunk.

When one of us got the other this bottle of Anchor's Old Potrero as a birthday present, we thought we knew what we were getting in to. Let's just put it this way, that birthday was in July and the bottle ain't gone yet.

Old Potrero, an 18th Century Style Spirit, is the strongest tasting stuff we've ever tried to sip--makes Everclear or Absinthe look like Snapple. This burning, herby and malted liquor is made from 100 percent rye malt mash and is aged in un-charred oak barrels. That last bit is important, because whiskey (which it does resemble, but the single malt scotch kind) is colored usually from charred barrels. We have no fucking clue what makes this stuff brown.

The first thing that hits is a stench of flowers soaked in grain alcohol--not bad but strong. In fact, huffing the nose is like putting an ether rag to your face. There is only one note to this beast, no complexity, no surprise aftertaste: Rye and toasted sugar. It's pleasant for one small glass and then starts to kill your tastebuds altogether.

Our recommendation? Drink one tumbler a week. It'll put hair on your chest and virtually allow you to drink anything else like a champion.

Dairy Pairy: Stinking bishop encrusted with candied pecans
Soundtrack: Pirate songs