The Bubbly Girl

Skylite Snowballs: An Icy Taste of Baltimore in the East Bay

October 9, 2010

I lived in Baltimore as a kid. And while I’ve indulged in local delicacies like steamed blue crab and crab salad, apparently I missed out on the icy treats that Baltimoreans call snowballs. Until today that is.

I was driving up Piedmont Avenue in North Oakland when I spotted a pale blue truck with a a row of colorful flavored syrups in the window. I parked and then walked up to the truck, just as an excited couple was approaching. They follow @Skylitesnowball on Twitter and were happy to find the truck.

Kate — the cheerful young woman who launched Skylite Snowballs on Labor Day weekend, told me snowballs are always served in a cup, unlike Midwestern snow cones. The ice is grated more finely than a snowcone, but it’s not as fluffy as Hawaiian shave ice. In Baltimore and around the state of Maryland, snowballs are an old-fashioned treat that’s sold at carnivals and from little shacks.

This article Cold Comfort from City Paper explains that snowballs are sold around the state, often for just a dollar or so. Historians trace them back to the turn of the century, when ice wagons would sell a cup of shaved ice. The most popular flavors there are egg custard, cherry and chocolate, with a dollop of marshmallow creme on top.

Kate’s are different because she makes the flavorings herself, using seasonal fruit like strawberries, and artisanal ingredients like Tcho Chocolate and Four Barrel Coffee. So hers cost $3 to 5 for a basic snowball, plus $1 more for marshmallow or chocolate topping.

I tried one with strawberry and jasmine tea flavorings and liked the way the floral taste of the jasmine mixed with the soft strawberry flavor. The whole effect was kind of mild, so I sprinkled some stevia powder on it at home and it was just right. Next time, I’m having a classic chocolate snowball with marshmallow. If you want to try one, follow Kate @Skylitesnowball on Twitter.

Update: Skylite Snowballs relocated to Austin, Texas in 2016.

Drinks

Chambord Has a New Look, and a Vodka too

October 2, 2010

I was sitting at the long Carrara marble bar of the Lake Chalet looking out at Lake Merritt and the rows of liquor bottle on the back bar. I saw lot of familiar bottles, but noticed that the familiar round Chambord bottle had changed. And Chambord, the venerable black raspberry liqueur has a new sibling — a flavored vodka

The bottle has lost its crown, it’s replaced with a crown medallion on front. The top of the cap and the bottle have a new flower with four pointed petals, like a play on the French design called a quatrefoil. Chambord has a new look that stars the quatrefoil, a four-pointed floral motif.

Quatrefoils are popular motifs on churches in France, England and especially Italy. But the most familiar example of the quatrefoil is on the iconic Louis Vuitton logo created in 1896.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the distinctive and deep berry taste of Chambord liqueur. It starts with blackberries and raspberries being infused into neutral grain spirits. Then it’s blended with flavors of black raspberries and currants, cognac, vanilla and herbs.

The new Chambord vodka is a pretty berry pink color and carried the same berry favor with a cleaner — and sharper — vodka edge.

It’s easy to think of lots of ways to use both: splashed into sparkling wine, shaken into a French Martini or even just poured into lemonade. I like the looks of the French Sparkle, a cocktail with mango nectar, Chambord vodka and champagne on the company’s website.

But one of my favorite ways to use Chambord is in a simple cocktail I’ve dubbed the Queen for a Day Mimosa. A mimosa gets so much more interesting with a splash of Chambord. It’s a delicious libation that makes you feel royal whether you’re sipping it at brunch or any time of day.

Queen for a Day Mimosa

1/2 ounce Chambord Liqueur
2 ounces fresh orange juice
3 ounces brut sparkling wine or champagne, chilled
fresh or frozen raspberry or blackberry

Add Chambord to a champagne flute. Top with the orange juice and sparkling wine or champagne. Garnish with a raspberry or blackberry.

Shopping

I Love This Gin & Rosewater Perfume by Tokyo Milk

October 1, 2010

This fresh scent perfectly captures the aroma of lime zest, quinine and rosewater.

Just after my 21st birthday, my friend Wendy took me to a busy bar in downtown Chicago for my first grown-up drink. I remember standing at the bar, scanning the menu and trying to decide what to order. She suggested I order a Tanqueray and tonic. While I’ve changed up my brand of gin, the G & T has been my fallback cocktail ever since.

I’ve never grown tired of the aromatic contrasts a simple gin and tonic presents. There’s floral and spicy gin, the watery scent of quinine mixed with the bright bitterness of the freshly squeezed lime.

I was instantly transported to that first bittersweet sip, when I sniffed this Gin & Rosewater perfume by Tokyo Milk. We were browsing through Flutter, an artful shop on Portland’s Mississippi Street that carries an eclectic mix of vintage clothing and jewelry, toys, pretty beetles in resin and whatever else catches the owner’s eye.

With its juicy brightness and seductive rosewater notes, this Gin & Rosewater perfume makes for an instant pick-me-up, even if it’s nowhere near happy hour.

Food + Recipes, Travel

Crab, Chanterelles and Ned Ludd in Portland

September 29, 2010

This past weekend, I flew up to Sandy, Oregon — a little town 30 minutes outside Portland — for my friend Isabel Cruz’ 50th birthday celebration. Isabel and her former husband Bill Tosheff recently purchased a 60-acre farm, which was the setting for the birthday bash.

One of the many surprises of the weekend was meeting Jason French, the chef from the popular Portland restaurant called Ned Ludd. At first I thought it was an unfortunate name for a restaurant. But it took on an awkward elegance when I figured out that Ludd was short for Luddite. At Ned Ludd they cook everything over wood fires, and that’s exactly what French did for the party.

The first course was Dungeness crab and local chanterelle mushrooms over grilled rustic bread, and it turned out to be my favorite dish of the night. French drizzled the brown bread with Spanish arbequina olive oil, piled on the crab and mushrooms, then squeezed on some fresh lemon to heighten the flavors. I think I’ll be making my own version this weekend.

Sparkling Wine, Wine Reviews

Sex in a Glass: A Sparkling Wine from Michigan

August 31, 2010

Sex is the titillating name of a rose sparkling wine from Michigan by Larry Mawby.

There are lots of drinks described as sex in a glass: pinot noir; champagne; and there’s even a Sex in a Glass cocktail made of Cointreau, Kahlua and Angostura bitters. But as it happens, Sex is the name of a sparkling wine from Michigan that I tasted recently.

It’s made by a quirky winemaker named Larry Mawby. For the past 10 years, Mawby has made nothing but sparkling wine in the Leelanau Peninsula, in the northern part of the state.

Mawby likes to get people’s attention. His newest wine is a fruity and slightly sweet sparkling wine called Detroit, that blends riesling with the rather obscure grapes traminette and Cayuga. But he’s probably best known for his M.Lawrence range of sparkling wines with titillating, tongue in cheek names like Wet, Fizz and Sex.

He also makes a more “serious” range of méthode champenoise wines under the name L. Mawby. I ordered one of those too — The Talismon. I opened that at a party on the Fourth of July and was very pleasantly surprised. The wine was a delicious balance of citrusy flavors and aromas with toasty ones. It had a nice long finish and the first sip made me want another. I thought it was a of the better domestic sparkling wines I’ve tasted, and for just $30 a bottle. The only thing I found odd about it was the tiny cork – probably the shortest I’ve ever seen on a sparkling wine.

Larry Mawby uses tiny corks on his wines, compared with the size of a Dom Perignon cork at right.

Sex was a different story – a $15 wine with a pretty pink blush color, nice bubbles on the tongue, followed by a hint of indistinct fruit and some distracting musty aromas.

While Talismon and the other L. Mawby wines get their bubbles from a second fermentation in the bottle – just like French champagne – Sex is fermented in a tank. Tank fermentation is a cheaper way to make wine and it’s great for wines like prosecco and moscato which have delicate aromas and flavors that would be lost in a traditional fermentation. But tank fermentation can’t produce a wine of the complexities and nuances of a méthode champenoise wine.

So if you’re looking for a fling with a fun sparkling wine with a racy name, something to eat with pepperoni pizza and barbecue ribs or a gift for a bachelorette party, then Sex might be it.

Like they say, sex is a lot like pizza. Even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good.