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Post by kerouac2 on May 17, 2020 19:04:08 GMT
I had water with dinner but once I finished eating and did the dishes, I decided that I wanted some wine.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 17, 2020 19:07:13 GMT
I should have mentioned that Maurice also becomes Momo, so if you don't know the ethnic background of the person being called Momo, the nickname is of no help.
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Post by lagatta on May 17, 2020 20:46:50 GMT
That is true. I know quite a few Jewish people (especially Sephardic) called Maurice, so at least we know they are Semites, if that is of any interest.
By the way, Livia is a cat, so I don't think she gives a fig about the origin of her name. However, she is named after a late human friend named Livio (both had very black hair though the human Livio was a Venetian and very black hair isn't particularly northeastern Italian) but it causes her, as a cat, zero existential angst as far as I can make out.
My previous cat was Renzo. He lived to 20 1/2 and was named after the main male character in the Manzoni novel I promessi sposi. Renzo was adventurous (the fictional human one and the real feline one), so it stuck.
Nadja's name came both from the Romanian atlete Nadia Comenici and the surrealist muse Nadja. I don't like going back as my memories get a bit fuzzy, but I love every one of my cats. Far more than certain people
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Post by bixaorellana on May 17, 2020 21:29:34 GMT
I'm drinking a cup of freshly made coffee. Nice.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 17, 2020 22:02:11 GMT
I did not replace my coffeemaker when I changed my kitchen and yesterday for the first time I missed it when I had a sudden urge for coffee. I normally don't drink coffee, but I do stop in a café and have one from time to time, so I suppose that it is the fact that I have not been to a café for two months that triggered the urge.
I have a tiny unopened jar of instant coffee that I bought for emergency visitors (of which there have been none), but I don't want to open it just for myself if the cafés are going to reopen in a few weeks. But now that it is preying on my mind, I will probably end up doing it -- but not tonight.
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Post by lagatta on May 18, 2020 0:28:21 GMT
Actually, there is now some decent instant coffee - Nescafé gold espresso for one, also some Italian brands. More decent than one woule think,and useful if the cafetière is out of commission. Can't even fathom not drinking coffee, though I don't usually drink very much nowadays.
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Post by lagatta on May 19, 2020 21:04:12 GMT
A can of Cidre gingembre "Bone Dry" (less than 1gr of residual sugar). It is a very pleasant drink (I usually dislike sweet ciders and sweet beverages in general). This cider is fermented with fresh ginger and is especially good with Asian food.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 20, 2020 15:21:21 GMT
I had an "amer-bière" which is appropriate for the warm season. I have explained in the past that "amer" is a bitter orange liqueur which is mixed with beer in the east of France. In the rest of France, it is called a "Picon-bière" due to the brand name of the principal brand of "amer." In my part of France, we would never use Picon because it costs 4 times more than ordinary "amer."
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Post by bixaorellana on May 20, 2020 16:52:20 GMT
Drinking tea -- PG Tips -- right now.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 20, 2020 17:08:15 GMT
Is that from the stock that you bought in Paris?
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Post by bixaorellana on May 20, 2020 18:56:41 GMT
Yes, it is! Most of my life I've been a morning coffee drinker, but recently rediscovered the joys of good cup of morning tea.
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Post by whatagain on May 21, 2020 2:06:27 GMT
The last Picon bière i had was when in the army. I think i had one too many that turned out to be one too few.
I had the primitivo i bought yesterday. Close but no cigar.
Bah. I bought a magnum of another italyan wine. For when were allowed to be a des diners.
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Post by tod2 on May 21, 2020 12:51:10 GMT
I tried mixing Peach Schnapps with soda water - taste test failed it! Then I discovered my bottle of Absynthe -Fee vert - at the back of all the empties and mixed it with tonic and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Not bad and a delightful pale avocado green. I got a beautiful little silver slotted spoon with it when I bought it some 20years ago and was fascinated by the procedure one should do - placing a cube of sugar on it, dunking the cube in pure absinthe then setting the cube alight burning on the spoon and letting it melt into the glass. Must be quite a party trick for entertaining dinner guests….
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Post by kerouac2 on May 21, 2020 14:38:19 GMT
The last Picon bière i had was when in the army. The thing with Picon bière/amer bière is that if you are not in a bar, you determine the proportions yourself, just like with pastis or any number of other drinks. Young men, for example in the army, would tend to use inappropriate proportions.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 21, 2020 14:43:13 GMT
I tried mixing Peach Schnapps with soda water - taste test failed it! Then I discovered my bottle of Absynthe -Fee vert - at the back of all the empties and mixed it with tonic and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Not bad and a delightful pale avocado green. I got a beautiful little silver slotted spoon with it when I bought it some 20years ago and was fascinated by the procedure one should do - placing a cube of sugar on it, dunking the cube in pure absinthe then setting the cube alight burning on the spoon and letting it melt into the glass. Must be quite a party trick for entertaining dinner guests…. I knew you would finally find something to do with your unwanted bottle of absinthe. Necessity is the mother of invention, especially in a country where the sale of alcohol is temporarily forbidden. My own bar cabinet still contains a few items that I have been avoiding and into which I should look some day, but it is more difficult here since we can still buy all sorts of new alcohol whenever we want.
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Post by tod2 on May 22, 2020 15:53:30 GMT
Absolutely Kerouac! I keep telling myself to just drink the 'mixer' and forget about trying to liquor it up with all sorts of mostly disagreeable alcohol. There is one lot of booze I have a plenty of and that's port. We went on a road trip 30 years ago and called in at several wineries in the Cape. Came home with Ruby ports, Tawny ports, and several others. I like it only after dinner with a nice strong blue cheese or maybe even cheddar.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 22, 2020 16:10:16 GMT
I consider port to be like pineau des Charentes -- they both taste good, but one quickly tires of them if the bottle comes out too often. I have neither in stock at the moment and no plan to buy any until further notice.
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Post by mickthecactus on May 22, 2020 17:06:59 GMT
I like a port but you don't want too much of it.
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Post by tod2 on May 23, 2020 11:42:17 GMT
Maybe it's best in a Portwine sauce……served over?
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Post by kerouac2 on May 23, 2020 14:49:39 GMT
Port is port. Either you like it or you don't. The sweeter wines are created by stopping their fermentation so that more sugar remains. But yes, there are uses in sauces or toppings.
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Post by lagatta on May 23, 2020 19:15:51 GMT
I can like a bit once in a while, but with the same budget would far prefer the dry wines made in the same region. www.wineanorak.com/douro2004_1.htm (An old article, but the offer has only expanded and improved in quality). Obviously, in centuries past, Port and Sherry were far easier to ship overseas. I have friends who live in Porto and would love to visit them some day (when my travel to the European continent is paid for another function). They are both professors and I do hope they have some pull to get me a summer spot in a university residence (which other prof friends have done in Paris and Perugia). I'd have zero problem attending a beginners' Portuguese course for that,though it would be more logical to improve my Spanish before "activating" Portuguese. I'm sipping on a Portuguese white right now, but it is a Dão, not a Douro.
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Post by whatagain on May 25, 2020 6:56:19 GMT
Potugese wines can be excellent
For sweet wines we have some bottles of Rasteau (cotes du Rhone) that i prefer over Pineau.
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Post by bjd on May 25, 2020 8:10:02 GMT
Rather than Pineau, for aperitifs we usually drink Floc de Gascogne. Similar but made from Armagnac rather than Cognac. I also like Lillet with a bit of orange peel in it.
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Post by tod2 on May 25, 2020 9:35:30 GMT
Oh happy day! June 1st we can all rush into our Bottle Stores/Bottle Shops/Nicolas's, and load up our booze of choice once more! Of course June 2nd has been declared NATIONAL HANGOVER DAY !!
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Post by kerouac2 on May 25, 2020 15:15:01 GMT
Oh happy day! June 1st we can all rush into our Bottle Stores/Bottle Shops/Nicolas's, and load up our booze of choice once more! Of course June 2nd has been declared NATIONAL HANGOVER DAY !! When I look at my collection of bottles, I think it would just stop drinking if ever there was a liquor lockdown here. Just like many other people, I bought a lot of stuff for possible guests and they are not anything that I would really want to consume myself. Not quite the same in terms of deprivation, but on the midday news today there was a report about a French family stuck in India. They were on a one-year round the world trip when lockdown happened. They are in a small village near the border of Nepal with no tourists (no Westerners in any case). As adventurers, they seem quite happy with their situation. They have become vegetarians, just because there is no other option. They also go to pray at the temple every day ("we don't even know who their gods are"), basically because they have obtained use of the temple-keeper's kitchen. The temple-keeper has benefited as well because he was living alone at the temple, but there are 5 people in the French family, so the villagers contributed a full sized cooker for all of them. One of the teenage daughters said their her command of the Hindi language is getting pretty good. Her sister (who looks like a twin, but they are probably a year or two apart) is more interested in keeping up with her social media. The younger brother is more interested in playing football. Meanwhile, the father of the family is earning his keep by helping out with odd jobs and lending his tools, which are a real treasure for the villagers. Lots of Indian television channels have come to interview the family because they find them fun and exotic. Okay, those of you who read this can now have a drink.
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Post by tod2 on May 25, 2020 15:35:32 GMT
Ha! If only…..Another Fee Vert and tonic with one of my lemon ice blocks. Tomorrow I will continue squeezing lemons and freezing them in ice trays for the time when the tree is bare.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 25, 2020 20:35:21 GMT
Okay, those of you who read this can now have a drink. No alcohol in my house at the moment, but I enjoyed reading that anyway. I'm drinking ice water because I have one of those thirsts where you feel thirsty even as you're swallowing the water.
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Post by tod2 on May 31, 2020 9:35:16 GMT
Monday Monday…..The beginning of a joyful time for those of us who ran out of The Good Stuff not because we did not calculate the lockdown accurately but because Covid-19 decided to hang around for not twice the length, but I can see it will be for 10 times the length to haunt us. But hey! How about a lovely glass of a really nice sparkling wine that is as close to Champagne as we can get!
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Post by kerouac2 on May 31, 2020 15:14:25 GMT
I put a carafe of rosé in the refrigerator to have with dinner. Nothing fancy in my flat.
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Post by tod2 on May 31, 2020 16:43:00 GMT
Rose` is my most favoured wine especially if it is nice and dry. Most rose` wines here are "suspicious". I don't think they are genuinely from black grapes, but a concoction of white and red wines. Not that that is very terrible, except when the wine itself is very terrible.
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