Digestif?

Having just returned home from today's Last-Minute-Impulse-Athon, I'd like to rejoice in the pleasure I find in the company, wit, smarts, intelligence & compulsiveness of my fellow chowists [1]. Not to mention that I enjoy being around people who can pack away even more food than I can.

I'll chime in on the posts about today later [2], and as I sit sipping on my Campari & soda, I wondered what others of us use to make their innards comfortable after a day of excessive eating. Bicarb? Prilosec? Campari & soda makes me happy, but I wonder if I'm missing out on something even tastier or more efficient. I'm especially interested in getting tips on other digestif liquors [liqueurs? dictionary indicates a liqueur has to be sweet, which Campari and Fernet aren't....]

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[1] I'm still feeling the lack of a good noun to refer to ourselves with. I have a liking for "chowist"; Gary [and others] have a fondness for LTH'er, which is very specific & descriptive and takes at least 6.2 minutes to explain to a non-chow friend [and they seem to lose interest after about minute 2]. Any other ideas?

[2] I wasn't there for the whole thing, and it sounds like the carnitas loomed large as high points of the day.

Giovanna

Hi,

I just returned home from said event. I am about 2.5 hours away from my last bite, after biting ALL DAY. I have read a few chapters of a book and once the train started, I went to sleep. I feel substantially more energized this moment than when I stepped out of your car almost two hours ago.

After soooo much eating, I learned I feel sooooo much better when I stop eating. My blood is swirling around my brain again, instead of beelining it to my stomach to digest; which it has been doing most of the day.

I enjoyed my day today, I will enjoy the memory more tomorrow after a good nights rest.

Until something better comes along, I am a Chowist to the general population (shy away from foodie) and LTHer or anything else seems fitting with my friends here.

Regards,

In Italy, there's a wide variety of herbal, often quite bitter, digestif liqueurs known collectively as amari. I'm a big fan.

It seems that each region or city has its own amaro: there is amaro Averna (Sicily), Ramazzotti (Milan), Nardini, Meletti, Lucano, Nonino, Braulio (aged to smooth), Montenegro (Bologna - vanilla flavor), etc. As with aperitifs in France, reginal biases are often quite pronounced. The combinations of herbs and additives are, of course, usually secret and often mind-bogglingly complex. Dominant tones run the gamut from mint, to vanilla, to savory flavors such as cumin. Sweetness varies but is generally prominent. Though Campari and Fernet Branca don't market themselves as amari, I don't really see the difference - beyond the fact that Campari is often served as an aperitif instead of a digestif. It's probably a branding decision, in the same way that Punt e Mes and Dubbonet are not called vermouth, though they are.

The combination of bitterness and viscous sweetness doesn't do much for most Americans. A splash of club soda and some fruit usually makes them more appealing but then they've gone from being a digestif to being a long drink, an appropriate cooler for a balmy summer evening.

In NYC, it's fairly common for Italian restaurants and cafes to have a few amari on the menu. It's much less common in Chicago. However, I have noticed that the newish wine bar on Division, Enoteca Roma, has several on the menu and plans to add more. They're available either by the glass or as a flight of 3 for $8. I've never been to the place so I can't vouch for the quality of their food or their ambiance. However, based on their affiliation with Letizia's Bakery, I expect a ramshackle charm rather than sophistication. That said, I give them a nod of appreciation for including this relatively unrecognized category of spirits on their wine list. If you like Campari, Fernet Branca, etc., you should give them a whirl. There's got to be one that will suit your tastes.

rien

Enoteca Roma
2146 West Division
773-342-1011

How about Underberg? It's widely available in around Chicagoland, but personally I find it to be completely unpalatable. I have a friend that used to tend bar at Goose Island, and the bartenders there would use Underberg for gambling purposes... Lose the bet and you had to drink a bottle of Underberg...

Giovanna:

My paternal grandfather, who lived to see his 101st birthday, swore by the medicinal efficacy of Fernet Branca and I do not disagree with his opinion.

Another drink which I regard more as medicinal than recreational and yet no less pleasureable than efficacious is the German Underberg.

While actually consuming a large, multicourse and not especially light meal, I firmly believe in "le trou normand": a shot of Calvados between courses to cut a hole through what has already been ingested.

Santé!
Antonius

I've found Chicago to be a pretty easy place to find amari. Even an establishment like Mia Farncesca, say, has always had 4 or five on hand since opening its doors.

While I love Campari, especially when mixed with good gin and good sweet vermouth then topped with bitters (your stomach is ready for anything after that medicinal combination, the negroni), I love even more its dark, cheap and more bitter cousins, Cynar and Strega. Hell, I'll even have dessert, which I almost never eat, if it is Strega on ice cream.

BTW, Campari for many years marketed itself as "Bitter Campari" focusing on bitter orange peels in the poster art. Somewhere along the line, it seems the company wanted the product to be thought of as a hip mixed drink ingredient rather than an old man's postprandial, pre Brioschi tipple.

When it comes to bitters, you name it, I like it. I drank all the bitters on offer in Italy. Even Underberg has its uses, although I consider it medicinal. (You have to chug it.)

I really like a few drops of Angostura in soda for a low-alcohol tall drink, Camprai in soda for a higher-alcohol one.

Speaking of medicinal booze and that intended to aid digestion, does anyone know much about Chinese and/or Korean spirits? Or know of a good source of information?

I've picked up clues here and there ... some information in Chinese cookbooks and travelogues, randomly picking out bottles at Korean restaurants around town (Hae Woon Dae has some medicinal oddities on their menu) ... but extensive, let alone comprehensive, knowledge eludes me. This seems to be a vast topic on which very little is known ... the bottles are imposing, offering little information for the initiate. Those that complain about obscure labeling on French and German wines should stay away or they may have a seizure. And, perhaps wrongly, I always have a minor but nagging fear that these - and many other sketchily labeled bottled and packaged goods - are not produced in the most sanitary and regulated conditions. If you ever seen packages of mysterious frozen larvae in the frozen foods section of an Asian market labeled as something innocuous like "green beens," as I have, then you know what I mean.

rien

rien wrote:Speaking of medicinal booze and that intended to aid digestion, does anyone know much about Chinese and/or Korean spirits? Or know of a good source of information?

Rien:

Good question... And in this regard, I know there is a prominent LTH figure with an interesting elixir of Far Eastern provenance... Maybe this person will reveal what the 'Snake wine' (or is it snake schnapps?) does or is supposed to do... Maybe a picture would be nice too.



Antonius

I'm trying to choke down the last of a bottle of Amaro di S. Maria al Monte (Genova, I believe) I bought on the recommendation of a trusted spirit advisor (note, not spiritual adviser): big mistake. I've been loyal to Averna for years and had no reason to change, but I try to be open minded. Henceforth, I recommend 4 cl (in an Averna glass, if you can find them) with a single ice cube...Ancora pe cient'anne.

Oh, and I tried the snake-soaked-in-battery-acid once in Saigon. I had made a grave personal mistake trying to keep up with several Australians, and, seeking to avoid an international incident, I took them upon their offer of a healing beaker of snake spirits. Nevermore, quoth the adder (actually, it was a cobra).

I have a bottle of Unicum that I received from a friend who spent several years in Hungary. Hungarians swear by Unicum's digestif properties and as a remedy for an upset stomach. I find it a little hard to get down and it didn't do much for me the last time I was a little "under the weather".

I like Jagermeister and find that it works quite well as a digestif. Before US marketing geniuses turned Jager into an alleged hallucinogen for college kids this is how it was used.

Kurt

Sometime last year I began the tradition (especially during the warmer months) of beggining my dinners out with a negroni or campari and soda. I found this much more enjoyable than starting with a sparkling wine or some other cocktail.

In the digestif camp, if I was having a drink after dinner, it was almost always a congac or whiskey of some sort. Last night, after a nice dinner at Lula, I had my first taste of fernet branca. Completely different than anything I've tasted before, it had so many different flavors going on.

While my wife did not even enjoy the smell of it, you can count me as a fan, I'll be on the look out for this after dinner now.

Most Italian restaurants in Little Italy or Heart of the City will have amari. I particularly like Amaro Nonino which I first had at Vinci. Ramazotti is my standard.

Lidia Bastianich on TV this weekend made a Negroni using Campari, amaro, and vodka. I would not give up the gin, so I used Campari, Ramazotti, Gordons 1:1:4. Very nice variation. I am going keep leaving out the sweet vermouth replaced by something bitter, next up Cynar.