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National Vodka Day

October 5th, 2014

For some reason, Oct. 4 is National Vodka Day. Let’s take a look at all things vodka, shall we?

Distilled

Too many vodka brands boast how many times they’re distilled. Don’t fall for this. The more times a vodka is distilled, the more of the flavors–as minimal as they are in vodka–are stripped away, leaving you closer and closer to pure alcohol. Three-times distilled is plenty.

Best place to enjoy vodka

I highly recommend visiting the vodka vault inside Red Square Restaurant at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. It’s basically bottle service inside a sub-zero-degree room, and you and up to 14 friends wear fur coats while enjoying your vodka (more than 360 from which to choose).

Vodka flavors

It’s amazing how many flavored vodkas exist. Take a look at this sample:

Brand # of Flavors
Skyy 13
Three Olives 24
Absolut 20
Stoli 15

Some are super weird, like Three Olives’ Loopy, which tastes like Froot Loops cereal.

Gimmicks

Dan Aykroyd’s Crystal Head Vodka comes in a bottle shaped like–you guessed it–a crystal skull. You also can get vodka made with jewels–check out Diamond Standard Vodka, which is filtrated with DeBeers diamonds.

Perhaps the most bizarre is G. Vodka, which is poured over the naked breasts of a former Playboy Playmate and then bottled up. See for yourself in this video (warning, NSFW!).

Martinis

Of course, in a blog post about vodka, I have to talk about martinis. I’m not a fan of vermouth, which I feel overpowers the main ingredient (gin or vodka) of the martini. Apparently, Winston Churchill felt the same way, saying “I would like to observe the vermouth from across the room while I drink my martini.”

One way around this is by ordering your martini “dry” (meaning less vermouth). Another is by swirling your martini glass with vermouth, then dumping it out. However, I prefer Alton Brown’s method of adding vermouth to a shaker full of ice, shaking, then straining out the vermouth before adding the vodka or gin.

I’m also not a fan of olives, so I take my vodka martinis with a lemon twist. Other types include dirty (with olive juice), a gibson (with a pearl onion) or on the rocks (which I don’t consider a real martini).

Paleo Mama Bakery

September 28th, 2014

Is Paleo another diet fad? Not according to Belle Pleva, founder of the newly opened Paleo Mama Bakery, who told me that at least some aspect of it (e.g. avoiding processed foods) will endure.

You can find endless stories of how the Paleo lifestyle–which consists primarily of consuming fresh fruits, vegetables, grass-fed meat, poultry, eggs, fish, seafood and nuts–have improved the health of its followers. Belle is no exception–she is now med-free and symptom-free from her auto-immune disease with which she was diagnosed several years ago.

Belle let me sample several of her desserts and snacks, all of which are free from grains, gluten, soy and refined sugar. In summary, I thought her products were delicious and near-replicas of their non-Paleo counterparts, though be prepared for higher prices as a result of using hard-to-find ingredients (e.g. coconut flour).

Take for example the carrot and orange cupcake ($12.99 for four). The pure honey leads a parade of flavors that also include organic oranges and Chinese five spice. I couldn’t even tell the different between normal flour and coconut flour, as used in this recipe.

You can immediately taste the banana in the chocolate banana bread muffin ($11.99 for four), although the chocolate was a bit more subtle. Still, this super moist muffin seemed like “the real thing.”

I enjoyed the two cookies I tried, even with the slightly grittier texture. The oatmeal cookies ($11.99 for eight) are made with almond flour, unsweetened coconuts and flax seeds, among other ingredients, and the chocolate chip cookies ($11.99 for eight) have both almond flour and coconut flour.

The candied pecans ($12.99 for 8 oz.) are sweet and addicting, thanks to the coating of pure honey and organic cinnamon. Another satisfying snack is the chocolate granola ($11.99 for 8 oz.). It contains walnuts, almonds, pistachios, bits of semi-sweet chocolate and too-tart-for-me cherries.

One non-sweet item graces the menu, and that’s the spicy tortilla chips ($8.99 for 4 oz.), which uses–what else?–almond flour as its base ingredient, and it’s seasoned with several organic spices, including cayenne and turmeric. If you can get over the fact that these chips are more wafer-like instead of crunchy, they can readily be inserted into your snack rotation.

Paleo Mama Bakery operates out of New Self Renewal Center, 6300 Enterprise Ln. Currently, you must order your baked goods at least 24 hours in advance.

Rare Steakhouse

September 21st, 2014

The area where State Street and Mifflin Street converge is home to a growing restaurant empire that consists of the Ivory Room, Capital Tap Haus, Buck and Badger and now Rare Steakhouse. The owners did a beautiful job of renovating the space, as seen by its mahogany interior and atmosphere of elegance without pretentiousness.

All steaks are dry-aged for up to a month in the state’s only in-house dry-aging cooler. I know this because our head waiter during a dinner talked our ear off and went into excruciating detail about everything. Fortunately, that was the only negative aspect of the restaurant.

I was impressed with the selection of appetizers, but the one I want to feature is the PB&J ($20), a plate of foie gras and port black currant jelly in mini jars with a (small) side of French bread. This was a highly decadent dish, with all the ingredients complementing each other’s flavors (salty, sweet and tart)–an excellent way to wake your taste buds.

That brings me to the steaks. I tried both the 6-oz. filet ($23) and the 16-oz bone-in ribeye ($46). As expected, the dry-aging unlocks a different type of meat–much beefier in flavor and of course more tender. While enjoyable, the steaks were a bit under-seasoned.

Other entrees include chicken, lamb and seafood.

All entrees are served a la carte. Sides include duck frites ($8) and twice-baked sweet potato ($10). I recommend the BLT Mac ($12) because of its delicious blend of cheeses and added bacon (no lettuce, luckily).

If you still have room, get the bananas foster ($10) for dessert. It’s prepared table side. The bananas are cut into coins instead of length-wise, which seems to allow them to soak up more flavor.

Rare also serves lunch. The Prime burger ($15), topped with bleu cheese, carmelized onions and horseradish, was super flavorful and juicy. I also was a fan of the lobster roll ($16), with its generous chunks of lobster meat. Meanwhile, the French onion soup ($9) was unexpectedly filling and sweet.

Rare serves dinner Monday-Saturday and lunch Monday-Friday. It also has outdoor seating, which seems a bit out of place.

***

See more photos in our Rare Steakhouse Flickr album.

Rare Steakhouse on Urbanspoon

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