Of Whisky, Brandy, and Other Such Beverages

They succeeded! The New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust crews successfully retrieved seven crates of hundred year-old whisky and brandy left frozen in the Antarctic ice by Sir Ernest Shackleton. That's some pretty cold booze. And even though I don't like brandy or whiskey, it is a fascinating piece of irrelevant trivia worth mentioning.

I used to experiment a little with alcohol . . . in the kitchen as an ingredient. One recipe used a marinade with either whiskey or brandy in it, and (if I remember correctly) soy sauce and chili powder as well . . . some kind of cowboy, home-on-the-range style beef. I don't remember liking the dish too well, so, true to form, I remade it. I chopped up the leftover beef, added sausage, and made a sauce out of the marinade - with some East Indian spices to spruce it up - and served it over rice. I told the kids that my newly invented dish was called Cowboy Curry. They ate it dutifully, and I never made it again. I think I may have lost the recipe, and I doubt that the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust crews will take up the cause of locating it, so you are spared having to read it.

Most of my encounters with alcohol have not been worth repeating. If you haven't read how the beverage dislikes me, click here. If Andrew or Graham (my fellow instructors) ever start blogging and offer their version of any alcohol story involving me, don't believe them.