CHOW [and BOOZE]: The Bourbon Sidecar.

Sorry I've been away. It's been a crazy couple of weeks.

To make up for it - here's a cow in a racing helmet in on a motorcycle.

From Eric Asimov's new blog in the NYT:

I hate to pigeonhole myself, but when it comes to cocktails I love the classics. I want a martini made with gin, not vodka. The same goes for a gimlet. In fact, I don’t really care for vodka at all, unless it’s straight, iced down and served with caviar, or Peking duck. (That’s flexibility, no?)

I prefer a Manhattan made with rye rather than bourbon, just as the original recipe calls for rye. Rye has a racy, dancing quality in the mouth, like Sichuan peppercorns, while I find that Bourbon tends to be a little sweet and flat, and mixes best with ice cubes.

I’m not doctrinaire or snobbish about these things. Years of experimentation simply confirm the wisdom of the originals, despite the well-intentioned creativity that leads to the lesser variations. And I’m not the contrary sort either, although certain members of my family might disagree with that assertion.

And here’s proof: the bourbon sidecar.

Being a cognac/Cointreau/lemon juice man myself, I've never used bourbon in a sidecar, much as I've never used the word doctrinaire in a sentence until just now - neither would have occured to me. But it's looks like it's something worth trying.