As a Japanese person, I love to drink. The first time I traveled to the U.S. with my sister, the two of us would always order a bottle of wine during lunch, and then again for dinner. The servers were always amazed;...
While Jonathan and I were visiting the east coast for a wedding last week, we snuck away for a couple of nights to his family's house in Vermont. New England is absolutely gorgeous this time of year. Blueberry-picking is a popular activity here during...
The Prohibition Era figures prominently in the collective imagination of the cocktail world. The aura and mystique surrounding that era still wields great influence on popular culture. The popularity of HBO's Boardwalk Empire is a perfect example of our still not fully reconciled...
When selecting a mid-March cocktail for this article, I was tempted to go the easy route with a St. Patrick’s Day whiskey drink. Then this weekend, I had the fortune to dine at Magasin Wells (aka M.Wells), the critically acclaimed Québécois-American diner in...
"Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?" "Certainly, monsieur." The barman seemed pleased with...
Photos by Mike Brandeberry and Kayoko Akabori. 'Tis true: there lives a kickass distillery named St. George Spirits, just east of San Francisco, right across the Bay Bridge, in a little town that bleeds into Oakland, called Alameda,...
Japanese mothers and grandmothers are hardcore. Every year they make their own liqueur and June is the month to start preparing. Starting in late May, supermarkets stock ume (Japanese plums) in bags of 1 kilogram which cost around 700-900...