What a cool night! As we all got situated, shook hands and perused the prix-fixe menu, Bill Norris, FINO’s mixologist extraordinaire, greeted us tableside, delivered beautiful highball glasses and proceeded to fill them with a fabulous concoction of St. Germain and Fino Sherry. What a treat to have the mixologist out from behind the bar and coming to us. I have to say, it was a first for me. This was a night filled with cool cocktails paired with lovely courses, with a fabulous cupcake for dessert created by Jennie Chen. misohungrynow.blogspot.com/

I have never participated in such an elaborate cocktail and food pairing. It was a fun departure from the many wine dinners which I have planned and attended. The cocktails at times can offer just as much as the food, having great texture, and layers of and surprises in flavors. It’s something wine can have too, but this was more like a meal in a glass. We had 4 paired courses. That’s quite a bit of cocktailing! Having a background in wine, I was always versed in spitting so as to not over-imbibe. But, alas, I don’t think the cocktail professionals are as worried about that… not yet, anyway. So, I just took a few little sips of each drink.

The drink I want to talk about for a moment is the Paloma Flower. This was a neato drink, with peppery tequila, balanced by a hint of sweet St. Germain and textured with a frothy egg white head. It was not my favorite, but it was certainly tasty, creative and well balanced. On that particular night, I did not ask a lot of questions as Bill was pretty busy building and presenting drinks. But, then only a few days later at my Tipsy Tech Mixology class, Mr. Norris was the guest presenter and he was talking about none other than “heuvos.”

He did a great 10 minute presentation of the raw egg and its place in the world of Mixology. Health departments all over would have a fit about the use of raw eggs, but I believe as long as you put up a sign that you are using them and what the dangers are, then you are covered. Funny thing is, according to Bill’s research you are more likely to die of accidental drowning than salmonella poisoning from an egg. Ha! We also learned that the egg is making a comeback in the cocktail world. Of course we know it in classic drinks like the Ramos Fizz, but as I experienced a few nights before, mixologists the country over are creating all sorts of new, frothy beverages.

So, the key is to shake A LOT. But even more so, the big trick of the trade - and a lot of cocktail recipes don’t tell you this - is to “dry shake” the mixture. This means you shake the egg, sweetener, juice, spirit base, etc. in your shaker for about 10-20 shakes without the ice. This begins the emulsification process. Then you add ice and shake the heck out of it. In fact, you cannot shake it enough. There are even some bars that have “shaker platoons” so they can pass along the shaker for maximum emulsification! How cool is that? I want my own shaker platoon. The more shake, the better the froth. And, in an egg drink you want a frothy, light texture. If you don’t shake it enough, you will have a chalky drink. Yucko!

I tried my hand last night at 3 drinks: The Gin Fizz, Silver Fizz and Golden Fizz. All gin based, with lemon juice, simple syrup and a little club soda. The Silver Fizz was made with egg white and the Golden Fizz with - you guessed it, genius! - egg yolk. It was a fun experiment, but I wasn’t crazy about the drinks. They called for a little too much simple syrup and I found they were too sweet. But I did see how the Silver Fizz would be very refreshing in the heat of the summer. I did a lot of shaking and got those drinks nice and frothy, but I did wake up with sore arms and hands. Hmmm. Looks like I am going to need a lot more practice to build up those “shaker” muscles. Here’s to Bill and the egg. Cheers!