Monthly Archives: June 2010
Gourmet Underground Detroit's content archives are organized by date and catalog the aggregated content of our Features pages as well as our blog.
Lab: More Eventuality than Experiment
Needing a cup of tea a few weeks back, I hopped into a new cafe in Ann Arbor and quickly sucked down a cup of Bao Zhong. The tea, a light Taiwanese oolong, had a delightful fruit sweetness, enough so that one might have thought it had been dried with flower blossoms. Most other tea-friendly cafes in Ann Arbor either serve their tea in over-stuffed bags or brew their tea so long or so hot as to leech all the bitter tannins into the first cup.
That was my first introduction to Lab Cafe. Today, I decided on a whim to give it a more thoughtful visit.
A “friend” of the cafe standing on my side of the counter — a regular customer or off-hours employee, I’d guess — recommended a zucchini muffin. I asked where it was from, and the gentleman behind the register, Toby, replied that it was from a bakery in Kerrytown affiliated with Sparrow Market. Anticipating my next question, he followed with, “I don’t know exactly what’s in it; they keep it a secret. But it’s really quite good, and we get them fresh every morning.” The long strands of green vegetable protruding from the top indicated he was telling the truth, and the giant orange hunks of carrot embedded in the cake made by the same folks counted as a second “yea” vote in my mind.
The poured me a chai as well, which was spicier than some and less sweet than most. And I asked about the yogurt. He claimed that they made it there every day, “Well except for the milk. We don’t have cows, of course.” Having just had some less-than-natural yogurt at another place in town, I pressed him a bit and he also commented that the yogurt is sweetened only with pure sugar, no syrups or additives. I tried the four flavors — taro, honeydew, chocolate, and original — and all were delicious, especially the taro.
They serve Intelligentsia coffee, which had previously been favorably described to me by Gourmet Underground member and Great Lakes Coffee roastmaster, James Cadariu. I’m not a coffee drinker, so I can’t comment yet as to the quality of their work, but if the other products are any indication, I’m sure it’s marvelous.
Walking into the cafe is a bit like stepping out of the midwest — very minimalistic industrial design with plywood chairs, bright green accents, white countertops, and short movie clips projected over the wall where the typical Starbucks customer may be looking for a menu. But it’s nonetheless quite warm-feeling. The menus are adorned with instructional clip art (a little outlined French Press for coffee, et cetera) that I’m positive my wife would find adorable, and the floor-to-ceiling windows allow for a ton of natural light.
Coffee, tea, and yogurt cafes ranging from relatively full-service operations like Lab to tiny stands that are little more than closets with self-serve yogurt handles have been a “thing” in a number of cities, especially in places along the California coast, for a while now. So despite the experimental name, Lab is just an extension of that age-old rule that everything reaches the midwest 3-8 years after it hits the coasts.
But regardless, for those of us who work or live in Ann Arbor, it’s a nice mid-day treat, and for other Michiganders looking to occupy a Saturday, Lab might fit nicely into a stroll through the U-M Museum of Art and around the streets of Ann Arbor.
Embittered
Exhausted but looking for something other than episodes of Buffy to bring fun to an otherwise dreary, rainy day, I rather spontaneously decided to read up on making cocktail bitters. Bartending guru Jamie Boudreau posted a blog article on making bitters about two years ago. In particular, his recipe was for cherry bitters. Having never tried my hand at this before, I opted to try something along those lines.
So into an old kombucha bottle (thoroughly cleaned, obviously) went about 8 ounces of bourbon and a bunch of tart, dried cherries. In another bottle, I combined a mix of dried black walnut leaf, dandelion, hawthorn, fennel, milk thistle, and burdock — in total about a tablespoon of crushed, dried herbs — with 4 ounces of rye. In yet another, I mixed 8 more ounces of rye with additional walnut leaf and milk thistle with cracked allspice, 5 or 6 whole cloves, a bit of vanilla extract, and a big chunk of cinnamon, cracked up into a couple chunks. In a final bottle, I combined the zest of one lemon with 4 ounces of vodka.
Per Boudreau’s instructions, I’ll be moving the heavily concentrated herb mix out first — after about 5 days of exposure, most likely. Then after another 5 days, the other herbs and lemon. Then after another week, the cherries. My total time is going to be less since I’m using a slightly higher concentration of herbs in less liquid. (Also because I’m impatient.) From there, my steps will be largely the same as Boudreau’s — diluting, aging, and bottling.
I’ll give them a taste as I combine them and will write an update then as well as when they’re finally ready. More over the coming months…
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On a related note, I bought some peach bitters on a whim last week. I made a drink called a Royalist, which apparently uses dry vermouth but which I’ve also found recipes that call for sweet vermouth. I decided to try sweet given the other ingredients, so perhaps this is no longer really a Royalist. Whatever it was, it was a little sweet but very rich in terms of fruit, caramel, and herbal flavors.
1.5 oz bourbon
3/4 oz Dolin sweet vermouth
3/4 oz Benedictine
2 hefty dashes of peach bitters
A Mojito for Everyone: Mixing This Classic Summertime Cocktail for a Crowd
There is hardly a more refreshing hot-weather cocktail than the classic Cuban Mojito. The combination of lime, mint, light rum, sugar and sparkling water not only makes a cool and bracing drink, it also holds up to dilution by rapidly melting ice. Let’s face it, there’s nothing worse than sipping a sickly warm cocktail while you’re roasting under the hot sun. But, unless you do most of the work ahead of time, crafting this labor intensive tipple for a large group of people or an outdoor event is unrealistic.
Most of the work involved in mixing a quality Mojito is extracting the tasty oils from the mint and lime by muddling each individual drink. Most recipes also call for superfine sugar at this stage as the lime juice helps to dissolve the sweet granules. All of this can be accomplished ahead of time by preparing a mixture of all of these ingredients that can simply be added to the rum.
The juice:
Figure about ¾ to 1 ounce (usually one lime) per drink. Using a handheld lime press will extract the juice as well as press against the skin of the lime releasing the oils. This is a required tool for anyone even half-ass serious about cocktails. If you don’t have one yet, go out and buy it immediately or stop reading until you have your act together.
The mint syrup:
Make a dense simple syrup by adding equal parts sugar to water and simmering over a flame until the sugar is dissolved. Use plain, white table sugar or a more flavorful, less refined brown sugar to taste. Start out with as much water as you have lime juice, i.e. to sweeten 12 ounces of lime juice, compose a syrup with 12 ounces of water and 12 ounces of sugar. Having a bit of syrup left over is much better than having to make another batch to compensate.
Once the sugar is dissolved, remove the syrup from heat and let it cool for 5-10 minutes. Add mint. A few large, full sprigs will do but more is better. Muddle the mint for a few minutes to release the oils and then strain the syrup making sure to press the syrup out of the mint leaves.
This syrup also works great when you’re making mint juleps for a large group.
The mix:
Now you can simply mix equal parts lime juice and mint syrup for your mojito base. This can be done earlier in the day that you are planning your festivities. Figure about 1.5 to 2 ounces of this mix per drink. Keep refrigerated until ready to use.
The garnish:
A sprig of fresh mint is an essential component to a Mojito prepared this way. If you’re traveling, throw a bunch of fresh mint into a plastic container with a bit of water to keep it fresh and hydrated. You can not serve this drink without a fresh mint garnish. The cocktail gods are watching and you may be stricken dead. Seriously.
The recipe:
Combine 2 – 2.5 ounces light rum with 1.5 – 2 ounces mint/lime syrup in a 12 oz. cup 3/4 full of ice. Top off with sparkling water/club soda, about 2 – 3 ounces. Stir gently and garnish with a sprig of fresh mint. Rinse. Repeat.
