AN UPGRADED GOURMET MARGARITA

From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

        DAY   USA   WORLD   Brazil     India  South Africa

June     9    1093     4732         1185       246       82

July    22     1205     7128         1293      1120     572

Aug    12     1504     6556        1242        835     130

Sept     9     1208      6222       1136       1168       82

Oct     21     1225      6849         571        703       85

Nov    25      2304    12025        620        518     118

Dec    30      3880    14748       1224       299     465

Jan     14       4142     15512        1151         189     712              

Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107     398

          25       2414    10578         1582        119     144

Mar     2        1989    9490         1726        110     194

          31         1115   12301          3950       458      58

April   6         906   11787           4211         631      37

May    4         853   13667          3025      3786     59 

           5         743    14567          2791       3982     46

Summary:  The U.S. seems to be settling well, but not India and portions of the World.

From the New York Times this morning:

• “We’re clearly turning the corner,” Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist, said. Here is The Times’s latest assessment of the pandemic, by Julie Bosman and Sarah Mervosh.
• Broadway plans to resume full-capacity performances in September.

On the political front, as predicted, the Republican party is fracturing into two, Trumpers and everybody else who doesn't like him.

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, so I celebrated with some Mexican food and an upgraded Gourmet Margarita.  What makes this better than the mere Gourmet Margarita I posted on last month?  Well, the cheapest Triple Sec is Juarez for $5/bottle.  The most expensive is Grand Marnier Quintessence at $800/bottle.  Cointreau costs $32.  My Grand Marnier must have been bought a quarter century ago, and generally sells for a couple bucks more than Cointreau.

All of these are orange curacaos, which can be made using the following recipe:

1. 1/4 cup zest from 3 small naval oranges.
2. 1 tablespoon dried bitter orange peel.
3. 1 cup brandy.
4. 1 cup vodka.
5. 4 whole cloves.
6. 2 cups sugar.
7. 1 1/2 cups water.

So you ask, what is the difference between Triple Sec and Orange Curacao?  

• 
  Well, they are essentially the same, except that the Curacao (in the Caribbean) version came first with Dutch influence, while the French varieties were made centuries later.  
• Curacao is pronounced Kur-ah-sow or Kyoor-ah-sow.
• First made in Curacao from the dried peels of laraha, a bitter orange, Spanish explorers were first exposed to it in 1527.

• 
  When the Dutch West Indies Company took possession of Curacao in 1634, Bols distillery, which was founded in 1575, became associated with the drink.   
• Then came the French, who made it drier with Cointreau in  1875 and Grand Marnier in 1880.  
• Triple Sec means triple distilled or three types of orange, while the sec refers to drier on the sugar scale, which goes from extra-sec to sec to triple-sec to sec to doux (the sweetest).  

• 
  Orange curacaos come in varous colors, and this will surprise you:  Blue Curacao, used in Blue Hawaiian, is just Orange Curacao with blue food coloring, although you can go natural with Butterly Pea flowers.

So, finally, my Cinco de Mayo meal last night, starting with the an upgraded Gourmet Margarita.  The traditional version starts with 4 oz of tequila, 2 oz of triple sec, some form of sugar depending on your taste (although the triple sec provides enough sweetness for me) 1.5 oz of lime juice, crushed ice and salt (at the rim of the glass).  For health reasons I avoid the salt.  I usually don't have enough fresh lime juice, so I substitute Rose's Lime Juice.  I this time added a wedge of lemon, Grand Marnier, plus Mezcal.

After golfing at the Ala Wai Golf Course, I stopped by Market City, where I thought there was a Mexican restaurant to pick up something.  Not there anymore.  The only other place that came to mind on my home was a Taco Hut.  But was that still there?  The last time was a quarter century ago when I bought a tacos and tried to eat it while driving on the Pali Highway on the way to Kailua.  This is something you definitely should not do. Well, it was there, so I took home two Tacos Supreme.

The Tacos Hut tacos is rather mild, so I added some chopped onions and an appropriate hot sauce.  THE ULTIMATE GOURMET MARGARITA would use Grand Marnier Quintessence, which goes for $800.  Dan Dunn of The Imbiber said:  It’s just everything a sentient human being could possibly want from Grand Marnier... or any cognac for that matter. It’s delicate. Fresh. Powerful. Just absolutely delicious. I would drink this with my last meal on Death Row.

The Dow Jones Industrial broke another all-time high, rising 318 to 34,549.

Here is a list of Asian adult fiction authors.  Not only have I not read any of them, I previously did not know they even existed.  Then there are my various books, and here are two of them mentioned in my VERY FIRST BLOG POSTING on 29 April 2008.  They both made the top ten non-fiction list in Hawaii in May.  The first book signing on 4 May 2008.

RollingStone selected the best 100 American sitcoms of all-time.  13 of them are still available on Netflix, but you need to fully subscribe to the NYT to get this info.  This is the full list, and here are the top six:

1. The Simpsons (Fox, 1989...and still on)
2. Cheers (NBC, 1982-93)
3. Seinfeld (NBC, 1989-98)
4. I Love Lucy (CBS, 1951-57)
5. All in the Family (CBS, 1971-9)
6. M*A*S*H* (CBS, 1972-83)

A continuation from yesterday, watch Mom is Watching.  And another on animals napping:

I'll end with another one of those dance sequences:

You would have thought the music was typical Jerry Lee Lewis, but the song is by now 59-year old Micke Muster of Sweden, who Lewis himself said was the best Rock'n'Roll pianist and singer...next to him.  The original version of Boogie Woogie Country Girl was by Joe Turner in 1955, and has been covered at least 35 times by others.

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