Hemingway Week: The Dutch Miracle
Hemingway Week: The Dutch Miracle
We rode in a taxi down to the Palace Hotel, left the bags, arranged for berths on the Sud Express for the night, and went into the bar of the hotel for a cocktail. We sat on high stools at the bar while the barman shook the Martinis in a large nickelled shaker.
“It’s funny what a wonderful gentility you get in the bar of a big hotel,” I said.
“Barmen and jockeys are the only people who are polite any more.”
“No matter how vulgar a hotel is, the bar is always nice.”
“It’s odd.”
“Bartenders have always been fine.”
“You know,” Brett said, “it’s quite true. He is only nineteen. Isn’t it amazing?”
We touched the two glasses as they stood side by side on the bar. They were coldly beaded. Outside the curtained window was the summer heat of Madrid.
- The Sun Also Rises
Hemingway’s first big hit as a novelist was The Sun Also Rises, a novel which gave birth to the term “The Lost Generation.” The characters in this novel tramp all over Spain, going from one booze-soaked adventure to another. One of thise adventures involves a visit to the Festival of San Fermin, more popularly known as the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona. For the final entry in Hemingway Week, I was inspired to try one of the cocktails that may be discussed during the seminar on Hemingway at this year’s Tales of the Cocktail.
Death in the Gulf Stream
-adapted from Charles H. Baker’s “Jigger, Beaker and Glass: Drinking around the World” and Seamus Harris
Oude Genever (I used a healthy 2 oz of Bokma)
1 lime
Angostura bitters
Crushed Ice
simple syrup (optional)
Fill 2/3 of a old fashioned glass with crushed ice. Quarter a lime and squeeze the sections into the glass, adding the spent shells. Add three dashes of angostura bitters and the genever. Stir to combine. (simple syrup can be added if desired.) Top off the glass with more crushed ice and a final dash of bitters, giving the drink a lace-like effect.
Baker and I shared something in common: a dislike for genever. I picked up a bottle of Oude Genever in Aruba on a trip there earlier this year, as I had read in Imbibe! that it was a decent subsitute for Holland Gin, popularly used in 19th Century mixology. I made an Improved Gin Cocktail and was singularly unimpressed. The maltiness of the genever was unexpected, and just didn’t sit well with me. Out of all of the drinks this week, this was the one that I was looking forward to the least.
L’s pre-sip reaction: a look of terror, as she despises gin.
L’s post-sip reaction: “Hey, I kind of like this! This is gin? (sip) It’s not half bad. Tastes like tequila.”
And there you have it, the Dutch miracle – turning a gin-hater to a gin-tolerater! Reportedly, Baker liked the combination as well. If nothing else, I know that I now have a use for my bottle of genever.
