http://davehora.com this is just the public beta Mon, 22 Dec 2008 03:51:10 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Rather than the usual mid-December to mid-January break that CMU provides, I've been working 4 days a week for the last couple months, the schedule being Monday and Tuesday bartending, Wednesday and Saturday on the floor. The service industry is definitely a demanding one. Nobody at the restaurant has really asked ... http://davehora.com/2008/12/holiday/ Recently I found a quick and easy peppermint candy recipe in the New York Times. Honestly, the only ingredients are sugar, water, peppermint extract, and a bit of oil to grease a baking sheet. For an unknown reason I began to attempt this recipe at halftime of the ridiculous Steelers game ... http://davehora.com/2008/12/peppermint-failure/ http://davehora.com/2008/12/the-king/ Batch #1 has finally been pulled out from storage and is going to be / has been used as a straight infused vodka. I decided to go directly into action and worked through 4 variations of drinks until hitting something nice, and pushed on for a 5th, because why not? ... http://davehora.com/2008/12/infused-vodka/ A man (who will remain anonymous and henceforth be referred to as Morgan Freeman) walks into the bar on Monday night. Morgan Freeman, fairly well dressed and in control, orders whiskey, a bowl of steamed brown rice, asks for Tabasco on the side and eventually acquiesces to Sriracha. He drops a ... http://davehora.com/2008/12/a-man-walks-into-a-bar/ The Post Gazette has finally reviewed Richard Chen Pittsburgh. The staff was eagerly awaiting China Millman's review, which came out at 12:00am Thanksgiving day. It's a pretty good read (or maybe I'm biased because I work there), and certainly bodes well for the restaurant's success in Pittsburgh. We were hoping for ... http://davehora.com/2008/11/richard-chen/ Two weeks ago I started infusing some vodka with cardamom and white pepper in hopes of making a spiced liqueur. During the creation of that batch of infused vodka and the subsequent waiting period, I had a few questions come to mind about the process: Should I have ground up ... http://davehora.com/2008/11/cardamom-liqueur/ I just got back home from working the bar at RC. Today was my first encounter with the unbelievably phallic and outright ridiculous mollusk known as the Geoduck (pronounced "gooey duck"). One of our sous chefs had mentioned before shift that "the gooey ducks are in!" but I wasn't quite sure ... http://davehora.com/2008/11/the-gooey-duck/ To accompany the current batch of infusing liqueur (now possibly just to be infused vodka), I decided to tackle a quick and easy ginger simple syrup. I went for this one on a whim, but making simple syrup is unsurprisingly simple, even a flavored one. Because it was on hand, ... http://davehora.com/2008/11/demerara-ginger-simple-syrup/ I don't like it. I don't intend to slam the place, but I don't understand how the Church Brew Works can put its name on consisently disappointing beer. Honestly, in my last 5 trips (and please, ignore the fact that I'm an idiot for going back so much) I haven't ... http://davehora.com/2008/11/church-brew/