In Defense of Canapés
Welcome to Gourmet magazine, an independently owned digital food magazine that’s not affiliated with the Gourmet magazines of yore. Our Thursday editions are where we feature a great new recipe. Tuesday is for features.
IN THIS ISSUE: A party, a dirty martini on the rocks in D.C., and a new way to gift.
Appetizers
Répondez, s’Il Vous Plaît
If you’re a subscriber in our Epicurean, Super-Gouteur, or Communard tiers, you should have received an invitation to our upcoming New York City event (the email went out last Friday). Please let us know by tomorrow if you’d like to come! And if you don’t live in the NYC area, please fill out the survey anyway so we know where to plan our next shindig. And if you signed up for a higher tier in the last week, email us! —The Editors
Coupe de Glace
After a good meal at Washington D.C.’s Bar del Monte, I called up owner Oliver Pastan to inquire about the tipple that stole the show: a briny martini served exclusively on the rocks. The rest of the universe remains hung up on souped-up ’tinis, couped-up ’tinis, and fussy little ’tinis in minuscule glasses, but Kat Hamidi—friend of the restaurant and co-owner of D.C.’s own Capitoline Vermouth and Aperitivi—developed a batched rocks martini (complete with a perfect brine and pungent pepper-and-olive garnish) as a way to use up olive brine left over at the end of her shift. Serving on ice allows the drink to dilute itself over a course or two of a stately, unrushed meal.
If you want to try this at home, Oliver recommends you start out a little stronger “and play with the ratios of brine, however salty you want it.” An understated gin (they use Beefeater) is crucial. Bar del Monte uses Capitoline’s dry white vermouth, but anything dry will work. Dub to the Rockers! —A.T.
Un Petit Cadeau
It took us a minute, but you can now buy gift subscriptions for Gourmet-lovers in your life at the click of a button. Thank you to everyone who worked with us to manually send gift subscriptions to their friends so far. —S.D.
In Defense of Canapés
By Anna Hezel
Where have all the tiny bites gone?
As a child in the ’90s I remember stalking the cater-waiters at fancy parties and weddings. Not for a flute of sparkling cider or—even better—a Shirley Temple, but for tiny one-bite food: stuffed mushrooms, bacon-wrapped water chestnuts, or miniature spinach quiches. All I wanted were the canapés. At some point during my coming-of-age as a party host (a stage of life I have invented that spans from approximately age 25 to 35), I realized that the canapé had basically gone extinct.
Sadly, in all of our 21st-century party streamlining and optimization—SMS party invites sent en masse; batch-made Negronis; bags of Lay’s with the top folded down like a hemmed pant—bite-sized hors d’oeuvres have been the first to go. In their place, cheese boards, artfully swooped butter boards, charcuterie creations, shrimp towers, and grazing tables where anything goes—even a chocolate-covered pretzel brushing up against a sweaty piece of salami. Where have all the hollowed-out cucumber segments, radish rosettes, and all of their vegetable cup brethren gone?
