Pastis

After Monday night's Bulls game, my son and I wanting something, but not much something, headed to Avec. Mingling our binoculars with the opera goers', we noticed Prado (an appellation I had never heard of, but I figured it is either from Ricard or Pernod) pastis on the menu. I'm not sure I'd ever seen pastis in Chicago restaurants. The discovery was similar to finding Suze at Brasserie Jo and St. Raphael at Cyranos. I immediately ordered some having no idea what I'd pair it with. Unfortunately they were out of pastis as they were of the Portugese red by the "glass" I next ordered (must have been a good weekend at Avec), but also avoiding what food I'd have with the pastis.
I personally would have had no problem matching it with the salumi or some olives, but I'm not sure that I have ever seen food eaten with this Provencal (really Marseille) aperitif.
Are Mediterranean anise aperitifs ever paired with food?

I can't say for sure, but I would imagine that most seafood would go pretty well with pastis or Pernod, given the anise component.

oh and this is probably slightly different from what you were thinking about, but I used to make a pastis semifreddo that I served with a pear/almond tart back when I worked for this guy.

Pernod w/ distilled water and sugarcube is my fave, fave, fave aperitif. I first was served pastis many years ago at...ta-da!...it should be obvious...Cafe Absinthe in Wicker Park...where the gregarious bartender suggested I substitute the latter for the aforementioned...

so began my love affair with pastis and my introduction to it's proper serving protocol(glass, slotted spoon, sugar cube, water)

it's no absinthe, but who really drinks that(um...illegal) stuff outside of university?

quick aside:

at a college party someone with foresight had got ahold of some wormwood, everclearish something or other, anisette and green food coloring...left to infuse as a birthday surprise

the next day...ahhh...metabolism how I lament yr misspent youth:

after morning ablutions I hooked up with a housemate and conspiratorially, concerned-even, asked...um...did you happen to have an irregular "regular" shit?

everyone in the house pooped forest green(that crazy la fee verte) for awhile

FWIW, I've had real absinthe many times in Eastern Europe (they just legalized it a few years ago in Hungary, and it's always been legal in the Czech Republic as far as I know), and I can tell you, it ain't all that. The levels of thujione (the compound in wormwood that is banned in the US) are much lower than in the Hemmingway days, but there's a lot of controversy over whether thujione was really responsible for people going nuts on the stuff, or from the copper that was used to originally color it green, or if it was simply the high alcohol content (the absinth I had was generally around 130-140 proof). In my experience the effects were no different than had one participated in an late-night bender with Everclear. It's just strong stuff and hits you fast.

But, who knows, your mileage may vary.

Binko wrote:FWIW, I've had real absinthe many times in Eastern Europe (they just legalized it a few years ago in Hungary, and it's always been legal in the Czech Republic as far as I know), and I can tell you, it ain't all that. The levels of thujione (the compound in wormwood that is banned in the US) are much lower than in the Hemmingway days, but there's a lot of controversy over whether thujione was really responsible for people going nuts on the stuff, or from the copper that was used to originally color it green, or if it was simply the high alcohol content (the absinth I had was generally around 130-140 proof). In my experience the effects were no different than had one participated in an late-night bender with Everclear. It's just strong stuff and hits you fast.

But, who knows, your mileage may vary.

I've been served real absinthe as well; long ago in a San Franciscan galaxy far, far away...and been nonplussed

from my tacit research over the years/and...um...experience...(there's no end to folklore and commercial history)concerning the subject

I've long since concluded it wasn't the thujone necessarily...and "organic"(read: psylocibin, as a more mainstream example...potent potables for 500, Alex) hallucinogens always seemed more amenable than those espoused by Leary and a certain dolphin-lover...eh...it wasn't the thujone that drove 'em mad, but the toxicity of the alcohol proof(and syphillis, perhaps)...my .02, anyhow

CG, the protocol you speak of is actually for absinthe, or commercially in the states, absenthe, not pastis.
No self respecting Frenchmen, particularly in southern France, would let a cube of sugar near his pastis.
In my Americanized eyes there is a ritual for pastis as well. A juice size glass is delivered with the liquor already poured or the waiter will pour about 2 oz. A small glass dish containing no more than three small ice cubes with a set of small metal prongs is delivered, along with no more than 6 oz of room temperature water in a small Ricard or Pernod carafe. One adds ice and water as you like, with an apparent goal of making it last as long as you can.

MLS wrote:CG, the protocol you speak of is actually for absinthe, or commercially in the states, absenthe, not pastis.
No self respecting Frenchmen, particularly in southern France, would let a cube of sugar near his pastis.
In my Americanized eyes there is a ritual for pastis as well. A juice size glass is delivered with the liquor already poured or the waiter will pour about 2 oz. A small glass dish containing no more than three small ice cubes with a set of small metal prongs is delivered, along with no more than 6 oz of room temperature water in a small Ricard or Pernod carafe. One adds ice and water as you like, with an apparent goal of making it last as long as you can.

I always figured Absinthe's bartender extraordinaire was off...thanks for the clarification

(allowing an humble author's respite---i.e. confabulation)I forgo the sugarcube, anyway.

Filtered(not distilled) water and pernod, ricard, etc is the way to go in my book. The opalescent shimmering aperitif...ahhh...like mother's milk; if yr mum's an old, syphillitic, french whore...

I've got a bottle of absinthe that I mail orderedfrom France (!!!!) sitting in my cabinet waiting to be polished off. I usually have a tipple or two, not enough to produce the famed hallucinatory high.

I like it...but I like pastis and licorice and anise and anisette and horehound and...

MLS wrote:I personally would have had no problem matching it with the salumi or some olives, but I'm not sure that I have ever seen food eaten with this Provencal (really Marseille) aperitif.
Are Mediterranean anise aperitifs ever paired with food?

I apologise for the delay in my response but I had taken a temporary job slaughtering turkeys over the past couple of weeks.

Anyway, yes, they are. Please see here (further on in the long post some food-drink pairings are mentioned):
Tartines au Pain d’Oliverie
Olive Oil Cake Hors d’œuvres
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=70192#70192

Santé!
Antonius

MLS wrote: I'm not sure I'd ever seen pastis in Chicago restaurants.

Pernod is stocked at a ton of restaurants in Chicago... pretty much any well stocked bar/restaurant should have it. I don't like it... my so like it, mixed with water--no sugar cube. (I thought the sugar cube thing was restricted to the stronger Absinthe, not pastis?)