Sadly, when people think of New Orleans and drinking these days the first image that pops into their mind is probably drunken frat guys at Mardi Gras. Which is true. But New Orleans has more than just drinking volume, it's got drinking history. I mean, this is the city where the modern cocktail was invented.
And the first cocktail that was invented was (arguably) the Sazerac. I was turned onto the Sazerac by a link from Making Light and started making them a few years ago. A Sazerac isn't too complicated to make, but it does involve three ingredients that you probably don't have in your home bar -- rye whiskey, Herbsaint liqueur, and Peychaud's bitters. If you've seen my home bar, you know that obscure liquors are my stock-in-trade, so finding all those pieces was no problem. And we've enjoyed the Sazeracs I've made, but never having had one that anyone else had made, there's always a lingering question of whether I'm doing it "right".
The place to get a Sazerac would be the Sazerac Bar at the Fairmont, but the Fairmont is still closed from Katrina damage. So we went to the Rib Room at the Omni Royal Orleans for Sazeracs and dessert.
So, yes, I was making them fine (the Rib Room uses Angostura bitters in addition to the Peychaud's bitters, but we'll let that slide). I had a panna cotta that was just a lovely little sliver of a thing. Erica had a Chocolate Obsession that was huge and three different kind of ultra-rich chocolate. Our bartender said that the only person he'd ever seen finish that dessert was a linebacker for the Saints, who had also eaten two full steak dinners. Erica made a good dent in it, but didn't quite finish. But that's ok, she's just a kicker.
