Recently one of my bartender friends introduced me to doing a shot of Jameson's with a pickle juice back, called in some circles a pickleback, reminding me as to how much I associate hard liquor with savory tastes rather than fruity or sweet flavors. More often than not I'd take a bloody mary over a screwdriver at a sunday brunch; I'd take a shot of tequila with salt over a margarita any day; and if there's ever a bottle of vodka in my freezer, chances are it's been in a caviar service and not a Cosmopolitan.
Often when I tell people about my particular tastes, it produces a pretty polarized reaction, ranging from "Wow that's pretty gross" (In particular when I've ordered a pickleback in unfamiliar bars) to "I've done that before, it's pretty good!", but what surprises me most is when I get someone to speak up and say something like "Oh yeah, I've got an uncle/aunt/cousin that does something like that..."
One tale spoke of their big Eastern European family dinners centered around a platter of smoked salmon with blini and fixings where they're slugging back shots of vodka inbetween bites; another spoke of a pretty hardcore table of Koreans diving into some great bulgogi while passing around a bottle of high octane soju; and evesdropping on a bar conversation at Ruth Chris I couldn't help but agree when a patron insisted that a Tanqueray martini with blue cheese olives is a far better pairing with steak than a nice glass of red wine.
I'm sure there's some crazy sort of molecular gastronomical explanation as to why I think of hard booze more like dinner than desert, or maybe it's a vague cultural thing that's managed to keep being passed down between generations. At best, I can only offer that pairing hard liquors with savory foods works quite well, and is something I think everyone should try at least once, be it vodka with oysters, or vodka and chicken soup, and yes, chicken soup with vodka is quite spectacular, especially if you've got a cold.
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