Tag: alcohol

I was out with some friends and we were discussing what kinds of beer cocktails there are.

My first idea was the classic Submarine cocktail – having a shot of Jägermeister submerged upside down at the bottom of your beer glass. I used to have these decades ago at my regular bar.

Apparently there are more cocktails that you can make with beer, but the alluring idea of a Submarine swam around in the air and we were googling around how to make it.

At first we didn’t have a clue – how to get the shot of Jägermeister at the bottom of the beer glass without spilling any of it.

But eventually one of us – who also happened to be a professional barman – found the how-to instructions for this marvelous abomination.

So we went to the service personnel of the establishment to order one.

Apparently the art of making a Submarine is lost in time, only to be found in ancient tomes. Just as our barman initially couldn’t concoct one, neither could the officials of the premise.

So our own barman, albeit on his day off bartending, took the matter to his own hands and assembled a Submarine, teaching the young’uns while doing it.

It was finally there with us. The Submarine.

And I started to sip on it.

At first the only thing my tastebuds sensed was the cheap flavour of the cheapest beer we used in making it.

But eventually the shot glass at the bottom of the beer glass tipped over, and my drink slowly bled brown.

And the taste transformed from one of shabby beer to that of serious booze.

It was marvelous.

Got any tasty recipes we could cook the next time? Let me know in the comments.

I have been studying Japanese for a few years now. Haven’t had too much progress. The rate of acquiring new kanji 漢字 and vocabulary is low, but the progress is steady and I’m slowly learning more. Meanwhile, I have a friend who got really good at Chinese, even got his master’s degree at it. I’m impressed he got so well into this totally different culture and language. So last week, to renew our bonds, we had a Chinese night out with him and another friend.

We had some food and beer at a Chinese restaurant that he is working for. Surprisingly, another of my old acquaintances was working there as a waitress. It kinda made me feel sad and nostalgic, that I’ve hung around with like a 1000 different people in the past, and now I don’t even remember their names anymore.

My half Chinese friend told us some stuff about Chinese culture – explained that the way you know someone is a real Chinese person is that they are spitting, farting and burping loudly in public. He added jokingly that this was exactly why he got into Chinese culture – because he felt that you should be able to do these things freely.

To finish off the meal, we had some shots of Chinese rice vodka. The guys warned me it would be horrible but I thought it was nothing too bad, so we continued the evening by going to a bar in town that actually specialized in that Chinese rice liquor and got some more shots of it there. I initially thought it was weird we have enough money in our small town that a bar as specific as that can function, but the place was actually extremely nice so I ended up getting why it can stay in business.

Finally we went to my place, it was sort of my house warming event for them since I moved a few months back. On the way, the half Chinese guy farted loudly, which confirmed that he is a real half Chinese person.

My whole life revolves around video games, so of course when we arrived here I instantly whipped out some controllers and put on Puyo Puyo Tetris. That game is a sort of a tradition for me, every time someone comes over I gotta play it with them. I win every time and feel ashamed that I put them through that, but traditions must be continued.

I felt like the half Chinese guy was not all that impressed with my videogameyness, but the other guy kinda saw the appeal in it. Overall it made me rethink my life for a moment – should my whole identity consist only of games or should I rather do something else with my time? But that thought faded soon.

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I think that the best format to write blog posts is to end it with a surprise, a punch line. Otherwise it ends up feeling like the ending is abrupt, the post unfinished. But I didn’t manage it this time. So therefore, to make this more of an educational article than an entertaining one, I’ll give you, the reader, some more insight into Chinese culture – here is an illustrative picture of the booze mentioned before: