Food

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17 August, 2026

Recipe: the Negroni Svegliato

Posted by blackcampbell under Booze, Food | Tags: |
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I spotted this a few months ago and got around to trying it. Take a nice tumbler, throw some crushed ice in it. Add an ounce of gin (I prefer the Botanist or Edingurgh Gin’s Seaside recipe), an ounce of good sweet Vermouth, and ounce of Campari.

While you’re doing that, you can either use a moka pot (or briki, if you’re Greek), or an espresso machine to make a shot. 1 ounce is better than two for balance, here; but two works, as well, for a more coffee flavor. Add the espresso to the Negroni and give it a stir. Toss in a slice of orange for color.

A friend of mine described it as tasting like a Long Island Iced Tea. I disagree. The one nice thing is the caffeine gets those blood vessels opened so the alcohol can give you a good smack in the forebrain — and you’re awake.

Ingredients: 1oz. Gin, 1oz. Campari, 1oz. sweet vermouth, 1 oz. espresso

 

10 May, 2013

Creating Verisimilitude: Strange Foods and Drinks

Posted by blackcampbell under Food, Roleplaying Games, Writing | Tags: , , , |
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Reading a post from my Victoriana alum (and contributor over at Gnome Stew) Walt Ciechanowski on Facebook got me thinking about verisimilitude in modern games or writing today. Specifically, he was talking about Boost!, a citrus soda that is available only in a select area of southern New Jersey. I have a similar strange food from the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, where I lived as a kid — Schaeffer’s Bologna, an “all-beef bologna, flavored only with salt and pepper”, an a touch of garlic has an edible skin and is great snack food.

For the longest time, you couldn’t get real New Mexican chile paste (red or green) or salsa outside of the state. The California stuff is too bland, Texas too sweet…during the ’90s, when I was away from Albuquerque, I would get cravings for NM-style chile and could only find something similar in Sierra Vista, Arizona when I was stations at Sierra Vista. It was also one of the first places I could find McEwan’s ales outside of Scotland — then it started popping up everywhere until Heineken bought the brewery and delisted it, leading to my singular desire to blow the Netherlands off the face of Europe.

So those of you reading, please chime in — what a particular, very popular but highly localized food or drink from your neighborhood or past. (Tell us what it is and where it’s limited to. Who knows, it might turn up in someone’s game!)