Slow Food Cocktails at Flatbush Bar(n)

Today I had a lot of firsts: my first trip to Brooklyn, my first time drinking rye whiskey, my first Slow Food NYC event. I'm sure there were a few others, but those are the highlights. So, for starters, Slow Food NYC is a local chapter of Slow Food USA, which is an offshoot of the larger Slow Food International. Follow that? Anyway, I'm a card carrying member and this is what the group stands for:

Slow Food New York City, the NYC convivium of the international Slow Food movement, identifies the varied and authentic gustatory and cultural experiences that are unique to our city and preserves and cultivates them through education, activism, and enjoyment. We support and celebrate regional farmers, artisans, and professionals who fill our market baskets and dinner plates with fresh, seasonal, and sustainably produced foods and traditionally crafted food products and beverages. We recognize and protect the many varied cuisines and food traditions that represent the rich cultural mosaic that is our city. In a town renowned for its fast pace, Slow Food NYC takes the time to savor, promote, and defend the slow traditions that make our city unique.

So getting back to the event, it was a focus on greenmarket foods that were used in farmhouse-style hors d'oeuvres and served alongside cocktails that were also prepared with fresh greenmaret ingredients. The cocktails were prepred by Alan Katz who, among his other credentials, is President of the New York Chapter of the United States Bartender Guild and has a satellite radio show on cocktails on Martha Stewart Living Radio.

We had five cocktails as follows:

• Cucumber & Mint Martini (muddled with gin and apple cider)
• Peach Thyme (muddled peaches with thyme, pisco, Cointreau, lime juice and egg whites)
• Black & Tan (muddled blackberries, lime juice, mint, rye whiskey and homemade ginger beer)
• Deep Mountain Daiquiri (dark rum, lime juice and maple syrup)
• Watermelon Smash (cahaca, homemade limoncello and watermelon

All were yummy, but my favorites were the Black & Tan and the Peach Thyme, which Katz sad would also work with figs. Now I have some ideas for the next time I get inspired to have liquor with my fruit.