FOOD

LIQUOR / FOOD Halloween is the season to make cocktails creepy

by Mike Usinger

For those who love to drink—making sure to be creative while doing so—it’s the most wonderful time of the year not named Christmas.

Before we get to October 31, let’s start with the ultimate brilliance of Halloween, namely that there’s nothing stopping anyone from celebrating it 365 days a year. What do Sarah Bernhardt, Siouxsie Sioux, Ivan the Terrible, Elvira, The Mad Duke Of Portland, Maila Nurmi, and Patricia Morrison all have in common? That’s easy—upon spinning Ministry’s “Halloween”, they sing loud enough to wake the dead when Al Jourgensen croons “Well any time, any place, anywhere that I go/All the people seem to stop and stare/They say ‘Why are you dressed like it’s Halloween?’”. And then they crank the volume a notch one verse later with “And I dress this way just to keep them at bay/’Cause Halloween is everyday”.

Walk around dressed like Kris Kringle, Buddy the Elf, or everyone’s favourite dark overlord Krampus, in the middle of summer, and people will go out of their way to avoid eye contact. Hit the Commercial Drive food co-op in white greasepaint, three layers of NYX Matte Liquid eyeliner, and a death’sblack-haystack hairdo, however, and folk will just assume Bauhaus, the Misfits, and Skinny Puppy are three of your two favourite bands.

But back to the Halloween season, which, over the past couple of decades, has become mondo-huge business.

The big night for trick-or-treaters is October 31, but the buildup starts long before then. Which is why, for 30 straight days, it’s all about watching horror films: Dawn of the Dead, The Evil Dead, Hereditary,

Assuming you’ve still got some flesh on your bones, it’s always a good time for a Corpse Reviver.

Planet Terror, Dead and Buried, The Return of the Living Dead, and the indescribably awesome Sleepaway Camp.

And nothing—with the possible exception of a half-dozen mini Wunderbars— goes better with those nightly screenings than seasonally appropriate cocktails.

A couple of tiki-nation classics make supernatural October go-tos. The Zombie and Last Rites have great names. They also work a tropical vibe that whisks imbibers away from a West Coast where the fall monsoons start in the third week of September.

Three different rums, apricot and cherry brandies, orgeat syrup, and pineapple, papaya, lime, and orange juice go into Salvatore Calabrese’s potent spin on the Zombie—whip up a batch and then cue up 1932’s pre-Hays code cult classic White Zombie.

The Last Rites is easier to execute, assuming you can get your hands on Falernum (hit up Modern Bartender in Chinatown) and Martinique rum (which the British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch promised it would start carrying last month, but is nowhere to be found). From there, all you need is fresh lime and passion fruit syrup (pick up a package of Goya passion fruit pulp at your local Latino grocery, and mix with an equal amount of sugar). Then sit down with 1988’s Last Rites and see if you agree with Roger Ebert’s zero-stars rating.

While we’re on the subject of great cocktail names, the Corpse Reviver dates back to the 1800s in the States. Popular legend is that the drink—which has its own sequels, including the Corpse Reviver #2—came to life at the Savoy Hotel in London. And, sorry, while a Corpse Reviver sounds a natural for a Re-Animator rewatch, famed bartender Harry Craddock whipped it up for customers so hungover they felt dead.

For the Corpse Reviver No. 2, the recipe for which is below, you’ll get a crash course in the beauty of oh-so-French Lillet Blanc. As for the spirit-forward Corpse Reviver, line up the cognac, apple brandy, and sweet vermouth, and then bludgeon that screaming hangover into submission. Preferably with your cocktail in one hand, and a metal mallet tenderizer in the other while The Midnight Meat Train plays on the 60-inch flatscreen.

Here, from The Savoy Cocktail Book, is an original Corpse Reviver #2 recipe you can make right before you rent The Serpent and the Rainbow.

CORPSE REVIVER #2 3/4 oz. London dry gin 3/4 oz. Lillet blanc 3/4 oz. orange liqueur 3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice

Rinse a chilled coupe glass with absinthe. Add the gin, Lillet blanc, orange liqueur, and lemon juice into a shaker with ice, shake, and then strain into the glass. g

Mushrooms pops up on post-deluge bestseller list

by Charlie Smith

Is there any connection between an atmospheric river and a book topping the B.C. bestsellers list? It’s hard to answer that question because the Royal B.C. Museum handbook, Mushrooms of British Columbia, has been on this list for nine weeks.

However, after the monumental dump of rain from October 15 to 17, mushroom-bearing fungi were popping up all across Metro Vancouver. And perhaps not coincidentally, Andy MacKinnon and Kem Luther’s authoritative tome topped the weekly list produced by B.C. publishers.

For those wishing to identify fungi in their neighbourhoods, Mushrooms of British Columbia is ideal. That’s because it includes photographs of about 350 varieties, along with fairly detailed and readable descriptions. Best of all, the book informs readers whether the mushroom in question is poisonous.

The colourful fly agaric, for instance, is described as poisonous and hallucinogenic. Its warts sometimes wash off in the rain.

“This is the iconic mushroom featured in Alice in Wonderland and in Mario video games,” the authors write.

Famously seen in Alice in Wonderland, the iconic and colourful fly agaric is a fungi that’s both poisonous and hallucinogenic.

For those interested in edible mushrooms, there’s the cowboy’s handkerchief, which is white, convex, and around eight centimetres across. The golden-fringed waxy cap is less slimy and also edible.

“Warnings about the risks of foraging for and eating wild mushrooms abound,” MacKinnon and Luther declare. “But the actual danger, spread out over the wide variety of mushrooms and the frequency of their consumption, is not as great as is commonly believed (or represented in the media).

“In British Columbia, we have reliable records of four people dying from mushroom poisoning,” they continue. “These are all tragedies. But the real risks need to be kept in perspective.”

In fact, MacKinnon and Luther point out, more people die from getting lost. or are seriously injured while picking mushrooms. than die from consuming them.

Most of the land in B.C. is public, which means there are plenty of spaces for those who want to go foraging. And they’re not only in forests. According to Mushrooms of British Columbia, microfungi are also found in fields, pastures, bogs, alpine areas, and deserts. And there are more than 3,000 species of mushrooms in B.C., exceeding the total in any other province. g