The Foodie File: Shot Glasses Revisited
Remember shot glasses? Not the utilitarian versions used in boat races at University or versions with tourist logos emblazed – “Greeting From Sunny Jamaica,†– but those delicate little glass vessels that, in our house, are pulled out Christmas morning after church. My dad pours three or four different liqueurs, amaretti in this one, drambuie – my mother’s favourite in another, a little anisette and a couple of brandies to toast our celebration before the major cooking starts for the day.
I was helping my grandmother move last week and she was offering up items she no longer used. Included in them was a fantastic cut-crystal tray designed to hold six petit crystal cylinders and a small decanter to be passed to guests with a bit of sherry, or set out decoratively on a sideboard tea table. They tickled me just seeing them and made me want to have a party, just so I could use them.
I had a second shot glass run in the same week at a Vodka tasting for U’luvka Vodka. This Polish version of the shot glass was specifically for vodka and had the unique distinction of not having a base to set your glass down. The mythology behind the bottomless glass went something like this: the Royal Court would use such glasses in times gone by and since it was impossible to put the glass down it was necessary to continue to drink until all the bottles of vodka were empty. Since the court could not function on days proceeding the revelries, due to their hangover state, the king declared that the state alchemist must create a libation that would keep the Polish economy from grinding to a screeching halt – hence the vodka in question was born, smooth as silk and hangover-less.
I can’t vouch for the lack of hangover (at $69 a bottle, I could hardly afford to put it to the test)! However, it did make a mighty fine Martini. And aren’t the shot glasses lovely, I feel another party coming on….
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