Bon Vivant's written and pictorial diary of her culinary adventures that will amuse and excite your virtual taste buds...

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Micheladas de Clamato - a Way of Life

Below, my new favorite drink (in the background you can see the chartreuse colored pool):


Marygun had insisted that I buy last Wednesday's SF Chronicle for the food section. Was I glad that she did because one recipe really caught my eye: Micheladas de Clamato. I really love Micheladas and remember drinking them at 9 am in the morning last summer in order to cool off after my exhilirating vegetable buying excursions at the Hollywood Farmers Market. I had never had one with any type of tomato juice in it so I was intrigued (I later discovered that Clamato has high fructose corn syrup and MSG in it so I think that I might switch over to a mixture of V-8 and bottled clam juice.)

In anticipation of the bombardment of Ranchera music coming from my neighbors' houses that we would be listening to all weekend, mumsy and I fortified ourselves with a six pack of Tecate, a bottle of Clamato juice, some organic limes, and a bottle of Frank's hot sauce (the recipe calls for Tabasco but I prefer Frank's).

Sure enough, the music starts. It wouldn't bother me so much if there was a good taco truck in the neighborhood; I mean, what better way to balance annoying music than with good tacos?

I really needed this drink, Dear Reader. We were involved in a bit of a fender bender on the Carquinez Bridge and while there was not a lot of damage to the old M3, the stick shift got out of whack so I could only drive it in third gear. Shades of Little Miss Sunshine? But I managed to get the Teutonic powerhouse to the dog kennel just in time to pick up los doggos.

Below is the recipe. Make them, you'll be so glad that you did!

1 light bodied Mexican beer (I used Tecate - it always needs doctoring up!)
Salt
1/4 cup Clamato juice
Juice of 1/2 lime
2 dashes Worcestershire or Maggi (I left this out since I didn't want to pay $4 for it)
3 dashes, or to taste, Tabasco (I used Frank's)
Salt and pepper to taste

Gently pour beer into salt rimmed glass. Add the rest of the ingredients and adjust taste accordingly.

What the recipe doesn't tell you is to serve it over ice which makes it a million times more refreshing.


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