Atomic Cocktails: Mixed Drinks for Modern Times
What cocktails do you think people enjoyed in the Polish Middle Ages? You don't know, do you? Neither does anyone else. That's because no one bothered to write such things down. But if you had to write about American culture from, say, Prohibition to the current fin de siècle, you would be hard pressed to leave out the cocktail.So hats off to Karen Brooks, Gideon Bosker, and Reed Darmon, who have taken it upon themselves to gather up the arcana while it is still fresh and available and save it between covers for this generation and many more to come. Design, recipes, and writing all stand out in this cocktail lovefest that courts kitsch while all but taking itself seriously. You'd certainly have trouble doing much better for a collection of cocktail recipes than those provided herein. The design gathers all that was hip and cool in the '50s, '60s, and '70s, by about which time the cocktail was fading in the face of wine on the one hand and party drugs on the other. This book is a nice sharp stick in the eye of the New Puritanism--as the authors point out, the mighty American industry that rose up in the 1950s was built on the three-martini lunch. We can, of course, only hope that decisions affecting a wider population--who's going to drive, for example, or where to dump that toxic waste--are no longer being made after three martinis, no matter what the time of day.And speaking of martinis, while the authors make good with tasty drink recipes such as the Stardust Martini and the Cognac Zoom, sadly missing is the Cajun Martini made popular by chef Paul Prudhomme. Now that's a cocktail to tangle with.--Schuyler Ingle