The Tiki Bar is Open

It has been a while since the bar has opened, but spring is here and it is time to get to it. We are heading to Peru in May, so today’s drink is the Pisco Sour, the national drink of Peru. Peru, in fact, has a Pisco Sour Day, which is the first Saturday in February.

The Pisco Sour was created by an ex-pat American, Victor Morris, who opened a bar, Morris’s Bar, in Lima in 1915. the exact year that the drink was created is in dispute. Some put it in the 1920’s, while others say it was created soon after the bar opened.

The base liquor is Pisco, a type of brandy produced in Peru. The Spanish introduced grape to Peru shortly after conquest in the fifteenth century. Soon after they began producing a fermented liquor called aguardiente. It became known as Pisco after the port from which it was shipped back to Spain.

Making the Pisco Sour is easy. In a shaker, mix

• 1 oz simple syrup
• 1 oz fresh lime juice
• 1.5 oz Pisco
• The white of one egg

Fill with ice and shake. Strain the drink into an old-fashioned glass. Add a few drops of Angostura bitters and garnish with a lime wheel.

The egg white makes it frothy. You can also make it in a blender, which will produce something like a frozen margarita, but the egg white will form a meringue to sit on top of the drink.

 

Japanese Internment

A new article in the Washington Post reports on the abuse of census data during World War II.  Census data is supposed to be private and confidential, but it was long believed by Japanese Americans that data from the census was used to identify them for relocation to internment camps in the Western United States. Approximately 120,000 American citizens of Japanese ancestry had their civil rights violated. they lost their homes, their savings, their businesses, and their freedom as a result of national xenophobia and fear mongering. Now a new report details how census data was used illegally to help accomplish that.  At a time when our leaders have engaged in unashamed fear mongering and xenophobia, and have proposed changes to the census, all Americans should be concerned. We are facing serious threats to our democracy and our freedom.

Questions Of Loyalty

My latest book, Questions Of Loyalty, is set, in part, in a Japanese Internment camp during World War II. The story is a mystery involving the cold case investigation of the death of a Buddhist priest in the Tule Lake camp. I can’t tell you when it will be published. Just a few days ago, I heard from my agent that she had sent the manuscript to ten publishers. Got my fingers crossed.