Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Bacche di ginepro

In the spice section the other day, I impulsively picked up a bottle of dried berries, which, my dictionary later informed me, were juniper berries.

They pretty much taste like vodka minus the vodka. They are assertive, but reticently so, like they are not used to being alone on the palate and would anyway prefer to stay tucked away in the woods by themselves with the deer. They are definitely closer to fruity twigs than blueberries: not really something that you put on your cereal.

What in the world shall I do with these berries? I hope someone will help me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

did you mean gin? gin is flavored with juniper berries (which are poisonous... weird?!). i'm sure you could use them with chicken - what can't you put with chicken? here is a good bit of historical context:

"The plant's pungent aroma has long recommended it for driving away evil spirits and disease. Legend has it that juniper planted beside the front door will keep out witches; the only way for a witch to get past the plant was by correctly counting its needles."

not just count its thousands and thousands of needles - but to CORRECTLY count them. lucky us.

Swiss Ms. said...

Maybe I did mean gin! I couldn't put my tastebuds on it. But that could be. I remembered that I have some "winter berries" vodka from Finland which may have confused the issue in my mind.

I guess I'll just push them to the back of the spice cabinet until my next evil/diseased guest arrives. Then I will spike the chicken.