A true bargain
7 January, 2011
Not long ago I noticed a bottle of Remy Martin XO in a spare room at my parents’ place and, after a week or so considering whether I should liberate it from its sad and lonely position of clear underappreciation, I enquired about it. Dad’s immediate response was “Do you want it? You can have it,” but Mum was not going to give it away so easily. I suggested a barter of cooking wine as that would be the most likely fate of the alcoholic beverage in question and it was well received. After lunch we visited three different Chinese grocery stores before finding her preferred brand in the preferred quantity, two bottles of which set me back a whopping AUD$14.60. I offered to buy her more but she felt it was already overpriced considering that Dad was going to give it to me for free. She was clearly very pleased with her loot and talked excitedly about inviting us around soon for drunken chicken, one of her favourite dishes. Now all I need to do is acquire some suitable glassware to appreciate the cognac, something which I have yet to develop a taste for but feel I ought to in order to give the item its due, pay the proper respect as it were to the artisans who spent centuries honing their skills and the connoisseurs appraising them. Indeed, it’s almost enough to make one want to don a well-tailored dinner jacket and smoke Cuban cigars. Which ones would go best I wonder?
Rescued from a fate in the frying pan
