Winston Watusi Music Plus

I don't remember how this column came to be called 'Music Plus”.

It is not what you'd call an inspired name, and I suspect that a lack of imagination was to blame.

Usually how these things work is that some of us smart newspaper types sit around and try to think of clever puns. Puns are always good ways to name columns: 'The Right Note”; 'Rap-Up”; 'Songlines”; 'Slipped Disc”, you get the idea.

I assume none of us thought of anything clever so we opted for the absolutely bleeding literal – Music Plus.

That's coming in handy this week, many years down the track. I always have music on the go but we're veering off down the 'Plus” road this week – language, drinks, all sorts of parallel tracks that may for a few minutes briefly brighten the darkness of increasing lockdown ennui.

The funny thing about the repetitive nature of lockdown is that small discoveries can cause greater than usual pleasure. I, for instance, learned a new word last week and I'm absolutely chuffed. As we progress in life I find there are fewer and fewer chances to discover previously undiscovered words. Which is a shame because I bloody love words.

One of my favourites has always been 'louche”. As a snotty teenage existentialist it was pretty much the word that described all my heroes, from rock singers to philosophers. 'Disreputable or sordid in a rakish or appealing way”. That's the Oxford definition and it pretty much says it all. From Lord Byron to Jean Paul Sartre to Keith Richards, my adolescent world was populated by louche role models.

So it came as a surprise to me the other day to discover a second meaning for the word. If this is old news to you, my apologies – skip the next section. I suspect this could be relatively common knowledge and, as I am often reminded, I really don't know as much as I'd like to think I do.

LOUCHING

I was exploring a bottle of brain-bogglingly expensive Monkey 47 gin that my extravagant brother had kindly donated as a birthday present. Wanting to get the most out of this luxurious treat I Googled Monkey 47 simply for the amusement of seeing what garnish the world of on-line gin experts would suggest with my about-to-be-poured gin and tonic. And there I found a warning that made little sense to me...

'Monkey Gin can louche when added to tonic” it said. Louche? A verb? Turns out that a secondary meaning of the word louche is 'to become cloudy when mixed, due to the presence of anethole”. So that's what happens when you add water to Pernod as the French are so fond of doing – the Pernod louches. And, I'm happy to report, so did the Monkey 47.

(Just for any anal retentive obsessives like me: Anethole - also known as anise camphor - is an organic compound that is widely used as a flavouring substance. It is a derivative of phenylpropene, a type of aromatic compound that occurs widely in nature, in essential oils.)

OK. The fact that discovering this tiny skerrick of information was one of my week's high points is a sad indictment of how easily amused I am in lockdown. But, continuing down a linguistic rabbit hole, did you realise that the word 'Skerrick” is Australasian? Pop over to Britain (perhaps not immediately) and you will find people greet your use of the term with bafflement. It does exist in outdated English slang but there it means – or meant – a halfpenny.

COCKTAIL TIME

Now, since gin was responsible for my main learning experience this week, let me close out with a very simple gin cocktail recipe, an old English one which might be ideal for lockdown times since you are quite likely to have all the ingredients in the house already.

This is the famous Gin & Jam Cocktail.

To a cocktail shaker add: 40ml gin, 15ml lemon juice, 15ml sugar syrup (50/50 mix of sugar and water) and 5ml raspberry jam. Add ice, shake and strain. Be warned, jam tends to put up a bit of a fight so do give it a serious shake. Serve, in a glass filled with ice, garnished with some blackberries if you have them. Any berry of your choice will do.

If you want to be really cutting edge (for Tauranga), serve it in one of those faux hipster jam jars that have become so popular in bars. With a striped paper straw, naturally. You can of course vary the drink by using strawberry jam, blackberry or even cranberry, but here at the Watusi Test Kitchen we recommend the original raspberry, which tastes delightfully English and fills the mouth with a confectioner's dusting of candied fruit.

Cheers!