Sunday, November 6, 2011

Sourtoe Cocktail

Potato and bean stew
Food Diary (November 06, 2011)
Breakfast: Missed
Lunch: Rolled oats with coconut and sunflower seeds
Dinner: Potato and bean stew
Baking/sweets:



Today's Favourite Photo
BlackBall Signature - cold jelly topped with taro balls, taro Q, pearl and red beans



Today’s Favourite Blog
This is one of the most weird cocktails I have ever heard of. The story goes like this. In 1973 a man known as Capt. Dick Stevenson discovered a toe in a cabin that he purchased. The toe belonged to a trapper who had lost his big toe to frostbite and put it in a jar. What can one do with a frostbitten and preserved toe? I am guessing most of us who are uncreative would either throw it away, donate it to someone willing to receive it or put it on display in a hidden place. 

Not Capt. Dick Stevenson, he is far more creative than most of us. He created a Sourtoe Cocktail where a shot of any type of hard alcohol is served in a glass with a dehydrated human toe. According to the rules, the toe must touch the lips during the drink's consumption for the drinker to earn the distinction of being a true "Sourtoer."

Other toes have since been donated and are kept in pickling salt when not being slurped. This is not considered unhygienic.  The high alcohol content keeps the toes sterile, despite being in the mouths of as many as a few dozen people on a given night.

In case you are anxious to try a Sourtoe Cocktail, it is only served at the Sourdough Saloon in Dawson City, a town 300 miles from the Arctic Circle in Canada's Yukon Territory. Of course you can make your cocktail at home but its not the original, and you will also need some alcohol, and a toe as well.

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11 comments:

  1. Before I read the caption of your picture, I thought that you actually made sourtoe cocktail! Anyway, sourtoe cocktail is a rather queer drink. How does the saloon even get the toes in the first place? A very fitting post, especially since it was posted shortly after the Halloween time (just when people calm down from all those ghosts and vampires, you come up with this :D ).

    Amanda

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  2. Cheez. And I initially thought it was just a name, like Bloody Mary, not exactly chopping up Ms Mary and soaking her in alcohol. Gross! They must get a lot of toes out in the Arctic Circle ... those that have fallen off due to frostbite.

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  3. Awesome post. Maybe my wife has an extra toe I can use??
    Take care..

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  4. EW. Human toe? Gross.

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  5. That is one cocktail I would never try.
    Your stew looks amazing, really hearty!

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  6. Eww.. gross drink! I'm just going to concentrate on the blackball signature picture. It reminds me of a yummy Taiwanese dessert!

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  7. Ha yes apparently the sourtoe cocktail is very real! I first heard it a year ago at a Canada day lunch!

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  8. Oh man, so glad I'm not eating right now, reading about pickled toes!

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  9. You for sure know how to cook daily comfort food! I love the combination of potato and bean!

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  10. Amanda: no I didn’t make it. I could not find a toe:)

    ping: Yes there must be lot of toes in the Arctic circle, and probably humans too. You are not planning on going on a toe hunting expedition:)

    Foodness Gracious: maybe!

    Yummychunklet: exactly, a real one too

    Carol: thank you

    Lifeisfull: I think that dessert is Taiwanese origin

    Lorraine: I suppose you didn’t try it, yet

    Hannah: not everyones cup of tea!

    Angie: thank you

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  11. Mr. Three-Cookies, I have almost missed the hilarious and scary sourtoe cocktail story! And I thought the Mexican alcohol with a worm inside was disgusting... (At first I thought sourtoe was a plant, like a mistletoe's cousin...)
    Your soup looks simple and delicious! (And once more exotic with double carb ;-) )

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