Luau!

The fire dance is always the highlight of any show at any luau

Dinner tonight was a traditional Hawaiian tourist luau.  All the essentials were included in the package.  Roast pork.  Poi.  Pineapple upside down cake.  Hula girls in dance skirts with audience participation in a couple of the dances.  All the great tourist traditions of the 50th State.

It all starts with getting the pig up out of the barbecue pit on the luau grounds.  Large men in native garb are part of this part of the tradition.

Actually, the luau started with an adult beverage.  A mai-tai.  This was an open bar luau.  The mai-tai was good, but then I heard the bartender telling another luau-attendee that he could mix up his mai-tai with bourbon instead of rum.  So I ordered a bourbon mai-tai or three.  An upgrade.  The above photo is the part where they remove the banana leaves that had been covering the pig meat during the cooking process.

, 

The meal was very good.  Food was plentiful and the bar was quite open.  The pork was flavorful, moist and tender.  There was salad, ahi poke (ahi tuna sashimi with onions) (quite good), pineapple, steak, a nicely-cooked white fish of some sort, rice, a dessert bar.  And a food blogger who neglected to get any photos of the food.

After dinner, when the sun had already set -- this was billed as the "Sunset" Luau so of course a sunset features prominently -- the light was dimming and the show started.

The highlight -- of course -- was the fire dance.

It was too dark and the fire-dancer was moving too fast for a clear shot, but the fire in motion made for a great picture.

And with that, the fire dance and the luau came to a conclusion.

Touristy?  But there is a lot about Hawaii that is there for the tourists who are an essential part of the Hawaiian economy.  So, for the 50th State at least, the "touristy" is the traditional.  Enjoy guilt free.

Phot-o' the Day: Tasting Room at the Wild Turkey Distillery; Lawrenceburg, Kentucky USA

If you had to select somewhere on earth as your "Happy Place," the Tasting Room at the Wild Turkey Distillery would have to be a strong candidate. The Tasting Room features beautiful panoramic views of the Kentucky River and the woods surrounding the distillery. Even better, it features bourbon, available for the tasting. And not the cheap stuff. The good stuff. Like the Russell Reserve Single Barrel.

My "Happy Place" is not any one place. It's on the road! Traveling. You can't lock me down with your lockdowns. I'm hitting the road.

Horses Horses Bourbon Horses

I'm at a bourbon distillery. I can't remember which one. I had HOW MANY glasses in the tasting room?

The tourism agenda I've been following on my 2019 Horses and Bourbon Mini-Vacation(TM) in Central Kentucky could best be described as follows:  Horses. Horses. Bourbon. Horses. One bourbon distillery on one vacation seems like it would be sufficient. So for the bourbon portion of my vacation programming I have selected the Wild Turkey distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky.

It is right along the banks of the Kentucky River, which flows into the Ohio, which flows into the Mississippi, which flows out into the world. The water of the Kentucky River also has a high limestone content, which improves the "sweetness" of the water.

The Wild Turkey distillery was started by an Irish gentleman who had experience making whiskey back in Ireland.

Although the Wild Turkey distillery is a large scale operation, the tour on a Monday would not be the rush hour traffic that I saw on Saturday at the smaller-scale Woodford Reserve distillery in nearby Versailles (pronounced, of course, ver-SALES because this is America).

Wild Turkey is made with a combination of corn, rye and malted barley. Our tour guide told us that Wild Turkey bourbon has a higher rye content relative to other bourbons and that Wild Turkey rye has a higher corn content than other rye whiskeys.  This is the proportion:

Rye is likely the same proportions, with the corn and rye components switched.

Since 2009, Wild Turkey has been owned by Italy's Campari group. They just need to add a vermouth bottler, since bourbon and Campari, along with sweet vermouth, are the ingredients to make the premier cocktail among cocktails: the boulevardier.

And here's what I learned. Whiskey is basically distilled beer.

They make a slurry of cereal grains and water, then add yeast to let it ferment. Basically, become beer.

The beer is then distilled.

And it becomes whiskey. This is the quality control room, to make sure that the bourbons and ryes are on track to where they are supposed to be, taste-wise.

And this is where it all becomes bourbon: aged in oak barrels, with the insides charred to a lizard-like texture.

They are packed away to age. Part of what makes Kentucky perfect bourbon making country is that the temperature extremes maximize the interaction of the alcohol with the charred barrels. You don't want only cold or only heat. You want the temperatures oscillating wildly.

And from there we are whisked off to the tasting room. "Whisked" off. For some "whiskey." I amuse myself.

With a lovely view of the Kentucky River valley.

We are presented five bourbons to sample. The first, moving left to right, is the standard best-selling 101. This is the drink you think of, when you think of Wild Turkey.

Second, is the Single Barrel Russell's Reserve, which actually has a bit of "creaminess" because of a tiny fat content. It coats the tongue. The third is Rare Breed. The fourth is ... well, I don't remember what the fourth one was ... maybe a rye of some sort. And the fifth was Wild Turkey's "Honey Sting," a honey liqueur with a hint of ghost pepper. And only a hint. It brings a little heat to cut the sweetness of the honey, but it's not overpowering. Our tour guide says the "Honey Sting" is the best chicken marinade you could ever use.

And the winner was the one I bought a bottle of in the gift shop since I've not seen it for sale at my local Lee's Discount Liquor:  The Russell's Reserve Single Barrel bourbon whiskey.