Marash Girl's friend Hélène, born in Marseille, came to visit on a hot summer's evening. As they sat on the front porch, hoping for a cooling breeze, Hélène said, "I'd love a cool drink -- do you know how to make panaché?"
"Panaché?" queried Marash Girl.
"Oh, it's wonderful! So thirst-quenching. We used to have it at picnics when we were kids in the south of France. It's very common there! Do you have gingerale?"
"Sure," answered Marash Girl.
"And beer?"
"The beer my son Deron made on his birthday, if that's okay!"
Hélène continued with the recipe.
"Panaché is half beer, half gingerale. So cooling . . . In France, the gingerale is a bit more lemony, so sometimes we add a bit of lemon here in the U.S.A. . . . You can order it all over France . . . The Irish love it too . . . they call it shanty. . . But a lot of bartenders here don't know it. It's so thirst-quenching — great for summer."
Marash Girl brought the gingerale and the beer -- cold from the refrigerator -- no ice. Hélène made the panaché . . . "Delicious!" she said. "But your son's beer is so strong!"
Here in Bavaria we have similar summer drinks:
ReplyDeletehalf beer/half citrus lemonade is called "Radler" (which means "cyclist" in Bavarian idiom, they say the cyclists have invented it in order not to get drunk when quenching their thirst)
half "White beer" (made from wheat, not from barley malt)/half citrus lemonade is called "Russ" (which means "Russian", no idea why ...)
Maybe you would like to try?