Digestion?
I suppose it depends on the problem, but where I would say they seem to work, is where the meal was a little large, and you just need a little help to start processing it.
Which reminds me of a dish in a small place near Rastignano (a village south of Bologna). A place where there was no written menu, the waiter reading out the menu (in Italian) with me listening, translating (as best as I could) for the brains of the operation and then working out what I wanted myself. I liked the sound of Beef in balsamic vinegar, but hadn’t realised this meant about a 100-150ml of warmed balsamic vinegar that the beef had presumably been cooked in. In terms of digestion, it was the equivalent of a turbo boost button.
There is something about a bitter foodstuff or drink that seems to both stimulate appetite and aid in digestion. In Asian cultures bitter foods are often an integral component of a dish. Not so much here. Perhaps this has something to do with the renewed popularity of a Negroni before a meal.
After my first experience here with the Chinato, I`m convinced just the memory of it will serve to heighten my digestion, as you say, the power of suggestion.
So according to this, the Cappellano Chinato was invented by a family member of the Cappellano Winery as stated: “It is widely accepted that Barolo Chinato was invented by Dr. Giuseppe Cappellano in the late 19th Century. Giuseppe was the second son of the founder of the Cappellano Winery. He became a pharmacist in Turin where he developed many medicines including Barolo Chinato.”
I love pretty much all things bitter, I adore amaro and chinato and most of their brethren around the world, but the Novasalus has — since the first time I tasted it — been too much for me. Based on rather a lot of conversations with bartenders and wine folk, I know I’m not alone, and among some of them it’s taken on pretty much the same role as, say, everclear does in one’s early drinking days: a challenge to prove your something-hood. I feel a little bad about all this, as a good friend imports it, but it’s really not the beverage for me unless it plays a very, very minor role in a cocktail.
On the other hand, I was talking about it with several like-minded bartenders one night, and a friend declared that our dire warnings meant she absolutely had to taste it. Which she did. And, of course, she loved it.
Sipped on some vajra chinato I bought the other day at the winery. I didn’t realize the cap was a plastic screwcap and pulled the darn thing out. How long does it last after opening?