So last week I noticed a big matzoh display at the supermarket, which got me thinking about Passover Coke. For those of you who don’t know, Passover Coke is special because instead of corn syurp, real sugar is used as the sweetener! The store we were in didn’t have any. After checking several more stores as a side mission to the brisket quest, we failed, learning Passover was still too far off for stores to have the special coke in stock.

Before I continue I must explain a pretty weird connection my mom and I have. It’s a very peculiar but really real psychic random food synchro – something. The example I most often cite is this one time I woke up and I suddenly wanted to eat this Korean dish called kong namul bahp, which is basically rice that’s been cooked with a little pork and a lot of bean sprouts, then eaten with a soy sauce mixture that’s loaded with garlic and red pepper. Anyway, this was maybe 5 years ago and I hadn’t had it in perhaps 10 years. Anyway, I couldn’t stop thinking about it the whole day, and when I got to the restaurant that evening, the first thing I told my mom was, “You know what I’ve been craving? Kong namul bahp.” She shot me a weird look and said, “Follow me.” We went downstairs, and she showed me a huge bag of fresh bean sprouts (the dish requires a type a sprout we don’t normally use at ther restaurant). She goes, “This morning I saw these at the farmer’s market and thought, I can make kongnauml bahp with these!” Freaky.In any case, the next day I get to the restaurant, and the FIRST thing out of my mom’s mouth is, “Have you ever heard of Mexican Coke?”

I shit you not!

A friend had found a place on York Rd., a latin grocery, that occasionally stocks the stuff. And I gotta say, it really is different. It tastes exceptionally clean, and the complexity of the myriad essential oils really comes through. In fact, I had that rare, intense sense of nostalgia gripped me after I took the first sip – it really took me back, in a very vague but definitely palpable way, to my childhood, when I guess Coke was made with sugar. I swear it really did! Anyway I am shamelessly hording my stash – I even have it hidden so friends won’t be tempted when they open the fridge. I know, I’m an asshole.

I use a modified version of the popular and widely cited “Senator Mikulski Recipe”, which in turn closely resembles the recipe printed on Old Bay Seasoning cans. Oddly, there used to be an original, slightly different Mikulski recipe, published in the “Maryland Way” cookbook, but I can’t seem to locate it. They all share the most common seasoning component: mustard. I’ve found Dijon adds unnecessary complexity, and dry mustard lacks the balancing acid component of prepared yellow, which I prefer.

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