The bottle of ouzo gathering dust in your cupboard needn’t just be a reminder of ghastly deeds done abroad – a properly made arak can be deliciousIf you look at the back of most British drinks cupboards, there will be a dusty, untouched bottle of ouzo or raki brought back from holiday. When I was a student, if we were considering broaching the ouzo, we knew it was time to call it a night. Ouzo is associated with sunburnt flesh, Demis Roussos and carnage on the streets of Malia. It has a reputation for causing a particularly intense kind of drunkenness, but this is only because it’s usually taken when the imbibers are already extremely drunk. They wake up the next day bruised and ashamed with a taste of aniseed in their mouths, and naturally they blame the ouzo.Ouzo is part of a family of drinks common to most countries with a strong Muslim influence – let’s not forget that Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire for around 400 years. In Lebanon they have arak, in Turkey raki, and they even make something similar in Saudi Arabia. This is not so surprising as the Arabs were probably the first people to distil alcohol; alcohol is an Arabic word. “Arak” means “sweat” in Arabic, and describes the distillation process rather than what happens when you drink too much. Continue reading...
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