Send all questions to [email protected]
I desperately want to sip a beer on the beach. There’s only one problem — I hate beer! I’m sick of being stuck with shitty wine in dive bars. How can I learn to love beer?
The best advice I can give you is to head to a bar known for beer and start talking to the person behind the bar. Tell them what you like and don’t like and let them guide you on a tour of everything they have to offer. I am sure you’ll find something you like. Just go in with an open mind and a willingness to try new things.
Can I drink the night before my annual physical checkup with my doctor?
It actually doesn’t really matter. If you’re in good health and drink in moderation, a drink or two the night before this annual doctor’s visit isn’t going to change anything. If it makes you feel better to not drink, then by all means don’t. A night of abstention is not a terrible idea in the slightest.
The only time drinking would truly impact a physical is if you happened to drink less than 12 hours before a blood test, and that test happened to be testing for high liver enzymes. In this case, alcohol consumption could spike the test. But according to doctors, the alcohol consumption would have to be a very serious amount and you’d usually have to already have some alcohol-induced liver disease from heavy drinking, though it can show up in people who are totally healthy, too, depending on how much you drank.
So, if you’re concerned, abstain. And you should always try to limit your drinks to one to two a night anyway.
I went to a great restaurant last night with a friend. They had an entire page devoted to my favorite wines, reds from Piedmont. But my friend wanted white. What’s the move here? Should I have ordered a bottle for myself anyway and just drank two glasses? Or should I have gone with the by-the-glass they had on offer?
This is a conundrum many face. In fact, I’ve received a similar question from a reader I’ll call Meg who has a friend who always only wants to order a bottle of Champagne when they go out to dinner, even though Meg would rather drink red. While Meg could simply order a glass of red, depending on the establishment they’re dining at, the friend might have a hard time finding a by-the-glass Champagne pour.
I assume this might be hard for you as well. Unless you’re at a top-notch Italian restaurant, wines from Piedmont are pretty hard to find by the glass. Since the place you were at I assume had this, in the above situation, by all means, order what you want and let your friend order what she or he wants. But if this is a friend you dine with regularly, it’s definitely more economical to share a bottle than to both drink wines by the glass. I’d challenge you to have a conversation with them. Why not propose that you alternate who picks the wine when you go out to eat? At least that way, you’re drinking what you want 50 percent of the time.
