Manhattan (pronounced man-hat-n or muhn-hat-n)
(1) An
island in New York City (NYC) surrounded by the Hudson, East and Harlem rivers,
13½ miles (22 km) in length, 2½ miles (4 km) across at its widest and 22¼ square
miles (58 km2 in area). Technically,
it’s an ellipsis of Manhattan Island and in certain legal documents, cartography
and for formal purposes it’s described also as Manhattan Island.
(2) One
of the five boroughs of New York City, approximately co-extensive with
Manhattan Island and coterminous with New York County. It contains the business district of NYC, its
financial centre (Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) etc and many
of the businesses associated with the fashion industry (Fifth Avenue and
environs) and the art business (Greenwich Village).
(3) A cocktail
drink consisting of four parts whisky, one part vermouth, and a dash of bitters.
Pre
1600: From the earlier Manna-hata (recorded
by Dutch settlers & military personnel), from its name in Unami, the
Algonquian language of the Lenape people (self-described as Lenni-Lenape (the
original people)) who were the island’s inhabitants when European settlement
began. The research by linguistic
anthropologists was inconclusive and there are a number of suggestions
regarding the origin of the name: (1) a compound of the Unami mënatay (island) or the Munsee munahan +
another element; (2) because the island was once a wooded area with Hickory trees
yielding timber suitable for making bows, the early forms Manna-hatta & Mannahachtink
were spellings of manaháhtaan (place
for gathering the wood to make bows) with the related locative form being manaháhteenk,
the construct thus Munsee manah-
(gather) + -aht (bow) + -aan (place); (3) the “island of many
hills” & (4) “the island where we all became intoxicated”. Manhattan is a noun & proper noun, manhattanite
& manhattanese are adjectives, manhattanism is a noun, manhattanize manhattanizing
& manhattanized are verbs and manhattanism & manhattanism are nouns;
the noun plural is manhattans. Modern
style guides suggest that even when forms are derived from the proper noun,
there’s no need for an initial capital although traditionalists will insist.
What is
now New York’s borough of Manhattan was in 1626 named New Amsterdam by colonists
from the Dutch Republic who, two years earlier, had established a trading post (in
what is now Lower Manhattan). After some
of the squabbles and negotiations during which Europeans re-drew the maps which
reflect their arrangements even today, the territory and its surroundings in
1664 came under English control in 1664 and the city, based on Manhattan, was
the capital of the United States between 1785-1790. Although the exact date on which “Manhattan”
became the common descriptor for the island among Europeans, the consensus is
it would have been sometime in the mid-seventeenth century. The cocktail named Manhattan was certainly
being served in the 1870s but why it gained the name or just when the first was
mixed isn’t known although there are a number of imaginative tales, none
supported by evidence. What is thought
most likely is that it was either served in an establishment in the locality or
somewhere close seeking to trade of the association with the name.
Lilo in Soho: The Manhattan apartment where Lindsay Lohan lived in 2013, Mercer Street, Soho.
The
standard adjective is Manhattanite (of or from, Manhattan) which replaced the earlier
Manhattanese which, although obsolete, is sometime still used as a jocular term
(to describe a certain style of speck thought associated with financial traders
although it was a hardly distinct form).
The noun Manhattanism (the style of architecture and urban design associated
with skyscrapers to enable high population densities in a limited space) was a
coining of architectural criticism, the companion verbs being Manhattanize, Manhattanizing
& Manhattanized; the process was Manhattanization. In architectural criticism, Manhattanization
was something neither wholly good or bad and depended for its reception on
where it was used. Where it was appropriate
and added to urban utility, it would be praised if done well but where it
destroyed something of social or architectural value, it was derided.
The Manhattan Project's second detonation of an atomic bomb: the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima, 6 August 1945.
The
Manhattan Project which developed the first atomic weapons was so-named because
the army component of the operation was under the control of the engineering
branch and it was the army which was most involved in the initial planning
stages which involved the acquisition of land and the physical building of the facilities
which would house the research and production staff. The army’s original project name was “Manhattan
Engineer District” simply because that was where their offices were located
and, apparently because the US Postal Service used the same name for the
workshops of its telephone technicians, it was decided was “Manhattan Engineer
District” would be a suitably vague codename and one unlikely to attract
attention. It thus replaced the earlier
US A-bomb code name (Development of Substitute Materials) and absorbed the
earlier British research project (Tube Alloys).
The
Manhattan cocktail
Some
cocktails are intimidating not because of what they are but because of what’s
involved in their preparation, thus the attraction of the Manhattan cocktail which
is easy-to-make drink and needs but three ingredients: whiskey, sweet Vermouth
and aromatic bitters.
Ingredients
(1) 2
oz Whiskey: A Manhattan can be made with either Rye or Bourbon, most
historically preferring Rye Whiskey because it’s thought to be “spicier”.
(2) 1
oz Sweet Vermouth: Vermouth has something of an aura because it’s vital to both
Manhattans and Martinis but it’s just a flavored and fortified wine and it’s the
harmonious interaction Rye and Sweet Vermouth which accounts for most choosing Rye. The garnishing of a Manhattan with a brandied
or Maraschino cherry is optional.
(3) 2
dashes Angostura aromatic bitters: A timeless classic and an aromatic, alcoholic
infusions of various herbs and spices, neither the recipe or the distinctive
oversized label have changed for well over a century. One drop is so potent it can alter the
character of anything to which it’s added and some even recommend a dash in
fruit salad (the other faction advocating a few drops of Tabasco sauce for “sharpness”).
Instructions
(1) Chill
a champagne coupe, martin glass or a lowball in the freezer or fill it with ice.
(2) Add
all ingredients into a mixing glass filled with ice and stir until the drink is
chilled. Typically, that takes no more than 20-30 seconds depending on the
temperature of the ingredients and the nature of the ice. A Manhattan must only ever be stirred; they
are never shaken.
(3) Strain
the drink into the chilled (and empty) Nick & Nora glass and (optionally) garnish
the drink with a Maraschino cherry speared on a cocktail stick.
Purists like to stick to the classics but variations of the Manhattan have over the
years been concocted:
A Black
Manhattan replaces the Sweet Vermouth with Averna Amaro, a complex liqueur
which delivers an aromatic experience.
It’s one of those drinks which need to be breathed in for some time
before drinking.
In a Dry
Manhattan, Dry Vermouth is used. Most
find it an acquired taste and described it as a “harder” drink,
The Rob
Roy is known by some as the Scotch Manhattan and obviously, instead of Bourbon
or Rye, it’s made on a Scotch Whisky base. The aficionados of this kink seem all to recommend
a blended Scotch rather than a pure malt.
The “perfect”
in a Perfect Manhattan uses the word in its mathematical sense, the recipe
calling for a 50/50 split between Dry & Sweet Vermouth. The difference is said to be “very nuanced”
and the choice of whiskey will notably change the experience.
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