Bitters, any of numerous aromatized and often alcoholic liquids containing bitter substances (chiefly alkaloids, glycosides, or complexes), used as tonics, liqueurs, appetizers, digestives, flavourings, and ingredients to add tang or smoothness to alcoholic drinks.
Because appetizers are intended to be provocative, they enable the diner to enjoy foods that are too pronounced in taste or too rich to be eaten in larger quantities.
In Russia, where fairly low alcohol content of 40 percent by volume (80 U.S. proof) is preferred, and in Poland, where 45 percent is more common, vodka is usually consumed unmixed and chilled, in small glasses, and accompanied by appetizers.
In both the Scandinavian countries and northern Germany, aquavit is usually served chilled and unmixed, in small glasses, and is usually accompanied by appetizers or sandwiches; it is the traditional accompaniment to a smorgasbord.
In Spain the bars and cafés of Madrid offer widely varied appetizers, called tapas, including such items as shrimp cooked in olive oil with garlic, meatballs with gravy and peas, salt cod, eels, squid, mushrooms, and tuna fish.
Cocktails, especially apéritifs, the characteristic "dryness" of which allegedly stimulates the appetite, are customarily served with appetizers.
Everyone loves snacks, and the best snacks are the ones that are the worst for you, and there's no day so dedicated to the consumption of abundant unhealthy appetizers as this coming Sunday.
However, the original Swedish buffet of appetizers known as a smörgåsbord remains a national favourite.
She calls her appetizers "comfortizers," an apt designation for the spinach-and-cheese empanadas and for the mini-cheeseburgers, two to a plate, taller than they are wide.
The Italian-born chef and co-owner, Roberto Aita, a shy and gentle-seeming man who was last the chef and co-owner of Williamsburg's similarly humble Fiore, has an instinct for appetizers, and, especially, vegetables.
Standouts among the appetizers are two vibrant seviches — one with red snapper, scallops, and spicy mango, the other with bigeye tuna and a salsa of chile and citrus.
