Ouzo

Name: Ouzo
Cuisine: Greek
Ingredients: Good ouzo (Plomari and Barbayanni are the classics); Cold water; Ice; A small plate of something to nibble — ouzo is never drunk alone

Serve when

Pour it when the families meet — Gus pressing glasses on the Millers as the lamb turns: the fastest route from strangers to family.

In the movie

Theatrical

~01:00:51 At the meet-the-parents lawn party, shots of ouzo circulate — Gus hands them to the bewildered Millers, glasses clink around the roasting lamb, and the two families get acquainted the Greek way.

Ouzo is the film's social lubricant — the anise spirit that turns the Millers' stiff hellos into dancing by the end of the night. The milky swirl when water hits it is half the theater of drinking it.

Ingredients

Good ouzo (Plomari and Barbayanni are the classics)
Cold water
Ice
A small plate of something to nibble — ouzo is never drunk alone

Method

Pour two fingers of ouzo into a small tall glass.
Add cold water and watch it louche — turning cloudy, milky white. Add an ice cube after the water, never before (ice first shocks the anise into crystals).
Sip slowly, with food, among too many relatives.
Repeat until you understand the Portokalos family. Opa!