Sri Bala has come up with a delightful adventure that combines cooking and drinking, photography and blogging. Each week, I’ll suggest a liqueur or alcoholic beverage, and Sri will create a dish that uses it as an ingredient. He’ll be blogging about the food part over at his fine blog, with photographs and recipes and other wonderfulness, and I’ll expand upon the boozy parts here.

For this week, I selected Frangelico, an Italian liquor. It comes in a distinctive bottle, shaped like a monk with an actual bit of rope tied around the waist. The flavor is primarily hazelnut, but you can also taste cocoa, vanilla, a bit of oak, and other spices.

Oh, and sugar — it’s sweet as all get-out, in the style of liqueurs like Amaretto and Framboise.

Typically one drinks it after dinner, on the rocks or in coffee, or as part of a cocktail like a Nutty Irishman. Frangelico is excellent mixed with a shot of espresso, and can be layered in a pretty pousse-cafe with coffee or espresso and whipped cream.

And you can mix a bit with vanilla vodka for a hazelnut Martini (pictured here — note that I need to improve my photo skills if I hope to keep up with Sri in this adventure). Lovely in chilly weather.

Frangelico doesn’t show up in recipes as often as amaretto does, which is a shame. It’s delicious, and of course the bottle is a hoot. So it was my clear choice for the first week of this intoxicating culinary adventure.

And now, without further ado, I invite you to hop over to Sri’s place and check out Drunken Rice Noodles — “rice noodles chilled in Frangelico and soy milk, with hints of vanilla and cardamom.” Mmm!