June 19, 2009
February 21, 2009
Hukilau Bound
Mrs. BH and I have made reservations to attend our first Hukilau. We'll be in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from June 11th through the 14th, soaking up the sun, sucking up cocktails and ambience at the legendary Mai Kai Restaurant, grooving to the velvet sounds of Los Straitjackets, and learning the history of the Mai Tai at the feet of the Master, Beachbum Berry.
For those of you who've never heard of the Hukilau, just think of it as Burning Man for the Mai Tai set.
Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Tikis
Finds from a recent trip to Green Bay, WI.
January 4, 2009
Astro Aku Aku
From Beachbum Berry's Grog Log:
"The height of the Polynesian restaurant craze dovetailed with the advent of the Space Age, and almost every tiki bar named at least one drink in honor of the Final Frontier...This is our humble addition to the Astro-Aku convergence..."
1 1/2 oz. Fresh lime juice
1 oz. Papaya nectar
1/2 oz. Apricot nectar
3/4 oz. Sugar syrup
1/2 oz. Falernum (Fee Bros.)
Dash of Angostura bitters
1 oz. Lemon Hart 151 Demerara rum
1 1/2 oz. Gold Puerto Rican rum (I used Appleton's Gold)
Blend with 1/2 cup of crushed ice. Pour into Easter Island mug or large snifter filled with ice cubes.
Mini-Golf Moai On the Move
A couple of readers might remember this ancient post I made about Tuscon's Magic Carpet miniature-golf course, with it's animated pooping monkey and 25-ton concrete Easter Island head with an observation deck on top. The course closed a year ago, and to their everlasting credit, the fine citizens of Tuscon chipped in to rescue the Moai rather than let it succumb to the developers' bulldozers. Roadside America and Tiki Central were there to document the Moai's move to its new habitat outside a nightclub called The Hut, where hopefully, it will be rediscovered someday in the far-flung future by archaeologists who will wonder how the natives managed to move it from it's original location, using only their primitive technology.
[Link: New Home for Tuscon Tiki Head]
[Link: Giant Tiki in Tuscon Moving Next Week]
December 27, 2008
His Hair Was Perfect
December 23, 2008
I Want a Hot-buttered Zombie For Christmas
Popocatépetl's Hot-buttered Coffee Grog
Hot Zombie
Baby, it's cold outside, and nothing says "Wintertime" to me quite like a hot-rum toddy or coffee grog served up in a ceramic skull. Here are two fine examples for your dipsomaniacal delectation.
I whipped up the coffee grog using the basic recipe for the Volcano House Hot-buttered Rum drink in Beachbum Berry's Grog Log, but I subbed Cruzan Blackstrap rum for the Myer's Dark called for in the recipe, and added 3/4 oz. of Patrón XO Café (a surprisingly delicious coffee-flavored tequila). I dubbed the resulting beverage the "Popocatépetl", after a 17,000-foot volcano in Mexico.
The Hot Zombie recipe is from Sippin' Safari. It contains lime and pineapple juice, passionfruit syrup, gold Jamaican rum, brown sugar, hot water, a pat of butter, and a cinnamon stick. Delicious, easy to make, and even though it's served hot, it still tastes much like the Speviak Zombie, which is also in Sippin' Safari.
December 21, 2008
Polynesian Dancers at the 1964 Worlds Fair
One of my readers sent me this wonderful 8mm movie of dancers at the 1964 New York Worlds Fair Polynesian Pavilion. Many Mahalos, Joyce!
December 20, 2008
Old Ku, New Menu
Click images to embiggen
While poking around in a local antique store this morning, I found a fantastic Hawaiian Ku carving. It stands about 18-inches tall, and is carved from Monkeypod wood. There's no artist signature, and the hole in the bottom suggests that it was turned on a lathe, but that's all I know about it. Like most Hawaiian art, it probably was made for the tourist trade. Still, a nice find.
In other news, I received a most pleasant surprise in the mail the other day. Kevin, the head bartender at the Tiki Bar and Lounge in Melbourne, Australia, sent me a copy of their new menu, beautifully illustrated in classic mid-century Polynesian Pop style by local artist, Fiona Palmer. The drinks sound great. I'm particularly intrigued by the "Get Smart"-inspired Cone of Silence, which features a shaved-ice cone.
As they were closed for remodeling, I unfortunately missed out on the Tiki Bar when I was in Melbourne last January. However, I'm (very tentatively) scheduled to go there again this March, and Kevin assures me they'll be open for all of my tropical refreshment needs this time. I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed.
December 14, 2008
Cocktails of the Great Recession
Chief Lapu-Lapu
Dr. Wong with Homemade Grenadine
It's been a cold, wet, and miserable weekend 'round these parts, an appropriate ending for a really crappy week at work that ushered in our umpteenth layoff, and a promise of future pay-cuts for those of us who remain. I feel lucky to still be employed, but my job just keeps getting less and less enjoyable. On the bright side, I just consolidated all of our mortgage debt, and refinanced at a ridiculously low rate, so any potential salary reductions hopefully won't have much of a deleterious effect on our financial status.
Needless to say, I've been too busy digesting these delicious sh*t sandwiches to blog much, but I have managed to escape downstairs to the Hai'deaway for a couple of exotic libations recently, so I'll tell you about them.
The Chief Lapu-Lapu is named after the Filipino Chieftain who whacked the famous world-circumnavigating Portuguese sailor, Ferdinand Magellan, during a battle in 1521. I drank my first one at the Royal Hawaiian Restaurant in Laguna Beach a couple of years back. The restaurant is still around, and they continue to serve this fine potable, although a change of ownership and a poorly-conceived remodel have stripped it of much of its vintage charm.
Like its namesake, this drink packs quite a wallop, and thanks to my use of homemade sweet and sour mix, along with some good-quality Passionfruit-pulp syrup, it was far tastier than the one I had in Laguna.
3 oz. Sweet and sour mix (homemade: 1 part lime juice, 1 part lemon juice, 1 part sugar syrup)
3 oz. Fresh-squeezed orange juice
1 oz. Passionfruit syrup (Finest Call)
1 1/2 oz. Dark Rum (Cruzan Blackstrap)
1 1/2 oz. Light Rum (Appleton Gold)
Shake with ice cubes and pour into large snifter filled with more ice cubes.
I made some Grenadine syrup from fresh pomegranates a while back, and I've been itching to try it out, so I whipped up a Dr. Wong last night, it's a variation on the Dr. Funk cocktail I blogged about a while back. Wong and Funk clearly graduated from the same med school, but Dr. Wong advises his patients to cut back on the rum, and take a healthy dose of Passionfruit juice before bedtime. This drink was served at the old Luau of Beverly Hills. A new 90210 Luau just opened up in the past month or so, and although they've "updated" the decor with the typical pan-Asian crap you find all over LA these days, they've kept much of the old Luau's original drink menu intact. However, I'm not sure if Dr. Wong has been resurrected along with them.
1/2 oz. Fresh Lime Juice
1/2 oz. Tonga Mix (4 parts grenadine, 1 part Passionfruit juice)
1 Tsp. Pernod or Absinthe
1 oz. White Rum (I used Rhum Agricole Blanc)
Blend at high speed for 5 seconds with 3 oz. of crushed ice. Pour into a pilsner glass.