Which ones? I’ll grant you 0ahu, but that’s only one of the islands in Oceania.
Apparently, it’s where the Mai Tai was invented. Oakland, CA.
An article on Trader Vic said:
The Mai Tai was invented by Bergeron (Trader Vic) in 1944 when he mixed Jamaican rum, lime juice, a few dashes each of orange curaco syrup, French orgeat and rock candy syrup. He served this drink to his two friends from Tahiti, who was there that night, and after one sip they exclaimed “Mai Tai – Roa Ae.” In Tahitian this means “Out of This World – The Best.” The new drink became known as Mai Tai.
Note:
Victor Jules Bergeron, Jr. owned Hinky Dink’s restaurant/bar on 65th and San Pablo in Oakland. He later changed the name to Trader Vic’s.
Ok, the 2 founders of Tiki culture were Victor Louis Bereron of Oakland, CA (Trader Vics) and Donn Beach of Hollywood: both started up during the 1930s. Victor’s parents owned a small grocery store in Oakland: he opened up his bar across the street. Donn grew up in Louisiana and spent a little time in Polynesia as a Supercargo employee, if you believe him.
I ate at Trader Vic’s in NYC as a kid and loved it. I had no inkling that the cultural authenticity of the restaurant was nil.
I’ve feeling all nostalgic, reading this thread. My grandfather always drank singapore slings and my grandmother would get a mai tai. Haven’t been to a tiki bar in ages, and I’m probably more likely to get a tiki drink than any food that would find itself on a tiki menu.
Coconut shrimp is sounding good though. Might have to go a-hunting.
I’m something of a cocktail wonk, and I’ve got several books on tiki drinks. Can’t say that I’ve got into the actual Tiki culture though. But the drinks are fantastic! As far as books go, I can’t recommend “Smuggler’s Cove” by Martin Cate enough. “Beach Bum Berry Remixed” is also great (it’s an omnibus edition of two of his earlier books- “Grog Log” and “Intoxica!”) - lots of recipes, but less guidance as to ingredients. Between the two, you should be well-armed to recreate any tiki drink from the classic era, and a lot from the modern era as well. What’s interesting is that a lot of these drinks were kept secret in the original restaurants and bars, then when they were closd, the recipes were effectively lost for decades, until Jeff “Beach Bum” Berry basically did some archaeology, sleuthing and hunting-down of old-timers, getting notes, notebooks, recipes, etc… and then recreating the old recipes. And each restaurant had their own spin on the drinks- everyone had a Zombie, for example, but nobody’s Zombie was exactly the same. So the books often have multiple versions of the same drink, with some commentary about the history, which one is canonical, and which one is actually the best. “Beach Bum Berry Remixed” has a couple pages devoted to the Singapore Sling and the many variants alone.
I did learn something interesting while reading up on the drinks - apparently one of the very the last “real” tiki bars from back in the day is the Mai Kai in Oakland Park, FL (near Ft. Lauderdale/Miami). It’s been open since 1956, and has pretty much the same drinks and food that they started with. I’d like to go there someday and try it out.
@bump: Excerpt from my post upthread. Sadly Mai Kai may be no more. But it was totally awesome. With luck it will be once again!
Well crud. I wasn’t aware that it was in dire straits. I’m very intrigued by a tiki bar/restaurant that dates from the heyday of Tiki Culture, and less so in latter-day reproductions.
I keep singing “Thank God The Tiki Bar is Open” as I read this thread…
Jimmy Buffett does a fine live version, but you canNOT beat the original: John Hiatt (live, with the unmatched Sonny Landreth on slidey guitar).
Haha! Good one! I think I’ll learn that to sing in the tiki band I’m in.
I think I’ll make ‘Hawaiian-style’ (Well, Kelbo’s-style) short ribs eventually. I’ve looked up recipes for Hawaiian-style BBQ sauce, but I’m thinking I might save some work and just try this:
Nah. I still prefer Jimmy’s. Of course, that may be that I’ve seen him sing it so many times.
so cal tiki fans rejoice !
I’d go i i could lol i havent had a mai tai or blue hawaiian in ages …