TIKI CULTURE

Happy New Year from the Tiki Lounge! Banana Banshee and Shirley Temple Recipes for your NYE Party!

Happy New Year!

It seems like just yesterday I was writing a Happy New Year post here under the swaying palms. 2011 went by pretty fast…maybe not fast enough for some of us kats! But it’s over now, just a few hours left as I write this post. This is definitely one of those years that needs to end with a big BANG and you can bet your bottom buck we’ll be doing just that.

Swingin’ in the New Year should be fun and full of music, dancing and booze. Just remember to play it safe, kids. You know I’m always hawking drinks on this page, as cocktails are part of what make living the Tiki good life so good. Drink up, enjoy ‘em all ’til you’re as happy as a clam…just remember to do it right, and don’t do anything stupid like trying to drive, or ask your boss for a raise, or operate a steam-shovel while loaded!

Here’s a couple of my favorite New Year’s cocktails. One is full of wonderful booze, the other is the world’s greatest non-alcoholic cocktail for any aged partyer.

The Frozen Banana Banshee

Banana Banshee

I’ve featured this krazy cocktail a few times already here at Tiki Lounge Talk, but I can’t get enough of it. I had my first Banana Banshee at a New Year’s Eve Party in 1977. It was all the rage in the mid 70s in Philly, and it just seemed to fit perfectly with the disco music and white polyester suits. Later I found out it was a much older recipe, having a good run in the 1940s and 50s but without the ice cream. Either way, anything with bananas in it is OK with me for the TIKI BAR!

Ok, I wasn’t old enough to drink in 1977, but it was my Uncle’s house, at his swingin’ basement bar, and he made one with less alcohol in it just for me. I’m old enough to enjoy the full hit of booze now, so here it is:

2 oz Creme de Banana
2 oz Dark Creme de Cacao
4 oz Meyers Dark Rum
2 oz Coconut Milk
1 Large Banana
5 Scoops Vanilla Ice Cream
1 Cup Ice

Throw all ingredients in a blender and blend on high, in 5 second bursts, until the ice is crushed and the drink is thick and drinkable (don’t liquefy it trying to make it smooth). Garnish with a pineapple wedge, a cherry and if available, chopped fresh coconut. Don’t forget the umbrella. Makes about two tall servings.

The Original Shirley Temple Cocktial

Like everything else in the world, good old fashioned drink recipes get changed and updated until they are unrecognizable. I’ve seen some kookie variations on this non-booze drink, but the original is still the best…for any age.

Ginger Ale
Grenadine
Maraschino Cherries

Fill a highball glass half-way with ice cubes, and add the ginger ale until almost full. Add about two tablespoons of grenadine, drop in a couple of cherries and stir. If you don’t have grenadine the cherry juice is just as good, maybe better. Everyone has their own taste when it comes to how much cherry flavor to add, so start with the two tablespoons and add a teaspoon at a time until you dig it. That’s it!

New Year’s in South Florida

While the rest of the country is enjoying the freezing cold, bundled up in heavy coats and scarfs as they swing down to their NYE party, we in SoFla will probably be wearing Aloha shirts and short skirts as the temperature today is already in the high 70s. This means there will be a lot of outdoor fun, including fireworks, concerts on the beach, booze cruises, and lots of bar hopping in Fort Lauderdale and Miami. There’s nothing quite like toasting the new year in 70° weather, on the beach, under a palm tree.

This year the little lady and I will be celebrating with some friends at a good old fashioned house party, one of our favorite ways of swingin’ in the New Year. One thing we haven’t done, which is on the list, is celebrating New Year’s Eve in Key West. I have a feeling that Duval Street would be more fun than barrel of monkeys at the turn of the year!

Happy New Year from Tiki Chris, and the whole Tiki Lounge bunch - Colleen, our pooch Cookie, the cats, the birds, the ‘53 Chevy and lizards that live on the lanai.
Here are some last minute ideas for an Atomic New Year’s Eve Party!

There’s Something Kookie In The Kitsch-en!

Kelly Camille Patterson of The Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en

Kelly Camille Patterson and Paul Spencer whip up some old fashioned fun with a retro ’50s feel

If you’re into retro and Tiki fun stuff, (what am I saying, of course you are, you’re reading this) then you’re probably the kind of kat or kitten who will dig The Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en. Their Blounge (web-lounge) consists of vintage recipes, original exotic drink recipes, fun pix, and their main vein…The Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en pod casts.

The pod casts (it’s hard to call these little snippets of ’50s style TV shows something so modern) are funny as heck. They sort of mock the “humorless lifestyle experts who suck the fun out of entertaining, cooking and decorating with their obsessive perfectionism.” They’re fun and kookie and silly, with Patterson perfectly portraying the typical 1950s housewife with a borderline creepiness that accelerates what might be just another “old fashioned cooking show” into something much more entertaining and fun to watch. This seasoned actress seems to know just how to maintain the balance between kitschy and “oh my god, she’s going to kill everyone with a butcher knife”. It’s her eyes. She almost never blinks. I love it.

Kelly doing a TV show.

Paul Spencer of The Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en

The shows are silly but the drink & chow recipes are real, and look good. They are knockin’ on the door of 20 episodes of this little TV flick, with topics ranging from Jello molds to tips on organizing your next protest march with cocktails. The episodes are nice and short, and always show off their very impressive collection of mid-century albums, art, housewares, books and Tiki stuff. Very kool.

The site has a nice section of exotic cocktails, the recipes of which they have concocted themselves. I haven’t tried them yet, but looking at the recipes I can tell you they look interesting and tasty. They also have a section of actual vintage party food recipes…things like “broiler tuna burgers”…again, you don’t know if this is good or just creepy, but it sure is authentic.

Check out the Blounge at TheVelveteenLoungeKitsch-en.com, or on FaceBook. Here’s one of their episodes that typifies the fun…(good god, those eyes!)

-Tiki Chris P. reporting from the TV room at Pirate’s Cove Tiki Bar. Aloha, kids!

Mod Miami Starts Today in Miami, Florida

Mod Miami, “The Swankadelic Weekend Experience for Modern Minds, Where Modernism Meets Mod” starts today (Thursday, March 3) on the historic MiMo (Miami Modern) Boulevard in Miami, Florida.

As the swingin’ website says, this weekend cocktail soiree is for hipsters, Tikiphiles, lounge lizards, ultra-mods, swanksters and other jetsetters…and if you’re reading this, you probably fall into one of those groups.

Mike Jones of Mod Miami, Mr. Swank himself.

Headed by Mr. Swank himself, Mike Jones (former owner of the ultra-futuramic Jetsetter Lounge in Lake Worth, FL, sadly part of history itself now) this four-day event promises lots of mid-century Miami style music, fashion, cocktails, parties and entertainment galore.

The lineup touts some of Tiki Lounge Talk’s favorite retro-tastic performers, including…

Marina the Fire-Eating Mermaid

• Marina the Fire Eating Mermaid
• The Intoxicators!
• Stolen Idols

and much more, including several DJs, live acts, a fashion show by Black Cat Bikinis, and The Superions featuring Fred Schneider of the B-52s. Yeah.

There’s also a walking tour of the MCM area surrounding the event’s headquarters, the New Yorker Boutique Hotel, a recently renovated, original MiMo motel on Biscayne Boulevard. (What the hell is a boutique hotel, you ask? It’s an old motel that’s been transformed into something a little cooler, dig?)

The New Yorker Boutique Hotel

“MiMo”, or Miami Modern, is a fairly recent term coined to fit the style of mid-century architecture and design that it so specific to South Florida. (Back in the old days we used to refer to it as Florida Deco, or Miami Deco). The style incorporates much of the mid-century modern styles popular in California and the shore towns of the north east (i.e., Wildwood, NJ) with Art Deco and Spanish influences. Let’s face it, nothing screams Deco or MCM like a pink hotel on the beach with palm trees and a turquoise ’56 T-bird in front, with Exotica music playing in the background and a beautiful chick in a sarong serving Zombies and Cuba Libres. You hip?

So if you’re in town this weekend, take the wheel of your automobile and swing on down to Mod Miami. I’ll see you kats and kittens there Saturday night.

-Tiki Chris reporting from the beach, across from a row of Art Deco hotels in Miami, Florida

Guys and Dolls, 1955 for Mod Movie Monday!

I figured we’d take a little break this week from Noir Movie Monday and get back to the colorful stuff. And dare ain’t no movie more fulla collah den

Guys and Dolls

from 1955, starring Frank Sinatra, Marlin Brando, Jean Simmons and Vivian Blaine.

Without a doubt this flick ranks in my all-time top favorites. The crazy characters, the oddball accents, the music, the floating craps game, the hats, the dolls…there ain’t nothin’ about this movie I don’t fully enjoy with a capital “E”, see?

This was one of the first (good) movies to use non-musical talent (Brando, Simmons) in a musical. Surrounded by actual singers (Sinatra, Blaine), the two leads pulled it off pretty well and paved the way for later musicals to star non-musical talent (all the way up to 2002’s Chicago, forcing notes out of Renne Zellweger, Cathrine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere).

The story, adapted from Damon Runyon’s original short story, is about a collection of gamblers, showgirls, Salvation Army workers and other fringe characters inhabiting the nights of New York City around 1950. Two gamblers in particular, Nathan Detroit (Sinatra) and Sky Masterson (Brando) are focused upon as Detroit tries to find a new venue for his famous floating craps game. A “chance” meeting over cheesecake has Detroit attempting to con Masterson out of some dough in the hopes of using said dough to bribe a certain garage owner to allow the dice to roll. Masterson, a sharp character, sees through this rouse and tells Nathan no dice. He does however boast to Detroit that he can take any doll, no matter how pretty, to Havana for the weekend. Nathan accepts this challenge and the game is on.

As usual, I won’t give away any of the fun stuff in case you haven’t seen the flick. Let’s just say that great music, funny lines and people who speak in the vernacular of the above said paragraph are what you will find in this charming and thoroughly swinging film.

Food & Booze: These guys are deli-style eaters from the city. Try making these stupendous roast & corned beef sandwiches, nicknamed

The Runyon Special

Pile it up in this order:

• Thick slice pumpernickle/rye swirl bread
with deli-style spicy mustard
• Lettuce
• Munster cheese
• Thick tomato slices
• Roast beef
• Thick slice pumpernickle/rye swirl bread with deli-style spicy mustard on one side,
Thousand Island dressing on the other
• Corned beef
• Sweet chopped coleslaw
• Swiss cheese
• Tomato
• Thick slice pumpernickle/rye swirl bread with Thousand Island dressing

Cut this triple-decker in half, top with green olives on toothpicks and side with chips, more slaw and kosher pickle. For dessert, cheesecake (or strudel).

The drink: Dolce de Leche, Cubana style

(According to Sky Masterson, “Dolce de Leche” means “Sweet of Milk”. It’s a kind of milk shake made with Bacardi…but just enough to act as a preservative. Here’s the modernized version of this classic cocktail)

1 oz Bacardi Silver
1/2 oz Godiva Mocha Liquor (or chocolate liquor, or even Kahluha will work)
1/2 oz sweetened condensed milk

Shake it all up in a shaker with ice and strain, preferably into a coconut. Top with shaved chocolate and a pinch of cinnamon.

Here’s the opening sequence with “Can Do”. See you at the races, kids!

-Chris “Mack the Knife” Pinto reporting from the starting gate. They’re off!

The Suffering Bastard: Your Weekend Tiki Cocktail!

The Suffering Bar Steward, aka The Suffering Bastard

This gin and brandy combo dates back to World War II, when Joe Scailom invented the drink at Shepherd’s Hotel in Cairo, Egypt.

With good spirits in short supply during the war, Joe realized he needed to come up with something that the British officers could drink without being floored the next morning. So he built a drink with gin, brandy, homemade bitters made by a chemist across the street from the hotel, lime juice and ginger beer. He dubbed it ‘The Suffering Bar Steward’. The name was later changed by the officers to

The Suffering Bastard

The original recipe goes something like this:
1 oz cheap Gin
1 oz cheap Brandy
1/2 oz. bottled Lime Juice
a few dashes of homemade Bitters

Pour all ingredients except ginger beer into a glass with ice. Top with ginger beer and stir with a glass rod. Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint, a slice of orange and a cucumber peel. Ginger ale is usually substituted for the ginger beer these days, as it is easier find and has a little less of a bite. Of course, you can update the recipe with good gin, good brandy, fresh lime juice and Angostura bitters.

And don’t let anyone tell you this drink is made with rum. I’ve seen so many bastardized versions of the Suffering Bastard, that I could kill the bastard who started bastardizing it to begin with. I even found a recipe that used rum, orgeat syrup and curacao…yeah, that’s a Mai Tai, dingbat.

To get you in the WW2 mood for this drink, here’s The Andrews Sisters swingin’ The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. All reet, Jackson! Slip me a solid five!

-Tiki Chris reporting from a foxhole somewhere in North Africa