TIKI CULTURE

2011 Hukilau (Fort Lauderdale) Website is now Live!

Ok swingin’ Tiki lovin’ kats and chicks, it’s time to start thinking of June, and the 10th Anninversary of

The Hukilau!

in beautiful, sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

This year’s Hukilau will take place from June 9th through 12th at Bahia Mar and Bahia Cabana Hotels just across from the white sandy beaches of the famous South Florida resort town.

This year promises even more great entertainment, great art, great gifts and great exotic cocktails. For a complete list of events, etc. visit The Hukilau website at www.thehukilau.com/2011.

Me, our friend Molly and my wife Colleen at the Mai Kai, Hukilau 2010.

This year also marks the 55th Anniversary of the World’s Greatest (IMHO) Tiki Bar, The Mai Kai. As always, the Saturday night extravaganza will feature dinner and Polynesian show at the Mai Kai. It’s fantabulous, kids!

I am also very excited to announce that yours truly, Tiki Chris will be helping out the fine folks at The Hukilau this year as Vendor Coordinator. So if you’re setting up shop at The Hukilau, I’ll be talking to you soon. For the rest of you kids, I’ll be there all four days so look me up! I’ll be the guy in the Hawaiian shirt

-Tiki Chris reporting from a cabana on the beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Tiki News: Hukilau 2011, June 9-12, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Exotic Cocktail for the Weekend: The Blue Devil

I thought I’d follow up the Blue Hawaiian with something I found on PerfectCocktail.net,

The Blue Devil

It’s sort of like a blue version of a Singapore Sling, sort of, at least you’ll agree with me after your third. Interesting that the ingredients are in milliliters on this site. For you kats who run screaming at the very sight of anything metric, 35ml is about 2 oz, 10ml is about 1/3oz.

35ml Gin
10ml Blue Curaso
25ml fresh lime juice
10ml Creme de Cacao
10ml Cherry Brandy

Pour everything into a shaker with ice, the Shake it up baby, twist and shout, strain into a cocktail glass, and slide it across the Tiki Bar to the hot blond in the coconut bikini.

Hell, I was sold on the picture they had posted:

Not sure how they got it to light up like that, but I’m sure diggin’ it.

Side Note: It’s my Birthday this weekend so with any luck I’ll be waste-deep in Mai Tais and hula girls. So if you don’t hear from me for a few days, you’ll know why, kids!

Aloha from Tiki Chris, reporting from his favorite bar stoll at Pirate’s Cove Tiki Bar in South Florida.

Tiki Cocktails & Kool Ideas for Labor Day Weekend!

How about this cheesey, '80s-retro-style diner sign I made? As if it were in a diner in the 1980s that was trying to look like it was from the 1950s. All it needs is Cheap Trick playing Don't Be Cruel.

Happy Labor Day, Swingers!

With the three-day weekend ahead I thought I’d throw in a few good old drink recipes and party ideas to make things a little more fun. Sure, Labor Day is all about Barbecues and beer for most people, but for us swingin’ Kats & Kitties, we need something a little hipper. So here goes…

Tropical Mellon Ball Cocktails

2 oz. Coconut Rum
2 oz. Midori Liquor
1/2 oz. Sour Mix

Throw it all in a shaker with rocks and shake it up good. Strain over cracked ice in a hurricane glass or Tiki mug, and garnish with an orange slice and a cherry on one of those little plastic swords. Add an umbrella and a flamingo swizzle stick and viola!

Watermelon Martini

8 oz watermelon juice (press watermelon through a sieve or cheesecloth)
4 oz Vodka
2 ozsimple syrup
juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons salt
3 tablespoons sugar
Watermelon slices

Rim: Mix together the sugar and salt, then wet the rim of a chilled martini glass with a piece of watermelon. Dip the rim into the mix.

Throw the watermelon juice, vodka, lime juice, and simple syrup into a shaker with ice and give it a good rattle. Strain it into  the martini glasses and garnish with a hunk of watermelon. Oh, yeah!

Perfectly Grilled Hound Dogs

To do this right you’re going to have to find a butcher or a deli that sells Quarter Pound Hounds…jumbo all-beef hot dogs that blow away anything you’ll find in a plastic package. If you can’t, next best thing is Ball Park all-beef (or Angus), or Sabrett’s.

Prep: Boil the dogs for about five to eight minutes in beer - Miller High Life or Pabst Blue Ribbon, to stick to tradition. This cooks them all the way through and infuses a nice lazy hazy crazy days of summer beer taste.

Grill: First of all, you can’t BBQ retro with a gas grill. No Patio Daddy-O is going allow propane in his back yard, so get charcoal and hickory wood chips like a real man. Soak the chips in water for at least an hour. Get the coals burning and when they ash over, place some wood chips on top and watch them start smoking. Put the hounds on the grill and let them smoke for a few minutes, turning so they don’t burn. Take ‘em off when they start to turn dark brown (if you like them blackened like my lovely wife does, leave them on a little longer. They’ll char up nice).

Serve: Don’t skimp on buns. Get good quality dog buns, fresh if possible. Potato rolls are great too. Add your choice of condiments (but not ketchup, dammit) and enjoy yourself. Personally I like spicy mustard, sweet relish, a little onion and occasionally kraut on my dogs.

Mix it up: A variation on this is to add a little hickory BBQ sauce to the dogs, if you dig it. Also you can add some chili to make the most incredible chili dogs you’ve ever tasted.

Sabina's South Philly Macaroni Salad

Old Fashioned South Philly Style Macaroni Salad

You don’t have to be a whiz in the kitch to pull off this recipe. Click here for the post.

Sweet Tropical Fruit Dessert

I got this recipe from a kid’s cookbook when I was about eight. It’s easy to make and fun to eat, and goes perfectly with a Tiki-style party of any kind. Just layer these ingredients (in this order) in a rectangular pan or tupperware:

Sweetened Shredded Coconut
Orange Slices
Apple Slices
Dark Chocolate Chips
Sweetened Shredded Coconut
Banana Slices
Dark Chocolate Chips

Top off with Pineapple chunks and decorate with little Tiki toothpick flags, or whatever you have. Serve it chilled. It’s sweet, but sooooo good. If you want to kick it up a little, drizzle some Kaluha over each serving. Uhhh-huh.

And Of Course…

Have A Labor Day Luau!

Click Here for my post on having a groovy tropical Labor Day Luau the easy way. Great for you kids that dig Tiki but don’t have your home devoted to it.

Well kids, I hope some of you get a kick out of the stuff I’ve posted here. It will probably be raining here all weekend (Hurricane Earl’s kickback) so we’ll probably hit Machete at the movies and stay inside…or at the Tiki Bar under the lanai, at least.

-Happy Labor Day Weekend from Tiki Chris and the staff at Tiki Lounge Talk: Colleen, Tiki the Cat, Cat the Cat, Rio & Zack (the Parrots), Simon & Sidney (the Cockatiels), and our temps Lucy, Faith, Betsey, Merry, Lila, Fry & Amy.

New Booze for the Tiki Bar: DeKuyper’s Key Largo Schnapps Liqueur

Ah, the Tiki Good Life

I honestly don’t know if this stuff is brand new (Bought it last night, but it’s nowhere to be found on the DeKuyper website) or if I’ve just missed it. Either way, it’s new to me, so here we go…

DeKuyper’s Key Largo Schnapps Liqueur Review

The Label says it mixes tropical flavors with island breezes or something…Ok, I was already into some rum when I tried to read the damned thing…anyway tasting it straight up (which I never recommend for anything intentionally made for mixing, unless it’s to get an idea of the flavor…translation, don’t do this as shots) it has an extremely sweet, vaguely citrus flavor with a silky, syrupy feel. It’s not as orangey as Triple Sec, not as strong as coconut rum. It’s clear, so it won’t screw up your drink’s color. Basically a sweet, mellow, fruity liqueur that adds a nice flavor without overpowering the drink.

Key Largo Liqueur by DeKuyper

The Bottle:

Clearly I only bought this ($9.99 at Winn Dixie) because of the bottle. No Floridian Tiki Bar should be without any booze that has “Key”, “Tiki” or “Parrot” in the name. On that same note, Anything bright green, blue or orange is also required. This bottle has Key in the name and parrots on the label. Fannnntastic.

Recipes for this stuff range from simply mixing with OJ and grenadine to a nice sounding concoction called the Key Largo Kooler. There’s not much about it online (which is why I suspect it is fairly new…either that or hopelessly unpopular). I tried it with the orange juice and thought it wasn’t bad, although a little too sweet for my taste (and way to sweet to be considered a real, Exotic Tiki bar cocktail, although the potential is there with some tinkering). The krazy thing is, with all the other flavored brandies and liqueurs in the world, I’m not sure stocking this stuff for drinking purposes is necessary. But for ten clams, it sure looks great next to the Tiki idol on the bar.

Have you tried this booze? Leave a comment with your recipe or…well, comments!

-Tiki Chris reporting from the floor in front of the bar after too many Zombies.
Tiki Lounge Talk, the Tiki Culture Blog for swingin’ hipsters and hep kats.

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