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

Just Announced! Hukilau 2011 Tickets On Sale Now!

Hey swingin’ Tikiphiles, here’s a great way to start the New Year…

Mark your calendars for June 9th through 12th for The Hukilau 2011 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

This year marks the 10th Anniversary of The Hukilau and the 55th Anniversary of the Mai Kai, so it will certainly be a swingin’ shindig. But Tickets for the events online here. The Official Hukilau website with all the details will be coming soon.

To book a room in Fort Lauderdale one of the two official hotels:

Bahia Cabana: 954-254-1555
You can book online with the Bahia Mar HERE.

I’ll have more info posted as it becomes available. Mahalos to you all in the New Year, see you in June!

-Tiki Chris

Flaming Kona Coffee Grog: Your Tiki Cocktail for the Weekend

Nothing says “Tiki” like a flaming skull full of Hawaiian coffee and 70%-alcohol rum. Just watching the tanned girl in the sarong pouring that blue flame of 151 into the mug from two feet above in the darkened corner of the Tiki Bar is enough to get my engine revving up something fierce. And once that hot concoction goes down…man, oh man! Heaven, Daddy-O.

Flaming Kona Coffee Grog

There are several recipes floating around for this coffee cocktail. The Mai Kai in Fort Lauderdale makes an incredible version, but they guard their secret recipe like gold (even if I could find it, I wouldn’t post out of respect for them). But I think Beach Bum Berry’s recipe really hits the spot. Maybe not the easiest drink to make, but hell, if they were easy, they would be really be exotic. Here it is:

“3 teaspoons coconut cream
¼ oz Grand Marnier
twist of orange peel
twist of lemon peel
2 whole cloves
¾ oz 151º Demerara rum
hot black Kona coffee (except no imitations)
cinnamon stick

Turn out the lights, except for enough lit candles to set the mood. Warm cloves, peels, Grand Marnier and rum in a Pyrex dish (or that fancy little pitcher made for such drinks) and ignite. Place coconut cream in Tiki skull mug, then add hot coffee and stir. Carefully spoon the flaming mixture on top; play with the flame a little to make a good show, and stir with cinnamon stick. Make sure you put out the flame before serving to already-drunk friends.

-Tiki Chris P reporting from the darkened corner of the mysterious Pirate’s Cove Tiki Bar, South Florida

Cold & Rainy in Sunny South Florida

It’s unseasonably cold here in the land of palm trees and coconuts. All that snow from up north is working like a giant air conditioner, blowing it’s icy winds our way. It’s 55° this morning! Ahhhh!

The good part is these little cold spells don’t last here. It will be back in the 70s by the weekend, and sunny. Supposed to dip down again next week, but only for a couple of days.

So if you’re planning a trip to South Florida to get away from the cold, now’s a bad time to do it. Although I guess temperatures in the 60s are still a lot better than Michigan, where it’s 12.

I think I’ll find a nice HOT drink, maybe an exotic coffee concoction for tomorrow’s Weekend Tiki Cocktail!

Oh, and to my Jewish friends, Happy Chanukah!

-Tiki Chris, reporting from under the covers in the bamboo bed at the Tiki Bar

Your Weekend Tiki Bar Drink Recipe: The Bali Hai Ball, and Ernest Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon

It’s Happy Hour at the Tiki Bar!

That’s right kats and kittens, you get two for the price of one this week at the Tiki Bar! One I found while looking for something completely different, one I found while looking for a use for some aging cream of coconut. First, lets hit a very groovy Tiki Bar Cocktail,

The Bali Hai Ball

Even the name is great. I found the recipe at a very hip site, Tiki Drink Recipes.com…here it goes…

1 oz vodka
1/2 oz light rum
1/2 oz banana liqueur
1 oz pina colada mix
1 oz pineapple juice

Shake it up with ice in a shaker and serve in a tall Tiki Mug or Highball glass and garnish with all the fruit you can find. And I don’t see any reason why you can’t add a little cream of coconut in there, too.

I found the second recipe on a book reader site, biblioklept.org. This is taken directly from their site. Check it out, there’s some fun stuff there. (Click here to see the entire post)

“Ernest Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon

A recipe for a drink named after Hemingway’s novel Death in the Afternoon was published in the 1935 cocktail book So Red the Nose, or Breath in the Afternoon by Sterling North and Carl Kroch. Here’s that recipe–

Add one jigger of absinthe to a champagne flute
Add iced champagne until it attains the proper opalescence.
A small amount of sugar or Gomme syrup can be added to round it out, especially when using a verte absinthe.

Here’s Hemingway’s note on the drink’s origin–

This was arrived at by the author and three officers of the H.M.S. Danae after having spent seven hours overboard trying to get Capt. Bra Saunders’ fishing boat off a bank where she had gone with us in a N.W. gale.”

Hemingway House in Key West, Florida

Being a Floridian who frequents Key West, I’ve been to Hemingway’s house down there (a hell of a place) and of course to his old watering holes. I can tell you I’ve never seen this on any of the drink menus, or even heard it murmured among the locals. I guess the whole Absinthe thing keeps it from being commercially viable.

A few mentions…

For my South Florida fans, the Broward County Fair finishes up this weekend, with a classic car show on Saturday and rides open through Sunday. Check it out at http://browardfair.org.

Also next Saturday, December 11, the City of Hollywood, FL will be having a Hawaiian Holiday at the ArtsPark. This is a free holiday-themed Polnesian show that will feature entertainers from Hollywood-based Ohana Arts. More info here.

With any luck, my Tiki lady & I will be at both events. I’ll be the guy in the Hawaiian shirt. Come up and say Aloha!

-Tiki Chris reporting from Pirate’s Cove Tiki Bar for Tiki Lounge Talk, the interwebs’ b-lounge for Tiki Culture fans and Retro Hep Cats, Daddy-O!

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