Concocting Great New Island Recipes and Tiki Style Cocktails

We're always looking for new things to try and learn about when it comes to supporting our Tiki Lifestyle. More history, more culture or simply trying to concoct something new of our own that is influenced by the tropics. This weekend was no different. For starters, we had an unopened bottle of banana rum. Experiment #1 was inventing our own concoction... a combination of flavors that would not hide the banana flavor but at the same time being able to taste the rum with a blend of fruits to compliment the banana without making the drink too sweet nor too sour.

For reasons I can't explain, the Mai Tai came too mind. This is a very tropical drink. It can be a bit on the sweet side, but I thought the banana rum could be a promising twist on the recipe. So, I mixed in 3 lime quarters to provide the sour and balance out the sweet from the banana rum as well as the orange and almond liqueurs I added. To smooth it out... some Tommy Bahama dark rum. The drink turned out quite good actually. We'll probably play with it more to perfect it before posting it on TheTikiBarIsOpen.com. At the end of the night, we ended up just mixing equal parts Tommy Bahama dark rum with the banana rum over some ice. Smooth.

For our meal, we hit a home run. Inspired by summertime boardwalk foods mixed with a little backyard BBQ and a little bit of Hawaiian Luaus we created "Hawaiian mini burgers". This was a huge hit with kids and adults. The basic concept is use Hawaiian sweet bread instead of hamburger buns, toss on the ground beef along with some tropically inspired toping melded with the traditional toppings you would enjoy having a burger off the boardwalk at the beach in the middle of summer. The recipe is quick and easy. The burgers are fun to eat. The whole thing took as less than 30 minutes, then we sat down and enjoyed some great musics along with our cocktail and our newly invented recipe. This one will be posted on the site tonight with all the details. Making the video podcast on this one will be real fun too and something you won't want to miss!

Here's to the endless summer at TheTikiBarIsOpen.com!

Modern Tiki Culture - Island Lifestyle and All Things Tropical

Originally the Tiki represented a craze that started during the World War II era and up through about a decade past the time Hawaii officially became the 50th state in the United States. From Bing Crosby to Elvis to Trader Vic our movies, music, clothing, decor, food and cocktails reflected Americans' fascination with the South Seas. Meanwhile a surfing craze was growing on the California coast and yet another began on the other side of the world in and around the Caribbean as Americans became fascinated by Cuba, the Florida Keys and the Bahamas as the likes of Ernest Hemingway to Jimmy Buffett captured our imaginations with tales from the tropics.

America's love of the tropics has never really ended. Today more than ever we pursue all of these things as we seek a finer living or just a means to temporarily escape. Today, this is what the tiki has come to represent.

For those who cannot make this escape for real, my goal is to build an online community... Tiki Nation. A place where people from around the world can come to relax, escape and enjoy life through stories, cultural history lessons, recipes, cocktails, music, podcasts and blogs.

You can check out all of the above and participate in our blog at: http://www.thetikibarisopen.com