Category: Tiki Bar

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To-Go Tiki from Forbidden Island

The Best Value for Bay Area To-Go Tiki is: Forbidden Island

Forbidden Island opened up on Thursday for take-out bites and cocktails, so we sampled this on Sunday. The portions were quite good and even after a 30 minute trip home everything stayed in good shape (waffle fries travel better than thin tiny ones). The coconut shrimp in particular were quite good at home.

And the cocktails. Delicious and plenty boozy.  Mrs. Mai Tai had the coconut-forward Monkey Pod, whereas I went with the Demerara Dry Float. That cocktail even came with a tiny bottle of rum to float on top!  Definitely two servings worth per cocktail.

I was real happy with the ordering experience with Forbidden Island. It’s done on the website, and you do have to get your order in before 2 pm on the day of. But other than that, it was a dream and everything came out perfect – nothing missing or wrong with the order. Go out there and give these guys your support.

And remember to leave a big tip.

 

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Book Review: Easy Tiki by Chloe Frechette

While this book doesn’t break any new ground, it’s a quite accessible resource for people getting started. The book covers in light detail the history of tiki, basics of rum, and then presents fairly straightforward and simple recipes. No strange or unusual ingredients, like you sometimes find in these recipe books. It’s kind of like if 2019’s Minimalistic Tiki and Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails books got together and had a baby.

Too often when things are simplified in these books it ends up creating inaccuracies or the topics are so simplified as to be not understandable. Thankfully, Easy Tiki avoids these problems very well.

There are some good recipes here, including the Mai Sha Roa Na (from False Idol) and a very intriguing Breakfast Mai Tai. There is the Quarantine Order, Staycation, Carrot Colada, and a bunch of other interesting recipes.

The book is available now from your favorite booksellers. I bought my in Apple Books and the presentation in the app is pretty good. There are some very nice photographs too.

While this won’t replace the deep coverage you find the Smuggler’s Cove, Sippin’ Safari, or Minimalist Tiki books, Easy Tiki is a good resource and potentially helpful option for tiki newbies.

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Pinky Gonzales

A Tequila cocktail for Cinco de Mayo

This was my once a year attempt to make a cocktail with tequila that I actually like. In years past I’ve tried the Pinky Gonzales, a Mai Tai variant from Trader Vic’s. Previously I haven’t loved this but this year the tequila taste was an enhancement rather than a detriment. I must be getting used to the spirit, or the balance of other ingredients worked better this time. Heavier Orgeat pour, possibly.

Pinky Gonzales
1 oz Lime Juice
½ oz Cointreau
“Heavy” ½ oz Orgeat
¼ oz Demerara Syrup
2 oz Tequila

Pictured is the famed 1972 Trader Vic’s Revised Bartender’s Guide. A seminal book then, a seminal book now. Tonight the toast is to the Trader.