Mai Tai update, part 2

The mai tai movement is gaining momentum. At this point I should offer a disclaimer that I am not associated in any way with Trader Vic's, The Conga Lounge or any other tiki bar in Oakland, Ca. I have eaten at Trader Vic's on more than one occasion and always had a great experience. I also regret that I didn't know, until this week, about the movement to make the mai tai the official cocktail of Oakland. We were in San Francisco last week and would have worked in a trip to Oakland had we known about it.

I heard from Emmanuel ( Mano) Thanos, who, with his brother Michael, runs the Conga Lounge in Oakland and the Forbidden Island in Alameda, CA. Mano launched the mai tai movement in Oakland. Here is what he had to say:

Aloha Troy,
My name is Mano Thanos and I started the mai tai campaign , to get the city of Oakland to recognize the mai tai as the official drink of Oakland. I really liked your article on the mai tai and yes, most people probably did not receive a real mai tai when they ordered it!

Trader Vic's ( based in Emeryville.Calif.) has always made the correct version of the mai tai because it was invented by their founder, Vic Bergeron. He invented the drink in Oakland at his bar Hinky Dinks in 1944. In the 40's and 50's Oakland was the hub of tropical drinks and Tiki culture, but by the 80's there were no tropical drinks bars left in Oakland.

In March of 2003, my brothers and I opened the Conga Lounge in Oakland and thus brought Tropical Drinks back to the city of Oakland. There are now 4 Tropical Drinks bars in the Oakland area.

About 2 years ago I was inspired by the successful Sazerac campaign in New Orleans. New Orleans had just declared the sazerac the official cocktail of New Orleans, and so I thought, what about the mai tai? It was more well known and famous throughout the world than the sazerac and yet very few people even knew that it was invented in Oakland! I printed up a few thousand flyers. started a petition drive at the Conga Lounge, hired a publicist for the mai tai campaign and opened a web site for the campaign ( www.congalounge.com )

I am glad to report that our efforts appear to be successful and the Oakland city council is taking up a vote on July the 28th. We have received tremendous support from the community as well as from the creators of the mai tai, Trader Vic's restaurant.
Very soon the city of Oakland will do what they should have done while Vic was still alive. ( Honor the creator of the mai tai by making the mai tai the official cocktail of Oakland. )

If you are in the Bay Area July the 28th we would love to have you witness this historic occasion.

Mahalo and good wishes.
Emmanuel ( Mano) Thanos
Mai Tai Campaign

Sadly, I won't make it to Oakland on July 28, but you can be sure I'll have my flip flops on and a mai tai in my hand. Mahalo, Mano, and congratulations on the campaign.

Mai Tai update

I never know who is reading these posts, but now and then I receive a surprise. Trader Vic's must have someone who scours the internet for Mai Tai posts because I received this e-mail from Tara O'Leary:

Hi Troy...
Mai Tai update, the drink was created by Vic Bergeron at Trader Vic's in 1944 in Oakland. http://www.tradervics.com/maitaistory-0.html
There is a campaign now to get the Mai Tai as the offical cocktail for Oakland.
Thanks for the write up
Tara
Tara O'Leary
Trader Vic's, Inc.
415.823.2634
http://www.tradervics.com/

Click on the links for pictures of Trader Vic himself. Good luck with the Oakland campaign.

The perfect Mai Tai

Last week I said my wife and I are on a mission this summer to break out of our cocktail rut. This week's drink (our July 4th project) is the Mai Tai. When I worked in a bar in St. Louis back in the 70s, we mixed a Mai Tai which we thought was pretty good. It had rum, of course, some grenadine, some Collins mix, and whipped cream. Whipped cream? Collins mix? Yuck! I can't believe we passed that off as a Mai Tai. It probably worked because none of the customers knew what a Mai Tai should be.

Here's the secret: A Mai Tai is made of two kinds of rum, light rum and dark rum, in equal parts. The older the rum, the better. Eight years old is good, 12 is better, 15 or 17 is best, but those are quite expensive. The other ingredients are Orange Curacao, orgeat syrup and lime juice.

Here are the combinations:
1 ounce dark Rum
1 ounce light Rum
1/2 ounce Orange Curacao
1/2 ounce Orgeat Syrup
Juice from one fresh lime (about 3/4 ounce)

Orgeat syrup is hard to find but easy to make. Mix two tablespoons water, two tablespoons sugar in a sauce pan. Heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add 1 teaspoon of almond extract.

Note: Grenadine does not belong in a Mai Tai.

The Mai Tai was invented in San Francisco in 1944 by Victor "Trader Vic" Bergeron. It soon became popular at Trader Vic's restaurants and was later adopted at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki, which named one of its bars after the drink. Read a history of the Mai Tai here

It's a great tasting drink, but so potent that you can't have many. Mary Fran and I began our experiment with Mai Tais late in the afternoon on July 4th. After three drinks, we were blotto. (Okay, they were doubles)

Here is a contest: The first person who reports back with the origin and meaning of the name, Mai Tai, will receive a copy of Pilikia Is My Business. Put your answer in the comments section and send your address to metroy@suddenlink.net.

Helen Ginger, Goddess of the Internet

A few months ago, Helen Ginger posted to her Straight From Hel blog while on vacation in Florida. In one of them, she mentioned that she would be visiting Ft. Lauderdale. I wrote and suggested that she try to find Slip F-18 at Bahia Mar and take a picture.

Now many mystery fans know that Slip F-18, Bahia Mar Marina is where Travis McGee moored his houseboat, The Busted Flush. McGee is a creation of the great John D. MacDonald. He is a boat bum detective (a salvage expert, not a PI), the quintessential modern knight errant.

I know McGee's not there anymore, but I secretly hoped, like Carl Hiaasen, that I was wrong.

"..possibly the old houseboat is tied there still; McGee on deck, tending to fresh bruises, sipping his Boodles; watching the sun slide from the sky over Las Olas Boulevard..Anyway, that's what I want to believe. If he's gone, I prefer not to know."
(Carl Hiaasen ponders McGee's current whereabouts)

So I suggested that Helen pay the site a visit if she was in that area. Wouldn't it have been something if she had found Trav and Meyer, maybe shared one of Trav's martinis and a bowl of Meyer's chili? She brought back the next best thing, an account of her search and pictures of the famous Bahia Mar Marina. You can read about her adventure here. She and her husband went far beyond what anybody could reasonably ask. I owe them big time.

Thank you, Helen.

I cannot tell a lie

Carol Kilgore from Under the Tiki Hut, tagged me with this thing called an I Cannot Tell a Lie mime. Here's what this thing is about.

"Sometimes you can learn more about a person by what they don’t tell you. Sometimes you can learn a lot from the things they just make up. If you are tagged with this Meme, lie to me. Then tag 7 other folks (one for each deadly sin) and hope they can lie."

Pride: What is your biggest contribution to the world?

I was in high school supplementing my allowance doing odd jobs at the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital when this skinny guy who said he was a Stanford grad student came in looking for the government research project that was advertising for volunteers. Since I emptied the trash I knew the project so I led him to the lab.
“What do you study?” I asked
“Creative writing.”
“Does it pay?”
“No,” he said. “I’m looking to score a few bucks from this research thing. Haven’t eaten in a couple days. You know what this projects about?”
“Naw. Consumer research I think. They go through a lot of packets of Kool-aid and cookies.”
“Crap,” he said. "I was hoping for some real food."
“There’s some other stuff called LDS.
“Latter Day Saints?”
“How would I know? I got this thing called dyslexia. Letters get all mixed up for me.”
“Whatever,” he said. He looked kind of sad. And hungry.
“What’s your name?” I said.
“Kesey.”
On the way out of the lab I saw the file folders for the experiment. Mr. Kesey’s was in the control group. I knew they gave the experimental group extra cookies, so I moved Mr. Kesey’s folder to that pile. A few weeks later, I saw Mr. Kesey. He looked happy and satisfied and his eyes seemed on fire with the knowledge of the universe.
“How was the Kool-aid and cookies, Mr. Kesey?”
He winked and said, “You’re either on the bus, or you’re off the bus, kid.”

Envy: What do your co-workers wish they had that is yours?

I have an uncanny ability to predict winning lotto numbers, but I never make use of that skill. My co-workers are always trying to get the numbers out of me, but I won’t divulge them. You see I was educated by socialist nuns who instilled in me the belief that it is wrong to profit from the labor of others. Later I spent time in an ashram where I was taught about the continuity of all matter, animate and inanimate. So I believe it is wrong to profit from any work that’s not one’s own, including the work of little white balls. I wish I had the ability to make my co-workers understand.

Gluttony: What did you eat last night?

Thai food: a red curry beef called penang nua, a soup of lemon-grass and shrimp called thom yam gung, some pork fried in peppers called moo phat prik, a fish fried in tamarind sauce called bla rad prik, and some fried morning glories called pak boong fai dang. All of the dishes were heavy on the Thai peppers and garlic. When we finished dinner, my lips were on fire and when I woke up this morning I felt like someone was holding a match to my rear end.

Lust: What really lights your fire?

Accordion music. The way you get those sweet sounds from that instrument by squeezing it and dancing your fingers up and down the sides is just like making love to a beautiful woman. You hold the instrument tight against your chest just as you would hold your main squeeze. Is there any instrument that is more intimate? Well maybe a Sousaphone, but this is a family blog.

Anger: What is the last thing that really pissed you off?

Mimes like this one that propagate around the internet from blogsite to blogsite. According to The Daily Mime, these things are viral and mutate as they spread, sort of like H1N1 or Hantavirus. How can that be good? Shouldn’t homeland security be on it? Where are they coming from? I figure France because of the beret. How porous are our borders if Frenchies are getting through?

What's really irritating about these mimes is how they disrupt a guy's work. Here I am, contemplating a writing topic to blog about, typing random stripper names into the Google search box, then getting a beer, then checking out Sports Illustrated online and wondering why female pole vaulters are so hot, when this mime interrupts my work. I’m ready to punch its white face and seal it in an imaginary box forever . . .

What? This is a MEME? It's not a MIME? I'm sorry, I thought Carol sent me some Ritalin-abusing, striped-shirt dork. I take back all the bad things I thought about Carol.

So why are pole vaulters so hot?

Greed: Name something you keep from others?

My copy of Winnie the Pooh in Latin. Winnie Ille Pooh.

“Ubi est Piglet,” dixit Pooh.

Sloth: What's the laziest thing you've ever done?

I got tired of dusting under our furniture so I tied a string to a catnip mouse and sprayed our cat with Endust. Then I dragged the mouse under the furniture.

I have to call it a day. I'll figure out who to tag later.

Well It's later and I have tagged Marvin Wilson and Harvee Lau

Summer Cocktail Bellini

My wife and I came to the conclusion we're in a rut. We've been drinking the same thing every weekend so we decided to explore new beverages.

The drink this weekend is a Bellini.

The Bellini is an ideal cocktail for summer. Easy to make and very refreshing. It's especially good for a Sunday brunch.
Recipe:
Put in a fluted glass
1/2 teaspoon raspberry puree
1 teaspoon peach puree
Fill the glass with Asti Spumante

The original recipe called for just a drop of raspberry puree, but I find that 1/2 teaspoon adds more flavor. The peaches should be white, but yellow will do if white are not available. I used frozen raspberries and frozen peaches, put them into a blender with a couple tablespoons of cranberry juice to make the puree. The cranberry juice is necessary because the blender needs some liquid in order to chop the frozen fruit.

Any sparkling wine will substitute for Asti Spumante as long as it is well-chilled.

The Bellini was created in Harry's Bar in Venice, Italy in 1943 and named in honor of the painter Giovanni Bellini.

Bottoms Up!

Charlie Chan

Luau On the South Lawn

News from the 50th state:

President Obama to Host White House Luau

The tastes and talents of Hawaii will take center stage in the national spotlight on Thursday as President Barack Obama, the first president from the Aloha State, hosts the first-ever White House luau.

Hard to believe it's the first one. The best part of a luau is sitting up all night by the imu, or cooking pit, and heaping hot rocks on the meat while getting lubricated on Primo beer. Wonder which White House staffers get that job.

Lucky you live Hawaii

News from the 50th State

Defense secretary orders missile interceptors to Hawaii because of North Korean threat

WASHINGTON >> The United States has positioned more missile defenses around Hawaii as a precaution against a possible North Korean launch across the Pacific, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said today.

A Japanese newspaper reported today that North Korea might fire its most advanced ballistic missile toward Hawaii around the July 4 Independence Day holiday in the U.S.

Rep. Ward forms shark task force
June 18th, 2009 — Environment, Politics

Rep. Gene Ward today announced formation of a shark task force. “The purpose of the task force is to engage the community in the two important issues of enforcement and legislation,” Ward said. “State law forbids the practice of chumming or the feeding of sharks from the shoreline to three miles offshore, and federal law prohibits the practice beyond 3 miles up to 200 miles, but there is really no enforcement of these laws.”