Ahhhh! Cool Summer Cocktails from the Tropics!

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.Lava Flows at Duke's Canoe Club and Barefoot Bar

Is it hot enough for you this summer?  Goodness, we're all just baking and melting away!  Plus my home town of Ames, Iowa is completely underwater this week from the extreme flooding of these two normally harmless rivers that flow through it.  All of that water with temps in the high 90's make it a very undesirable environment to be in right now.  I've already called and Facebooked my family and friends in Ames to check on how they are doing.  My parents have the best attitude --- they're boiling water, living without showering, etc. etc.  At 82 and 90, they are such troopers, having lived in the days of outhouses and bringing in water from a well pump oustide, so this is not terribly difficult for them.  But I digress (as usual).
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So for those of you who DO have clean water and household amenities, yet it's still hotter than 'broil' on the oven, here's some fantastic, oh-so-yummy cocktails from the Tropics to share with you.  The photos were taken from our trip out there last week, and the recipes are authentic from the sources that I've cited.  So come on, light that kitschy tiki torch hidden in the garage or basement, grab your best rum, and mix up some tropical good times!
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For hubby and I, there is one tropical drink that we both absolutely love:  The Lava Flow.  It's like a strawberry shake, with a little coconut and banana whipped in, plus rum.  Since my hubby's favorite thing is ice cream and his fave flavor is strawberry, this cocktail is easy for him to give in to.  Be careful, you think you're just drinking a strawberry shake and so after 2 or 3, you may fall flat on your face from the rum that is extremely well hidden!  You can also make this a VIRGIN Lava Flow without any alcohol and still have a great summer beverage!


Lava Flow
Recipe courtesy of Duke's Canoe Club on Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii
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1 oz. coconut syrup
2 ozs. pineapple juice
2 ozs. light rum
Splash vanilla ice milk (or ice cream)
1/2 cup ice
(1/2 a banana, optional)
1 1/2 ozs. strawberry puree (we like another ounce added for more strawberry-ness!)
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Blend all ingredients except strawberry puree. Pour into a cocktail glass and gently pour in the strawberry puree (which is to resemble 'lava flowing').
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We enjoyed these Lava Flows at the infamous Duke's Canoe Club and Barefoot Bar on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu.  This landmark establishment sits right on the beach where guests dine and drink under palm-leaf thatched and bamboo umbrellas and sit in beach-y rattan chairs.  Memorabilia from Duke Kahanamoku, the famous Hawaiian surfer who won Olympic medals in swimming, are placed all over the restaurant.  If you ever go, you MUST try the salad bar's FAMOUS Caeser Salad -- the best on the planet . . . and that's the truth!  Duke's even serves anchovies for your Caeser, which most eateries are eliminating due to the expense (yet some still have them listed in their salad's ingredients on their menus!  I think that's bad business myself!)

Here is another version straight from "Hawaii" magazine on how to make Lava Flows the way they are made in Hawaii:

http://www.hawaiimagazine.com/blogs/hawaii_today/2009/8/30/_lava_flow_hawaii_tropical_cocktail

Just a fun tropical drink menu!

On the left is a typical Mai Tai (for hubby) and on the right is a Zombie (a more potent Mai Tai for me!)

The La Mariana Sailing Club, one of the very last authentic tiki bars left in Hawaii, which is being threatened to be demolished for modern developments such as condos, hotels, or office buildings.  This little gem is so threatened that it may not be there when you get to Honolulu.  Elvis could have walked in the joint at any given moment it seemed!

Although this photo is a bit blurry (from excitement while holding the camera!) this is the
 Mai Tai at Along Wong's with THREE rums!

The towering, ceiling high tropical floral centerpiece of Alan Wong's Restaurant

Back in the 1940's a guy named Trader Vic concocted this now world-famous cocktail and introduced it to Honolulu for the Royal Hawaiian and Moana Surfrider hotel bars.  Apparently there is an ongoing debate on how to prepare this drink, so instead of referring to my cocktail recipe bible, I did my research and found the original, classic Mai Tai recipe from Francesco Lafronconi, a highly esteemed and respected author on the history of American cocktails (as a research professor myself, I wonder why I didn't choose that research focus!)
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The Original Mai Tai

1 lime
1/2 ounce orange Curacao
1/4 ounce simple sugar syrup
1/4 ounce orgeat syrup
2 ounces rum (one ounce dark Jamaican rum, one ounce light Martinique rum)
(Alan Wong's uses 3 ounces of rum!)
Fresh mint leaves
Pineapple slices
Maraschino cherries


Cut the lime in half.
Squeeze all of the lime juice over ice (preferably shaved or crushed ice) in a double old-fashioned glass.
Save the lime rind for garnish.
Add the remaining ingredients with the light rum poured in first and the dark rum poured in second.
If necessary, fill the glass with more ice.
Decorate the cocktail with the lime rind, fresh mint leaves, fresh fruit on a stick, and if possible, a colorful little paper umbrella and an orchid!


Mmmmmmm Ahhhhhhhh!  I guarantee you that these will cool you off 
during these intensely hot summer days!  Salute' and ching ching!



Linked up at:
Miz Helen's Country Cottage
Mangoes and Chutney
This Chick Cooks
Lady Behind the Curtain

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Orchid's of Halekulani Sunday Brunch!

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One of the things that my hubby and I always make sure that we do while on vacation is to find one or two really nice restaurants, especially those where local cuisine is prepared that we cannot enjoy when we are home.  So for this trip to the island of Oahu, my research found that "Orchids" in the 5-Star Halekulani hotel is ranked quite high on the travel web-sites (Trip Advisor, Urbanspoon, Yelp, etc.), but especially for a not-to-be-missed Sunday brunch.  Hands-down, after experiencing this tropical brunch, we can say it was the most wonderful that we have ever been to.  Everything was as perfect as could be! From the attentive service, pristine cleanliness, awesome setting and views, quality, taste and variety of food selections ~ ~ well, it was just an over-the-top "wow" dining experience.  And to top it off, you really received your moneys worth!

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Oh yes, all the normal standby food items are available to select from, such as a prime rib, turkey and ham station, an omelette station, a dessert station, salad station, ice cream and topping station, eggs, bacon, sausage and hash brown station, but there were also sushi and raw food stations, Japanese noodle and soup stations, Chinese rice stations, and even Thai salad stations.  

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I go for the unusual, hard to find sushi, raw ahi tuna items that I never prepare at home due to the expense and inexperience in preparing and hubby, being the true meat and potatoes guy that he is, only goes for the prime rib and traditional brunch items.  

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This was the gorgeous view from our ocean-side table . . . the dormant Diamond Head volcano is in the background with the surreal turquoise blue waters of Waikiki Beach.  If you look hard enough, you can see some dots in the water which are surfers up early waiting for the surfs to come in and ride.

A perfectly set white linen table with a strong champagne Mimosa.  This plate is full of tropical foods such as lomi lomi salmon, ahi tuna, steak tartare, salmon poke (po-keh), sushi, wasabi, ginger, and soy sauce.  

This was one of the lovely dining rooms in the restaurant.  You can see that chairs have been set up out in the garden lawn beyond the room where a wedding was about to take place.

This bowl of ahi tuna on ice was at least three layers deep!  The servers kept refilling the bowl endlessly.  To think of the value of this food selection alone is mind-boggling to me, because at 'market price', if you order an appetizer of ahi tuna, you'll be lucky to receive 6 pieces for $15 to $20!  This brunch was just an incredible value!

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This is a close-up of the ahi tuna (with fresh ginger slices on top) on the left, smoked salmon, capers and onions above the tuna, steak tartare above the salmon, a few rolls of avocado sushi, an artichoke and avocado salad, and on the right is lomi lomi salmon and soy sauce dish.  A raw foodie's dream!

OK, now I have to show you my husband's dessert selections.  This is a tiny cup, no more than two inches high of a tropical, citrus panna cotta with fruits.  Very, very light and tangy!  Chocolate covered strawberries and tropical fruit in a raspberry sauce mingle in the background.

This shot shows miniature desserts, again no more than a few inches wide, a little lemon cake with a gold-painted slice of chocolate garnish.  The attention to detail was incredible!

This was both of our favorites; it's a banana, pineapple warm bread pudding.  Hubby has me on a search to find a recipe to duplicate this as best as possible!  Yummy to say the least!

The grand finale was on my plate . . . gosh, I do love the combination of chocolate and raspberries and simply could not pass up this chocolate raspberry mousse cake.  Just look at the gold garnish inside the raspberry!  A thread of chocolate completes the garnish.  Not your ordinary chocolate cake!

So if you ever get to Oahu, I highly, highly recommend without any hesitation, to make a reservation (required) at Orchids for an absolutely divine tropical brunch experience!

Aloha!

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Getting to Know Each Other

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My great new, BEAUTIFUL blogging friend, Java, over at Never Growing Old has a fun new blog hop where we get to know each other and I think it is just a fabulous idea.  Java posts some questions that each of answer that are always fun and interesting.  So here goes my responses:

1. What is your favorite holiday?  CHRISTMAS .  .  . with all of the decorating around the house; family coming over; fun gift exchanges and of course, fabulous traditional holiday food!

2. What color clothing do you wear the most?   Black, it goes with every color which I always add!

3. What is your heritage?  I am 100% of Italian heritage, but was born in the great United States!

4. What is your middle name?  Marie; I was given this middle name in honor of my Aunt Mary.  My first name, Rosalind, is in honor of my Aunt Rose.

5. What is your favorite cookie?  Snickerdoodles, YUM YUM!!!

I hope to met some fun and interesting new friends today!!! Pin It