Last week for Julia’s spring break we traded the hustle, glamour and grime of New York for the laid-back charms of Hawaii. (It’s odd to be suddenly back on a school holiday schedule at my age, but it makes for a nice excuse to take a vacation.) We stayed at a lovely resort on the Big Island and did little except lounge, swim, eat and drink.
I’ve learned not to get my hopes up about resort food, but we ate very well on the property, the restaurants of which featured lots of fresh local fish and produce. As did the bars, which is a nice idea, unless you want a real Mai Tai. Not an Island-grown Lililoi Mango Mai-tini (although the real coconut shell cup was a nice touch), but the genuinely inauthentic boozy floozy of a drink poured at legendary tiki lounges like the (dearly departed) original Trader Vic’s and the (nearly departed) Tonga Room. And we sure did.
So we took matters into our own hands, aided by our good friend Marta, who has long ties to Hawaii –and to Trader Vic’s. This is her recipe, which makes the very most of the ingredients we could pick up at the nearest strip-mall liquor store. With access to better booze, I’d probably upgrade the golden rum. But I’d keep the rest, including the pineapple chunk and maraschino cherry garnish, which I think contributes nicely to the Frannie Halcyon-does-Tiki-Night mood of the proceedings.
Recipe (for one drink)
1 1/2 oz dark rum (such as Myers)
1 1/2 oz golden rum
1/2 oz Orgeat (almond syrup)
1/2 oz orange liqueur, such as Cointreau, Grand Marnier or Orange Curacao.
Juice of 1 lime
Stir all ingredients in a pitcher filled with ice and then serve on the rocks with a chunk of pineapple, a maraschino cherry and an optional mint leaf for garnish.
