Post #390520 by Dr. Coruba on Sun, Jun 29, 2008 7:10 PM

On 2008-02-11 16:27, redbeardmcg wrote:
I am sure there have been tons of posts about the ever popular Mai Tai, and I have read tons of Mai Tai recipes (trader vics, etc...) but I have never been able to reproduce the amazingly delicious Mai Tai that any Chinese restaurant in suburban Massachusetts makes. When I make a mai tai it always ends up looking like lemonade.

My question... Is the Mai Tai that I have grown to love different here in Boston than the rest of the country? I have never been able to reproduce it and I have tried a few different recipes with no success.

I am just another biased Yankee-tikiphile, but I do think the average NE Mai Tai is generally better than any I get elsewhere. My theory for this is that I think that the tikification of the nation started on the west coast with the godfathers of the genre, Trader Vic and Donn Beach. Like most fads, it started on one coast and picked up on the other before moving into the center. I think the the east coast and New England picked up on the Polynesian wave next, so we ended up home to some of the biggest and best of the genre (Trader Vic's for one). I'm further betting that because of the fame and success of Trader Vic's, many of the places in the region worked hard at duplicating the classic TV Mai Tai. Many of the largest places in NE even had the benefit of former Trader Vic's bar staff taking residence at their bars. Even here in DC, the best and former best places to get a Mai Tai are those who had a working connection to Washington's Trader Vic's.

[ Edited by: jwtiki 2008-07-01 20:25 ]