Post #558395 by Tom Slick on Thu, Oct 7, 2010 4:33 PM

Hi everybody. I stumbled on this thread, read through nearly all 78 pages because I had nothing better to do, and towards the end I read what people had to say in opinion about what tiki food is or isn't. As much as most of the food looks great and made me hungry, the title of this topic is deceiving.

I had expected to see nothing more than Polynesian-infused food and drink ideas, but I've seen more Mexican, Italian, Greek, and Middle Eastern dishes than anything nearly qualifying as 'tiki dinner' or fare. Tiki food invokes visions of exotic fruits and marinated meats to almost anyone you would ask on or off the street.

What does eating home cooked Pizza or Hamburgers have to do with tiki dinner?
In fact, what is a tiki dinner, if the plate doesn't consist of a tropical recipe, exotic ingredients like papaya, mango, pineaple, or carrots and potatoes carved into little tiki heads to make this thread live up to its own title?

The thread did turn into nothing more than a 'foodie' thread, with minimal
'poly-asian' influence. Salads with tomatoes and feta cheese is not a tiki style dinner. If you cannot figure that out, maybe you need to be on the foodnetwork.com's forums. Not trying to come off crass or before someone else throws the word around "Tiki elitist", but let me just say I'm using my given common sense.

Granted, there are some awesome tropically infused and 'tiki inspired' food that some of you had posted within the thread, but most are of daily non-tropical/non-hawaiian/non-exotic/non-tiki grinds. Smoked salmon is just that, smoked fish. Just as a Carne Asada burrito is...well, Mexican or south of the border fare.
Now if either were marinated in teriyaki sauce topped with a mango/pineapple salsa, I could see the connection with the words tiki and dinner. However, it seems that everyone got derailed on just plain old "What did you eat for dinner?"

I'm not trying to kill anyones buzz, or 'good time'. As stated before, this thread is cool and some of you look like you could be 'Le Cordon Bleu' chefs. But 90% of it isn't polynesian or tiki. For every 1 exotic plate or drink posted, there are about 10 non-exotic plates. I read corndogs somewhere...Really? It should be battered in a coconut flaked flour, and have a pineapple-macadamia nut with chili Purée to top it!
The title is misleading when you first discover it browsing TC.

Just my two sense....

(and photoshopping pineapples and drink umbrellas on to standard fare is funny(really), but it still doesn't change the fact.)