Post #558661 by Mai Tai on Fri, Oct 8, 2010 3:35 PM

On 2010-10-08 12:40, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
Thank you Sven! I have been arguing those exact points for sometime now and to much resistance
to the facts.

Today's Tiki Culture is what we make it, Lets honor the traditions and history,but don't tell me we can't make better food & Drinks
I love my Hawaiian Shirts,but I wear a vintage suit now & then to honor the past,we can have the best of both worlds!

To those intolerant few who thought we should not even be here,or at the very least try to dictate what kind of food should be here
on this humble thread, do some legwork & get your fact's straight.
Then get a Mai Tai and loosen the hell up.

So that's obviously directed at me. As are your postings of and PM's of "You're wrong, since you haven't come up with an argument or debate to disprove me".

I want to be very careful with my tone here, and spell out my thoughts and intentions, as things can easily get distorted through internet communication, and downward spirals develop from there.

In a nice, respectful tone, I disagree that Sven is agreeing and validating your point of view. And even though I feel that historically "Tiki Food" is hard to define, I refuse to get into a circular logic reasoning loop of "since there's really no such thing as tiki food, then anything can be tiki food" or "since tiki food is not definable then anything can be tiki food", or "since those tiki establishments served basically anything, then anything can be tiki food". (And because I refuse to debate about it doesn't mean that either one of us is right or wrong, or that one person "wins"). We have demerara rum, a key staple ingredient in many tiki drinks, that is manufactured in Canada, does that make Canada tiki? How about the Canadians that distill and manufacture it? Do rums from Belize or Mexico make those places tiki? One could argue that since next year's Tiki Oasis theme is "South Of The Border", therefore Mexico is tiki. Witco carved conquistador stuff, is that reaffirmation that all Latin items are tiki? What about viking ships? They're kind of similar to the Kon Tiki? What about a Witco Globe? Tiki is on the face of planet earth, is it not? Hey, wait, so is Jimmy Buffett! Is he tiki, too?

Trader Vic's makes a burger. It's one of my favorite things to order on the menu! Sometimes Midnite and I go to Vic's for lunch just to have the burger. Is it Tiki? In my opinion, no, because it's a burger. What about if it was cooked in the chinese ovens? Still no. In the same vein, I feel that nine out of ten items in this thread aren't tiki, in that they don't smack of some type of "exotic flair", whether Mid-Century, Tiki-Revivalist, or some brand new interpretation of Poly-Asian. To me, the philly cheesesteaks, huevos rancheros, holiday cookies, etc, lack that certain kind of "exotic flair". Again, I say that in a friendly, respectful tone. I'm not having a meltdown over it, and I'm not losing any sleep over it. And I'm not posting over and over and over how "other" people can't seem to let it go because they don't agree with my point of view.

Which brings up another interesting point. It appears that things are all great and fun and games, until someone disagrees with you. Didn't you and Boris get into it over in Bilge over this fact? And wasn't it about this particular food thread?

On 2010-10-02 23:15, Bora Boris wrote:
Yes, it's all about ** Fun** until someone makes a little ** Fun** of your very popular and going strong Food post, then it's not as much ** Fun** until you remind us that it is Fun. Is this correct? Because that's what it sounds like. :lol:

Again, in a nice respectful tone, because I feel that corn dogs, tacos, and huevos rancheros aren't tiki, does that make me a tiki nazi? Or Tiki Fonzie? 'Cause I'm just too Kool for Tiki School? I don't think so. You and/or amybean might feel differently. If so, then so be it. It's a free country, everyone's entitled to their opinion. I even received a PM from a moderator here, saying that they think it sucks that people are having meltdowns and I'm getting hate mail just because I requested that a thread be moved to Beyond Tiki or to Bilge. It also makes me a little sad to think that a few people might think that I'm some harsh tiki overlord, because I most definitely am not. But I'm not going to cry about it, 'cause hey, Fonzie don't cry!

So, lastly, in a friendly, respectful tone, especially to amybean, I've apologized for using harsh language, both here on the thread, and to her in a pm, and offered to talk story over drinks at FI. What else can I do, give a pound of tiki flesh? (Mmmmmmmm, tiki flesh - it's what all good zombies eat at Halloween time!). I would like to see the hate mail and the constant innuendos of being an uptight tiki nazi stop. We're adults, right? And can handle things in an adult manner, right? And at worst case agree to disagree, right? Even though there's an academic side to this website, it's still supposed to be fun. I've let this issue go, and I think we all should let it go, because I don't want to cause some kind of shouting match that is going to cause a downward spiral, and ends up getting this thread permamently locked. Now back to our regular scheduled program.

On 2010-10-08 14:25, bigbrotiki wrote:
And you really made my mouth water with that Char Siu Chinese Barbecued Pork & Pineapple Coconut Rice photo, that IS a piece of art! :)

Wholeheartedly agreed! I hope that you'll cook some of that up for me sometime, my friend!