Post #590560 by telescopes on Tue, May 24, 2011 1:09 PM

On 2011-05-24 05:08, MrBaliHai wrote:

Made one over the weekend, using the Bum's recipe, and found it to be reasonably tasty and well-balanced. I had one at the Bali Hai restaurant years ago, and as others have noted, thought it was very harsh and boozy. My conclusions are that a) either the Bum's recipe ain't the real thing, or b) the BH bartenders are spiking it deliberately or from lack of experience.

I imagine the Bum's recipe is probably "the" recipe; however, that would be the "official" recipe. The "practitioner's recipe is the one that is very harsh and boozy. This is "THE" Bali Hai recipe that has become "THE" recipe of record. The "official" recipe is the one given to patrons when one ask for a recipe.

I don't think I've ever had an "official" Mai Tai from the Bali Hai in say the last ten years.

Frankly, it is a lousy Mai Tai - but yet - I order it every time I go there.

To be honest, it is the type of Mai Tai that is so poorly made that one could never reproduce it in a million years if one tried.

It is so utterly terrible that it becomes uniquely "great". Somehow, the booze and the lack of whatever they leave out or rarely pour to correct proportions achieves an utterly incomprehensible balance of correctness.

I don't get it, but I have learned to love it.

Viva, Bali Hai Mai Tai - You are absolutely "out of this world!"