Tiki Food - Favorite Entree & Appetizer

A quick count of the 50 posts on page 1 show only 4 or 5 food topics. And as much as I love tiki drinks I also love the food that goes with it. I've also started doing a little cooking again, so I want to try some stuff and look for anything that I might convince my "meat and potatoes" wife to try.

So what's your favorite "tiki" appetizer? Entree?

As a bonus, are there particular tiki drinks you like with certain foods? Myself, I'm a "Mai Tai and anything" type of person, but this is probably not the right attitude. (Well, that's debatable I guess.)

Recipes or pointers to recipes appreciated!

Mmm, food.

You can't go wrong with Sabu's Spicy Coconut Chicken. I like meat on a stick in general so I'm fond of chicken Satay as well. I recently went to Taiwan and came back with a taste for dumplings and I'm working on a spinach/mushroom/ginger dumpling that's pretty tasty.

There are a couple of Tiki type cookbooks, the Hawaii Kai cookbook is pretty good. I like it much better than the Trader Vic's South Pacific Cookbook (I'm not sure on the name on that one as I don't have it here in front of me).

As far as an entree goes I've been known to eat a plate of dumplings and that was dinner. I'm looking forward to following this thread.

Sawdust!

Well I say you cant go wrong with pork ribs- big ones or baby backs-

Marinate each pound of ribs in a cup of brown sugar, a 1/4 of an onion diced, salt /pepper, 1 cup Orange juice or pineapple juice, 3-4 tbsp soy sauce, a bit of sesame oil, a decent chunk of fresh ginger---keep in liquid for 24 hours....occasionally stir.

Wrap in foil and bake at 150 degrees for 6-8 hours.....
remove, throw rendered fat and juice in foil away, braise over BBQ grill until toasty and baste with your favorite finish-- I like an island flavor of mango chutney and honey brushed on.

Instead of potatoes go with rice.....

Jammin'!

Those ribs sounds delicious. But 6-8 hours? I don't know if I could handle the smell of them baking for that long!

Slow cooking is good cooking. This has probably been posted before but I think this is a good place for it. The following recipe my mom got from the wife of Leroy of Oceanic Arts

Kalua Pork
6 lbs pork butt
1 Tbs liquid smoke
2 1/2 Tbs Coarse Sea Salt

325 F oven
Rub pork w/liquid smoke and 1 1/2 Tbs salt.
Wrap in heavy duty foil and seal well.
Bake for 5 hours.
Shred the meat and toss the large bits of fat (or reserve them for something else)
Sprinkle salt to taste.

This freezes well so you can pull some out whenever you like. Equally good with white rice or in tacos.

On 2007-04-05 09:25, sporkboyofjustice wrote:
Slow cooking is good cooking. This has probably been posted before but I think this is a good place for it. The following recipe my mom got from the wife of Leroy of Oceanic Arts

Kalua Pork
6 lbs pork butt
1 Tbs liquid smoke
2 1/2 Tbs Coarse Sea Salt

325 F oven
Rub pork w/liquid smoke and 1 1/2 Tbs salt.
Wrap in heavy duty foil and seal well.
Bake for 5 hours.
Shred the meat and toss the large bits of fat (or reserve them for something else)
Sprinkle salt to taste.

This freezes well so you can pull some out whenever you like. Equally good with white rice or in tacos.

Or, if you have a smoker, put the butt in the smoker for 6-8 hours and drop the liquid smoke. You can put a rub on it...some of the ones from North Carolina have paprika, brown sugar, salt, pepper, cayenne, and anything else you want. While it is smoking, mop it with 1/2 apple cider, 1/2 vinegar and a tablespoon of the rub (or 1/2 pineapple juice, 1/2 vinegar, etc). Throw it in a paper bag when it registers about 165 to 170 on a meat thermometer. Take it out of the bag after 15 minutes (this steams it to loosen it up). You should be able to pull it apart.

If you're in Carolina, you'd make a vinegar, tomato, or mustard based sauce at this point. But this is a Tiki forum, so try something soy, hoisin, or mango based. Plop some meat on a bun, add coleslaw, sauce, and enjoy.

I like Chicken of the Gods at Bali Hai. But I've never tried to make it myself using the recipe in Beachbum's "Taboo Table."

Ribs always need long cooking. The long, slow heat allows the collagen in the ribs' connective tissue turn to gelatin.

It's truly a labor of love.

My personal goofy appetizer favorite, plus it's bone-headed easy:

Since I found out that Hawaii has the largest consumption of Spam per capita, I just put a little twist on their Spam sandwiches. Also fun to serve just so I can say when someone has a mouthful, "yeah, that's Spam."

SPAMMIES

One large can sliced pineapple
can of Spam
1/4 cup brown sugar
tablespoon of soy sauce (optional)

oven at 325

Drain a can of sliced pineapple into a microwave cup. Add 1//4 cup packed brown sugar (and soy sauce if you choose it). Microwave at half power until sugar melts, stirring frequently (makes a light syrup). Cut each pineapple slice into half, then each piece in half, then in half again. Makes 8 pieces per slice.

De-can the spam,lay it on it's backside. Slice the Spam into 8 slices. Cut each slice in half, then each piece in half again. you'll get 32 pieces.

Arrange all 32 pieces on a baking sheet, top with pineapple chunk, skewer with toothpick (don't use plastic toothpicks), drizzle the pineapple syrup you made on the spammies.

Bake about 30 min or just until the edges of the pineapple start to brown and the Spam is toasty.
Serve hot on a nice platter.

If you have a really big cookie sheet with sides, you can slap almost 3 whole cans of Spam at once.

Have fun,
LavaLounger

Those sound like great recipes...and the spammies would be pretty easy. I alos like a Hawaiian pizza (usually from Mountain Mikes) with pineapple, canadian bacon, black olives, onions and extra cheese. :)

More ideas:
What food do you serve at your tiki bar?
Vegetarian food for Tiki Nite?
Tiki Finger Food