The best Pacific Rim Cooking, Food & Wine books: Reddit reviews

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It's this one! There's food in there too, but the drinks are what I got it for. Ended up expanding my bar quite a bit with things I normally didn't stock, because of all the post-it marked pages with things I wanted to try.

Buy a copy of the Smuggler's Cove book and go from there.

I highly suggest that you get a copy of Martin Cate's excellent book (tiki bible?) Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki. That will teach you everything you need to know.

But, almost all tiki cocktails are rum-based. There are a few with other spirits, but fairly few. (Get rid of that spiced rum - you won't need it, and it's generally awful.) You can get as many opinions on rum brands here as there are posters, but as an advanced beginner, I'll give you my list:

• An all-around rum - I like Plantation 5-Year
• A black rum - Gosling's Black Seal is solid
• An overproof rum - I prefer Plantation O.F.T.D.
• A column still rum - Cruzan is quite good
• A rhum agricole - Clement works well

What you're looking for is style of rum, and country of origin. Around here we find the terms, "light, dark, amber" to be pretty useless as there are dozens of different styles and tastes of rums within each of those.

If you really want to get into making tiki drinks, you should buy the Smuggler's Cove book to get a good grip on what you're doing. The book also has recipes for most of the common syrups in the back. It is under $20 on Amazon, so it costs about the same as a decent bottle of rum.

Before you go buying a bunch more rums, you need to get a copy of Martin Cate's Smuggler's Cove book. The chapter on the different types of rums alone is worth the price of the book.

https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

Rum wise, you need something Jamaican. I would recommend Appleton. Smith and Cross can also be fun. Overproof also gets used frequently; Plantation Old Fashioned Traditional Dark (OFTD) is popular.

Personally, I would also consider my copy of Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki to be essential.

I work through the rice by hand to remove all the clumps before cooking, and then add the soy and mix it into the rice prior to the rice going in the pan. Credit to Alvin Cailan for teaching me the technique. Amboy Cookbook

My wife bought me a copy of <em>Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki</em> when coronavirus started. We’ve really enjoyed making tiki drinks. If you have visited r/tiki yet I recommend it!

We don't work in the industry so I'm not sure how that works. The recipe comes from the book Easy Tiki. It's easily worth the $12.

Tiki lends itself to really good nonalcoholic punches, because there’s so much in the drink beyond just the alcohol. Check out the Trader Vic’s Tiki Party book for quite a few ideas.

https://www.amazon.com/Trader-Vics-Tiki-Party-Cocktails/dp/1580085563

Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki is pretty much our bible. https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

Also get the Total Tiki app, which will give you tons of recipes and show you what you can make with what you have on hand. https://beachbumberry.com/publications.html

With those two you'll pretty much have everything you need.

I'll actually say that you might want to spend a little on picking up a good book about tiki, like Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki. It's worth it for the recipes alone, but the chapter on rums is pure gold. You'll learn that "light" and "dark" don't really mean anything.

Other's here have recommended Cocktail Wonk's blog, and that's a good place to learn, as well.

You're actually on the right track. Too many people jump into tiki and buy hundreds of dollars worth of ingredients that end up gathering dust. Go slow, and add as you need, and as you find a new drink you want to try making.

I'll echo that a good book like "Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki", $16 on Amazon, will give you recipes, rum tips, and some cool fun history. But if you can get to a tiki bar to taste a few basic drinks (I agree with Mai Tai, Painkiller, Daiquiri), that will help you know what it's supposed to taste like. Let us know where you are and we can recommend the best nearby tiki bar.

When syrups go bad, they usually grow mold. It won't make you sick, but it'll taste yucky. You'll be able to tell because the syrup will get cloudy or have things floating in it or smell like vinegar. If you keep your syrups in the fridge, you can definitely keep them more than 2-3 months. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I have a bottle of Liber & Co. orgeat that I opened Sept. 26th. Still good because I take it out, use it, and immediately put it back in. (Pro tip: write the date you open it on the bottle.) If you're making your own, sanitizing the container will make the biggest difference. (Boil for 5 minutes.) Your Monin syrup is likely still good, but it may be getting "tired" and losing flavor. I too recommend Liber & Co. for syrups. (https://www.liberandcompany.com/) Join their "Cocktail Club" and sign up for their newsletter and you'll get coupons and discounts. You can also find a lot of syrups on Amazon, but I find they tend to be cheaper direct from the companies.

Welcome to the fun! Enjoy!

Pain killers are always my go-to for starting company on tiki.

Beyond that, Fog Cutters and Mai Tais (if you like 'em strong!) are always crowd pleaser.

Easy Tiki is a great book for a good mix of classic and new-age drinks!

This may seem like out left field, but everyone I see Smuggler's Cove I think of this book. Check it out if you wanna learn how to make good tiki cocktails.

Over the past two years I have really been getting into rum and tiki drinks. This book changed my life https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

My favorite is also one of the most simple, the daiquiri

juice of one lime, 0.5 oz demerara syrup (a 2:1 mixture of demerara or brown sugar and water), 2 oz light rum (My go to is plantation three stars, cheap and delicious. Can also go with plantation's stiggings pineapple rum for a more complex flavor).

Shudders in a Whisper

GLASSWARE Large (22-ounce) brandy snifter

3/4 ounce fresh lime juice 1/2 ounce SC Passion Fruit Syrup (page 325) 1/2 ounce natural pear liqueur (such as Mathilde Poire) 1/4 ounce Drambuie liqueur 2 ounces seltzer 2 ounces column still aged rum (4) 2 dashes Peychaud's bitters 1 dash Angostura bitters

GARNISH Edible orchid and mint sprig

Add all of the ingredients to a drink mixer tin. Fill with 12 ounces of crushed ice and 4 to 6 small "agitator" cubes. Flash blend and open pour with gated finish into a snifter. Add garnish.

Amazon Link to Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki https://www.amazon.com/dp/1607747324/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_AHRR3B2GYWH1BAZRR654

They sell rusted scrap metal thats been welded into dinosaur sculptures and you do not have enough of them.

Alternatively, buy smugglers cove, get into tiki drinks, and add some tiki style.

Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki https://www.amazon.com/dp/1607747324/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_VZ23920QC2BCN4ND9142

This is the best bar book there is. You said money is no object and that is good because you will need to buy a lot of different rums from astorwines.com or somewhere.

I don’t know if anyone has recommended this yet - but “Easy Tiki” has recipes designed for home-tiki. They’re paired down for starters, so that you make a drink with 1-3 spirits. There’s also a cool introduction to the history. https://www.amazon.com/Easy-Tiki-Modern-Revival-Recipes/dp/1984856758/ref=asc_df_1984856758/?tag=hyprod-20&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=507699473245&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=6097957939290153701&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvdev...

How about Smugglers Cove?

The short answer is that the single thing that catalyzed my journey into Tiki was the book "Smuggler's Cove", by Martin Cate. My wife gave it to me for Christmas the year it was published, and I loved it. I couldn't put it down, and almost immediately began acquiring spirits and making the recipes.

The longer answer is that Tiki checks off a lot of boxes for me, as far as intersecting with my interests and tastes, so the seeds were there. I enjoy cocktails, love making things, cooking, the mid-century aesthetic, vintage stuff, the theater and ritual of cocktail making, etc., etc. Essentially all I needed was something to bring it all together and point me in the right direction, and that's what Smuggler's Cove did.

Rum gets very confusing lol great book that explains it is Smugglers Cove but even then they all could vary soo much

Zaya 12 is great in mudslides btw!

I don’t know, but my guess is you want to add some sugar like honey or agave. Marinades typically don’t use a lot of sugar because it will burn easily. Also you could improve the richness of flavor by adding some sake in it.

In case you want it here is Alvin Cailan’s recipe for Teriyaki Sauce from his Amboy Cookbook

¼ cup cornstarch 5 cups water 1 cup Datu Puti or Silver Swan soy sauce (see below; available at Asian markets and on Amazon) 2 cups loosely packed dark brown sugar 3 tablespoons honey 1½ teaspoons ground ginger 1½ teaspoons garlic powder In a liquid measuring cup, whisk the cornstarch into 1 cup of the water to make a slurry. Set aside. In a medium saucepan, stir together the remaining 4 cups water, the soy sauce, brown sugar, honey, ground ginger, and garlic powder. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Make sure the mixture is simmering so that the heat will activate the cornstarch properly and thicken the sauce. Whisk the cornstarch slurry into the saucepan until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat. Serve the teriyaki sauce right away or transfer it to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Smugglers Cove has a nice Rum section in the book and categories them together.

https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324/

For sipping I like El Dorado 15 and Rhum JM VSOP

"Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki" is the best $17 you will spend if you're serious about learning more about tiki and rums: https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

Yeah, not bad.

Simple Syrup - it's not bad, you just paid for something you can make in under 5 minutes. 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, heat until sugar dissolves (but don't boil it, you'll make candy).

Orgeat - sorry just no. "INGREDIENTS: Sugar, Water, Natural Flavors, Citric Acid, Sodium Benzoate (Preservative)". Get a bottle of Small Hand Foods or Liber & Co. next and you'll see an amazing difference.

Bacardi - It's serviceable, but an upgrade will really kick your cocktail game up.

Appleton 12 - very nice.

Meyers - Again, serviceable. Nothing special.

Angostura - excellent. You should also pick up a bottle of Peychaud's Bitters.

Falernum - Fee Bros. is O.K. The gold standard -even if it gets some flack - is John D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum.

Curacao - Again, serviceable, but your next bottle should be Pierre Ferrand Dry Orange Curaçao

Actually, before you buy another bottle of anything, spend some cash on the book Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki (https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324). Make this your tiki bible!

I don’t know what your level of interest in tiki is, so forgive me if you are “hip” already:

Please research tiki culture. There’s plenty of party store type tiki swag out there already that kinda misses the mark on most tikiphiles. Start with Sven Kirsten’s book Tiki Pop then get the awesome book by Martin and Rebecca Cate Smugglers Cove (named after their bar, of course). The world has too much “hang loose” grinning teeth tiki stuff.

For Rum, the book Smuggler's Cove is an incredible resource for amazing Tiki cocktail recipes, history of Tiki bars and the tiki scene, as well as a thorough examination of Rum. Some of my favorite rums are:

• Smith + Cross (high ABV Jamaican style)

• Foursquare (very high ABV, more of a sipping rum)

• Flor de Cana (my favorite mixing rum, the 4 year white and 5 year gold rums)

• Pussers Navy Rum (a fun rum but strong in a dried fruit and raisin flavor to me)

Scotch is not as so dramatically different than Bourbon, so I'd say try an available bottle from each of the styles of Scotch: bourbon cask mature, sherry cask (or port cask or other wine cask), and peated (smokey) scotch. After you kind of figure out what sort of category of malt whisky you like, then you can explore more of the distilleries. What I'd suggest for like, a real easy starter pack to the different styles of malt whisky would be

• Glenmorangie 10 year (a great baseline for ex-bourbon cask matured scotch at a decent price)

• Glendronach 12 or Macallan 12 (sherry barrel matured. I'm a huge Macallan fan, but they're a bit pricy)

• Monkey Shoulder (Blended malt whisky from several distilleries, a great cheap bottle and a decent intro to blended whisky)

• Talisker 10 or Highland Park 12 (island whisky, so a slight hint of peat smokiness but not as profound a flavor as the islay bottles)

• Ardbeg 10, or Laphroaig 10, or Lagavulin 8 or 16 (a heavily peated malt to really explore the smoky side of scotch)

>Depuis le début du confinement j'apprends à faire des cocktails, mais j'ai trouvé que je m'intéresse étonnamment aux cocktails // à la culture // au Tiki. Le Tiki est un genre de cocktails (ainsi qu'un thème décoratif) qui a été créé sur la côte ouest des États-Unis juste après la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. (Il a ses racines dans certains restaurants ouverts/créés avant la guerre, mais c'était principalement dans les années cinquante où on trouvait la culture Tiki.) Il a été inspiré par la culture polynésienne et créé pour permettre aux clients d'un restaurant ou d'un bar Tiki de se sentir sur une plage de sable blanc, même pendant juste une heure ou deux. En général, les cocktails ~~de~~ Tiki contiennent du rhum, du sucre, et des jus de fruits, mais cette description ne suffit pas du tout à décrire la vraie variété et complexité de ces cocktails.
>
>À Noël, ma femme m'a offert un super livre sur ce sujet, et récemment j'ai commencé à faire beaucoup de cocktails ~~de~~ Tiki. Ils sont délicieux et dangereux, mais si vous vous intéressez aux cocktails, je vous prie de les essayer.

Recipe

A symphony of vinegar, garlic, soy sauce, and whole black peppercorns.

Garlic fried recipe was from Nicole Ponseca’s book I Am A Filipino