Thanks to Tikiyaki Orchestra for the title, I just think it’s cool.

There’s really no other point to this post except to the expound the virtue of the Mai Tai recipe at the legendary Wu Loon Ming, courtesy of Steve (at least I think it was his name) the bartender. Heck, even the bartender at the Wynn Las Vegas’ Country Club bar thought it was better than his own.

But I digress.

Anyways, last year I couldn’t find passion fruit juice so I tried to compensate with a combination of orange juice and guava juice. Big mistake. Fortunately, yesterday I found passion fruit juice at the local Fry’s and made Mai Tais for me and my main squeeze, and they tasted right out of the Wu. The only thing missing were the eggrolls, but what are you going to do?

Just so we’re all on the same page, here is Steve’s ultimate Mai Tai recipe:

Start with a chilled old fashioned-size glass
Muddle a few mint leaves with 1/2 of a lime cut into quarters
1/2 oz. orange curacao
Dash of Orgeat syrup
1 1/2 oz. of passion fruit juice (1 oz of orange juice and 1/4 oz. of guava juice OK can be substituted)
Add ice to top

Now comes the good part:

1/2 oz. of light rum (I prefer the Cruzan light rum)
1 1/2 oz. of dark rum (I prefer Meyers)
Garnish with a twist of anything colorful

Admire the marvelous dusky color before you stir and enjoy!

My recommendation is that frequent commenter Jana gather all the necessary materials together so we can share one over a Skype session next Monday, just before I hop a red-eye back home to Massachusetts for a week. Can’t wait for that.