Trader Vic's Pacific Island Cookbook, With Side Trips to Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Mexico, and Texas

by Victor Jules 'Trader Vic' Bergeron

Recipes and drinks from the Pacific Islands plus side trips to Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Mexico And Texas. 300 Food and Drink Recipes from 18 different places.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking

287 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1968

About the author

Bergeron was the founder of a chain of Polynesian-themed restaurants that bore his nickname (Trader Vic) and one of two people who claimed to have invented the Mai Tai.

Reviews

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Culinary historians will relish this unique look at Asian, Polynesian, Texan and Mexican cuisine as rendered by famous Tiki restaurant owner, Trader Vic. While you're probably not going to cook anything from this book - unless you really love MSG, which is in almost every recipe! - the recipes are interesting snapshots of what "Asian" and "Polynesian" food looked like in the 1960's.

For Trader Vic fans and Tiki enthusiasts, I recommend "Trader Vic's Tiki Party!: Cocktails and Food to Share with Friends" by Stephen Siegelman for modern drink and food recipes.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in 1968, this cookbook is an interesting historical snapshot of typical mainland Americans’ taste in food and judgment of other cultures. Written by quirky and somewhat egotistical restaurant owner Trader Vic, the recipes are pretty much inventions of his own based upon influences from areas in which he traveled. He does not tell us much about the cultures from which the foods come. Certain foods that are popular now are dismissed, for example, “sushi…is a favorite Japanese tidbit but is a seldom acquired taste with Americans.” He uses MSG liberally in dishes influenced by Hawaii, Japan, Indonesia, and Mexico, as well as China. Reflecting typical middle-American food in the 1960s, recipes frequently feature meat and dairy. Most recipes would not be considered healthful, or in many cases delicious, today.

There is some detail in the description of traditional Hawaiian foods, and a few traditional recipes have been adapted to the 1968 mainland kitchen. Otherwise, most of the recipes have only slight relation to the cultures from which they purportedly come. The chapter on Texan foods was satisfying because it contained Mexican influences without pretending to represent Mexico, whereas the chapter on Mexico discussed food from a purely tourist perspective.

I enjoyed chapter on San Franciscan food because the typical San Franciscan restaurant foods in the 1960s were so different than foods today. Anyone care to go out for calves’ liver stroganoff, rabbit stew, deviled chicken, or poached salmon with red caviar-whipped cream-hollandaise-wine sauce? The chapter on (mixed alcoholic) drinks shows how time has changed Americans’ taste for even these, for example eliminating egg whites and evaporated milk as ingredients.

Even though the casual racism that ran rampant in earlier generations is represented as a part of history here, and most of the recipes are not useful today, I enjoyed this blast from the past. The “San Franciscan” rice pudding with raisins, bananas, mandarin oranges, pineapple, orange marmalade, and sherry might be worth whipping up some rainy day!