"Trader Vic's Tiki Party" captures the ambience of 1950's-1960's Tiki culture and gave me a good starting point for a very successful luau. However, as a cookbook I found it poorly edited. For example, a recipe for onion marmalade (served with pork tidbits) leaves out the key information of whether to slice, chop or leave the onions whole. In another recipe, the reader is referred to a page number that turns out to be the wrong one. Some of the recipes do seem intriguing although I wasn't crazy about the ones I tried. Perhaps not surprisingly, more than half the book is devoted to drink recipes. These are fine, but there seems to be little reason to include so many when they are so similar. Lots of rum, lime juice and sugar syrup with subtle variations between them.
The photos are nicely done but more would have actually helped. It would have been nice to see more images of the finished food items rather than so many photos of vintage tiki mugs. This is a fun book, but nothing I could really rely on.

If you're planning a Luau you NEED this book - decorations, drinks and food - along with the background of "Vic" - his other books won't give you the background of this great guy - whose rum conconctions are still legend today.

It's clear and wonderful. I had a hard time choosing what I wanted for the party. Great for big parties!

I enjoyed reading this, b/c of the tidbits of history, good illustrations, and well written recipes. I haven't made any of the recipes yet, but they seem easy to execute and sound delicious.