We had the chance to ‘talk story’ with Mike Dease, guest artist (trombone and arranger) on Adventures in Paradise.

Here’s what Mike had to say about what he digs about exotica, and on his involvement with the recording.

Over the past several years, WAITIKI has developed a number of close friendships with highly revered food and drink chefs, and we’ve always passed the good tenets of those relationships on to our fans!

The WAITIKI 7′s debut album, Adventures in Paradise, is no exception. To help our listeners further enjoy the lush tropical music of W7, we will proudly be publishing a recipe for Five-Spice Beef Crostini ‘cooked up’ for us by our friend Sandra Wu, who with her husband Ivan, has been following WAITIKI since our earliest shows of 2004.

Some of the inspiration behind Sandra’s recipe comes from Cantonese and Chinese-American appetizers served in tiki restaurants like Trader Vic’s or the Waikiki Lau Yee Chai. Though crab rangoon and char siu (roast sweet pork) are staples today, back in the mid-1950s they were exotic to many a-palette. Sandra’s Five-Spice Beef Crostini updates old Chinese pupu platter favorites, and its easy preparation makes it the perfect accompaniment for the modern tiki cocktail party.

Ono is the Hawaiian language equivalent of “absolutely delicious”… After you try Sandra’s Five-Spice Beef Crostini, we’re sure you’ll agree with us that her recipe is quite ono!

Bio

Sandra Wu is a Bay Area-based food writer and recipe developer whose fascination with all things edible began at a young age. She has worked as a test kitchen cook at Williams-Sonoma Inc. and an editor at Cook’s Illustrated magazine, and her writing has been published in the food sections of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. When she’s not in the kitchen, you can probably find Sandra at her local farmer’s market, spending time with her husband Ivan and their lab-Dachshund-beagle Gus, or in the backyard tending to her organic vegetable garden.

Brother Cleve is a consummate musician, record producer, mixologist, DJ—and The WAITIKI 7 have called upon him for all of those things at one time or another. He produced albums for W7′s previous quartet incarnation in 2005 and 2007. This time around, Cleve joined forces with us as production consultant, providing oversight for the mixing, mastering, and track sequencing stages of Adventures in Paradise.

In addition to sonic wizardry, Cleve also contributes the “Cactus Flower,” an original tiki cocktail recipe he devised for the 2008 Tales of the Cocktail event in New Orleans, LA.

Lounge fans may know Cleve as the keyboardist from the 90s exotica act Combustible Edison, or from his TV work as composer for HBO/Cinemax, the Discovery Channel, Universal Studios, and Hormel Foods.