SMS: Singapore Sling

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An October 2006 trip to Singapore by SeenThat

Quote: A big city or a small country? Singapore is many things, but for me it is mainly fusion cuisine and smart electronic gadgets.

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Raffles City Tower Food Junction

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Chicken Biryani Photo - Singapore City, Singapore

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In Singapore there are as many shopping malls as subway's stations, and each mall hosts at least one food plaza.Asian Food PlazasUnlike their parallels in western malls, Asian food plazas are close replicas of Asian markets, where each shop specializes in very few, related dishes; buying a whole meal at one place is not possible. In Singapore, each plaza hosts Chinese, Malay and Indian shops, allowing thus the customer to create combinations hard to achieve elsewhere, at affordable prices. Each shop in particular and plazas in general are classified according to their cleanliness and quality with letters: A is the best category and C is the worst;...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on April 29, 2008

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Long Bar

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Restaurant | "Long Bar: A Singapore Sling at Raffles Hotel"

The Singapore Sling Photo - Long Bar, Singapore City, Singapore

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The Raffles Hotel bears the name of the founder of modern Singapore and is one of the main landmarks in the country. Its Long Bar is famous for the Singapore Sling which can be enjoyed in its delightful tropical surroundings while reading some fine book about the southern seas. Wouldn’t Conrad’s Victory be a good fit? Especially so, since he was one of the patrons here… Other famous guests include Rudyard Kipling, W. Somerset Maugham, Anthony Burgess and Queen Elizabeth II.The Raffles HotelDating back to 1887, the Raffles Hotel is one of the better known attractions in the ...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on April 29, 2008

Long Bar
Raffles Hotel, 1 Beach Road
Singapore, Singapore 189673
+65 6337 1886

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BreadTalk

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Bugis, The PeopleBugis is the name of the most numerous of the three major linguistic and ethnic groups of South Sulawesi, on Indonesia's third largest island. They have a legend-like reputation for being honorable, pirates, sailors, sea-traders, fierce warriors, industrious and rice growers; they converted from animism to Islam in the early 1600s.In the nineteenth century, some of them were mercenary soldiers of the English Empire, and helped to the establishment of the British colony in Singapore. However, they are also considered to be the pirates pestering the adjacent coasts during the same period. They were awarded a neighborhood next to downtown Singapore, known n...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on April 30, 2008

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Ocean King’s: House of Turtle Specialities

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The Turtle Photo - Singapore City, Singapore

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Chinatown, SingaporeIt would be strange to talk about a Chinese quarter in a city where near 80% of the population is Chinese – attempting to justify it would be weirder - but this is a fact: along South Bridge Road in Singapore there is a Chinese Quarter. It is more a shopping quarter aimed at tourists than a residential one. Chinatown was designed as such in the Raffles Plan of Singapore, in 1819; however, it is home to a small part of the Chinese population, which is the majority in the ...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on April 30, 2008

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Chinese Coffee Shop: Surreal Singapore

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Chinese Styled Coffee Photo - Singapore City, Singapore

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A feeble ocean breeze from the southern seas attempted to brush away the tropic heat of the long gone day; desert streets and closed shopping malls hid their shame under a gentle fog, the streetlamps-light was attractively diffused. Not far away, downtown’s skyscrapers resembled a studiously deconstructed pyramid. In a subtle way, scenes from Blade Runner came to mind.

Despite its loneliness, never did Singapore look more human to me. Its denizens and constructors were sleeping elsewhere, but left their spirit and work as a silent testimony of their masterpiece. It was the perfect place for sitting down, relaxing with a cup of coffee and writing a few pages. During my stays in the island-city-state I spent several delightful lights in such a way. Maybe these nights were the main reason for my recurring visits.

Finding the place didn’t take long; in front of the Bugis Shopping Mall there was a nameless Chinese fast food establishment working the whole night; next to it was a similar Indian one, but the first coffee sealed the deal.

Its front was open to the street; despite that, all the tables were indoors; sidewalk cafes are not allowed in spotless Singapore. The adjacent kitchen was in clear sight and an inseparable part of the dining area; this was part of the place attractiveness. At that single-digit hour – one hand’s finger were too many for counting the hours since midnight – the kitchen created a much needed ambience of homeliness. There were humans within performing well-known, soothing cooking rituals. Despite the time-apace coordinates, the place was solidly located within a nineteenth century Kampong; a palm oil or rubber plantation couldn’t be far away. The nearby ship atop Bugis’ main entrance reminded of long-gone pirates.

The place was never empty. Patrons came and left, always ordering their food without glancing at the stained menus; the coffee, the tea and the Chinese fast food were obvious. A Chinese woman wearing a fancy dress placed a big paper napkin around her neck and raised a greasy bun with obvious delight.

Disliking food at night, I chose coffee and the obligatory fried buns served with it. The preparation method was typical of South East Asia and fascinating to watch. Boiling water was poured from a big kettle into a big cotton filter filled with coarse ground coffee and dripped into a glass.

The glass was previously ad partially filled with condensed milk; the final result was a black and white dichotomy, transformed after mixing into an opaque dark brown. The coffee, both because of the preparation method and the addition of condensed milk was very dense, with an extremely heavy body, reminding very much of a chocolate drink, it was the perfect cup for a lonely night in a foreign place. Read Less

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on May 3, 2008

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About the Writer

SeenThat
Tel Aviv, Israel

"See http://www.igougo.com/travel_blog/post-p164-5_Questions_for_SeenThat.html We are all pilgrims....."
222 journals
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