Singapore Sling by venitha

Kevin, a co-worker of Jim's from HP Ft Collins, was in town last weekend and provided us with an excuse to pony up to the Raffles Hotel Long Bar and to partake at long last of the infamous Singapore Sling.

The Long Bar itself is a Singaporean icon. Woven fans stir lazily back and forth. Sunlight peeks through wooden shutters, illuminating dust floating languorously in the air. Small birds flit overhead, and peanut shells litter the floor. I could pleasantly while away several listless afternoons here, communing with the ghosts of such literary greats as Somerset Maugham and Joseph Conrad.

Unfortunately, order a Singapore Sling, and in a deep long scratch, you draw a screeching needle across the record playing the Long Bar's mood music. As puckeringly saccharine as it is toxically pink, the most common comment after one's first sip has got to be, "That's really sweet." Even my camera, which normally takes stellar pictures, was so dazed by the glow radiating from this concoction that it hardly made out the bowl of peanuts next to it.

Never fear, however, if you wish to experience the Long Bar when you visit us and don't want to risk insulin shock or sudden blindness. Among a bevy of other beverages, the Long Bar also serves beer, in fashionable half yards, or perhaps in the half yard's metric equivalent?

Unfortunately, there's really no avoiding the sticker shock, though; one Singapore Sling goes for a stiff S$18.50.

venitha