the singapore swing

am miles and weeks away from my singapore swing last month but managed to squeeze in some drinks between work. and in the process, nearly lost my passport at holland village.
but a kind gentleman found it and returned it to me.
yes. there is honesty in singapore. and more than that, there are a few party places in the shopping mall with a united nations membership.
the first stop was muddy murphy's irish pub at the orchard hotel shopping arcade - just opposite orchard towers which is known informally among expatriates and locals as the four floors (or is it six) of whores.
but that was not what we were there for, were we? nope!
'twas the pub that was the prize.
interesting enough, the pub was designed and built in dublin, irelend before it was disassembled and shipped to singapore in six 40-foot containers and re-assembled by 15 specialist irish pub fitters.
well, trust the irish! and the singaporeans.
back to the pint at hand, the pub serves irish staples of guinness and kilkenny on tap and some excellent irish food.
as i was with some friends from jakarta who had a hankering for the black beauty, we ordered the guinness draught and some fries instead.
the guinness draught was stout enough to slake my thirst after running around for work in singapore. did you know that it is supposed to take 119.5 seconds to pour a perfect pint.
and of course, the bubbles form a creamy head that might have a shamrock outlined on it in ireland but not really anywhere else.
but once you get to drink in the bittersweet stout and the cream forms a moustache above your lips, you are in ecstasy despite just having 4.2 percent alcohol by volume. it's the taste and the after-taste that gets you.
yes! it's that fantastic.
also revisited brewerkz, the micro-brewery in riverside point that has now expanded to have some sort of fine dining restaurant with a wine cellar. the few of us there were just interested in the beers.
there is a smorgasboard of beers brewed in brewerkz but we settled for the crowd favourite - indian pale ale.
the pale ale with 6.0 percent alcohol by volume has a strong malt and hop flavour that went well for the night. we had a couple of jugs as conversation flowed and ebbed like the tide along the singapore river as the rain whipped around us.
we had some buffalo wings - in hot but not suicidal sauce plus some chips to keep the beer and us company. it came with some blue cheese dip and that helped to balance the spiciness of the wings.
brewerkz has a slew of other food that i have tried over the years but the buffalo wings remain a favourite. guess the spiciness goes well with the bitter beer.
those interested can drop at brewerkz riverside point, 30 merchant road, riverside point or brewerkz indoor stadium, 2 stadium walk, singapore indoor stadium.
brewerkz has also opened up at the changi international airport, making it the first on-site airport microbrewery. brewerkz brew pub is a full-service restaurant with a 3 hectolitre microbrewery at changi terminal 3.
cheers and happy new year!