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!

londoner in bangkok

i know, it has been some time. well it has been some time this past weeks. been drinking, travelling and working - not necessarily in that order.
maybe. but more of working and travelling.
was in bangkok a few weeks ago, and am supposed to be there next week, for stag holidays as some friends have/are walking down the aisle and what better way to celebrate that than drinking and partying in the city of angels.
in between the single malts sacrificed for the stag, a few of us managed to go to the londoner brew pub for some grub, grog and girls. well the last bit was not available.
the londoner has a microbrewery inside the pub with the fragrance of the hops wafting through the premises, enticing one to try both the pub-brewed beers - the london pilsner 33 or the londoner pride cream bitter.
didn't ask them the alcohol volume of both the beers but the pilsner is light, fresh and tasty and went along famously with the crowd i was in.
i thought the bitter was better but no one bit or bought that. the fresh bitter brew slaked my thirst and whetted my appetite further for food despite it being just hours after lunch.
we had some food with the beers - nothing thai but all things western. it was more than decent and kept the hunger pangs at bay.
the londoner brew pub is similar to the couple of microbreweries in singapore but i dare say, has a better ambience with the real feel of a london pub. which is a good reason to visit london, and now of course, bangkok.
for those making their way to bangkok, the pub is located at soi 33 along sukhumvit road.

the beer run

have been on the road for the better part of the month, hence the lack of postings. be that as it may, have been having beers for the better part of the month.
they are the usual bottled beers and draught beers available in the market of which most are familiar with but also some found and brewed in some cities across the region.
no photos okay, not that things got hazy and drunk but fishing out the camera and snapping away in a pub is not exactly a pukka thing to do in civilised and even uncivilised company.
and i am not the generic foodie blogger armed with camera, with a hunger for action and a thirst for adventure in the realms of gourmet cuisine and beverages.
back to the froth and foam that is the beer run.
the first stop was paulaner brauhaus in singapore, the microbrewery at millenia walk specialising in german beer and food.
was expecting an array of beers but all they had was the munich lager and the munich dark that they brewed in house.
according to notices around the pub, the signature beers are strictly brewed according to the "the german law of purity" established in 1516 by duke wilhelm. nothing at all to do with incidents in the first half of the 20th century.
anyway, the amber liquid comes in 0.3, 0.5 and 1.0 litre mugs.
it was happy hours and we had one for one of the 1.0 litre mug of munich dark. with a rich dark golden colour reminiscient of library rooms of old, the beer slashed in with an intense malt flavour and a full body with a hint of sweetness in the bold bitterness.
it was strong and it was very nice though with 4.8 percent alcohol by volume, it did not really give that much of a buzz initially and prompted a wolfing down of sorts to chase and catch the particular beer high.
the second mug repaired the situation quite well and left a few slightly sloshed.
the rest of us walked away hungry for curry. but that is a story for another day.
from singapore, made my way to bangkok for a few days and found myself in the londoner brew pub along sukhumvit soi 33. of course there was a military putsch but that did not stop the partying in bangkok.
expatriates and locals were out in full force and the phrase "i love you long long time" entered my lexicon too as ladies of the night went looking for company and coition. figure that out!
back to beer time.
the londoner brew pub serves ales brewed in-house among the other beers available in an ornate traditional english pub in the middle of sukhumvit. the pub grub looked inviting too but we stuck to the beers, particularly the pilsner.
its called the london pilsner 33, in honour of the soi or lane running by the pub. cold, fresh and light, the beer tasted just right in the early hours of the night.
had a couple of pints before leaving to explore the rest of bangkok and its array of bottled beers.
not much to report on that front as the sights and sounds of one night in bangkok is quite familiar to all.
cheers!