oban and olympics

did you get to see the beijing olympic games opening ceremony last night? wasn't it impressive?
i thought it was out of a kungfu movie considering it was directed by film-maker zhang yimou.
was at a friend's place in singapore and we watched the ceremony on high-definition television. definitely the best way to watch the ethereal and entrancing launch with the multitude of fireworks lighting and fogging the skies above the middle kingdom.
anyway, the ceremony reminded me of the oban distillers edition single malt 1991. fourteen years of fragrant sweetness and saltiness in a dram.
the 43 percent alcohol by volume single malt is honey gold in colour - casked in montilla sherry casks - with a palate that is smooth and redolent of nuts, spice, chocolate and hints of tobacco.
it leaves a lingering briney peaty finish suitable for nights by the log fire at a library leafing through old journals reminiscing tales of yore. something like the olympics and its tale of 5,000 years of china.
a remarkable single malt for moments of your life.
by the way, it was awarded a gold medal at the international wines and spirits competition in 2002. so yes, go get some if you can.

portwood pleasures

landed in singapore and bought a balvenie double wood. the funny thing about the red dot is that you can buy a litre of hard liquor/spirits together with a litre of wine and another litre of beer as your duty-free entitlement upon arrival.
no questions asked. but you cannot buy anything if you are coming from malaysia.
the reason is clear. thousands cross over by land, sea and air daily between the two countries. imagine the amount of alcohol that could be smuggled and consumed between both neighbours. well, i for one would reach out and polish off a bottle of anything just waiting in line at the singapore immigration checkpoints at the border.
enough said about that. the balvenie double wood is a great single malt. and i am slowly imbibing it just as i did a few weeks ago at no black tie while watching rafique rashid perform songs old and new.
but even better than the double wood is the balvenie portwood 21 years old which i had the pleasure of at least a couple of wee drams at a friend's house.
the 40 percent alcohol by volume smooth single malt is creamy with a sweet bouquet of honey and nuts, showing off the maturity that only 21 year olds can have.
the colour of honey, the single malt is matured in oak casks before it spends time in port casks that have held port wines previously, hence the inherent sweetness.
by the way, the balvenie portwood 21 year old was awarded a prestigious gold medal at the 2005 international spirits challenge which pretty much reflects it pedigree as a great malt.
the palate is soft and sweet like cream with a bit of oakiness that quickly dissolves into a soft sweet finish.
if you like port, you'll love the portwood.

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.

peeking at the duck

this is not a wood-fired pizza oven but the oven for roasted peking duck at min jiang in one north, rochester park in singapore.
min jiang is, to put it plainly, one of the more famous sichuan restaurants in singapore with peking duck being its signature dish.
which is why we ended up there for the dinner that presages the end of the annual company meeting held in singapore this year.
we had beers first of course.
that was followed by an eight-course dinner that looked like tapas but felt like a heavy dinner after a while - unlike most chinese dinners.
the chef came over with thin slices of crisp duck skin - very very thin and crispy actually - that glistened with fat and tasted delicious with just the barest dip of the sugar bowl.
everyone agreed that it was great. quite unlike what we have ever had in a while.
the chef, bless his soul, then expertly carved the peking duck and separated it to two lots of duck meat and skin.
one was wrapped in pancake with condiments of spring onions, cucumber and chinese hoisn sauce while the other lot was spicied up with garlic and radish strips.
both lots went in double quick time with the first lot bringing out the essence of roast duck while the spicier lot teased our palate and brought forth an explosion of taste that is quite hard to describe.
we tried to prolong the sensation and even considered ordering extra peking duck but orders had to be placed one day in advance. damn!
the other dishes were standard chinese course fare except for the sea cucumber that did not go down well with the crowd. think it was just too gooey for us.
the dessert of black beans with ice cream capped off a splendid night friends, fun and food - not in any particular order though!
min jiang one north is at 5, rochester park. call +65 67740122 to order your meal.
and that was really quite the end of the singapore travel for the moment.