SG24 – Day 2

The Swan Song bar is the wonderfully eclectic result of three very passionate whisky people. Since discovering this place in 2020, in their old location neat the Auld Alliance, I’ve had the pleasure of going to their current place last trip with L, and being back in town, went their again last night.

I say eclectic as the whisky on offer is definitely not the standard bottlings, I’m not sure they even have any whiskies on offer that you could just pick up a bottle at a local outlet, instead there are rows of independent bottlings, limited releases, and single cask offerings. They might not have a single Ben Nevis released from the distillery, but if you want a single cask independent release distilled in 1971, they have it.

The wonderfully generous and knowledgeable Mr A (one of the triumvirate) greeted me, and I grabbed one of the comfy chairs by the bar. Asking for something easy to start with, he poured me a 13 year old Miltonduff bottled by Hidden Spirits, hints of fruit, vanilla, and gentle toffee, wonderfully smooth for 52.4% abv (I’ll add that I was only going for half measures, not wanting to be that messy drunk white guy stumbling through Singapore at the end of the night). I followed the Miltonduff with a 7 year old Signatory first-fill sherry cask, and it was a corker of wonderful spirit, sherry, dark fruit, dry chocolate, fabulous dram. Next was a 13 year old Caol Ila from Whisky Age, full of the wonderful cirtrus and peat that distillery does so well. I aimed to finish with a rum casy, a 13 year old Miltonduff from Cadenheads (as I type I realise I had three whiskies that were 13 year olds, wasn’t intentional on my part).I was then able to have a little time chatting with Mr A, who’d been flat out all night being a marvellous host to a number of groups, and while we chatted whisky and trends he shared a small taste of a young Japanese Yamazaki Asaka whisky finished in a sake cask, which was interesting, very young, sublte flavours, almost a little hot at its abv but would have likely lost something if watered down. I say aimed to finish with a rum cask, as Mr A then wonderfully and generously poured me a little measure of a Mortlach that was made by angels. We’d talked about Mortlach being hit and miss, and this was a hit all the way. Fruit, savoury, balance, filling the mouth, google tells me it was a 1974 Kreuzritter Collection bottling. A million thank yous Mr A.

If you’re in Singapore, check out Swan Song bar. Just do it.

While relaxing, I got talking with Mr M, a zoologist by day and a whisky fan by night. He studied in Tasmania, so not only did he light up the minute I mentioned turbo chooks, he also revealed he’d had his shoe bitten by a Tasmanian devil. I don’t think he really appreciated how much cred that would give him in Australia. He told me there was a Macallan event happening this week, where they were displaying one of their new very exclusive squillion-dollar bottlings, which wasn’t for tasting there but they did have a taste of the thousand dollar version as part of the entry. Was tempted to look at going, but as much as I love Macallan, I’d prefer to skip the shiny marketing and sit with a few drams of the core sherried range.
Having had several small and well spaced drams, with plenty of water, I wasn’t the messy white guy in the streets, so had a relaxed walk back to the hotel. I probably sweated out everything I drank in the process. I grabbed a late bite at a little place near the hotel, NG Kuan Chilli Pan Mee, where I had the dry noodle version of their signature dish, with pork mince, egg, and sambal with soup on the side. Spicy and just the right kick.

The day started with a mission to hit the Newton hawker centre, as this has been recommended by severl, including Mr M who told me to check out the prawn noodle, and chicken wings if open. I started with porridge, the Michelin Bib Gourmand Kwang Kee Teochow Fish Porridge, and was again surprised by it not being the stuff of nightmares. Their version doesn’t even try to be what I consider porridge to be, instead is like a broken rice soup, a light fish broth, and a layer of broken rice, with white fish slices and condiments. Tasty. After a sugar cane juice, I went for the recommended Adam Rd Prawn Noodle soup, #2 pork belly and prawn, and it’s recommended for a reason. The soup is pure umami, prawn stock and so much goodness, the noodles firmly textured, a couple of prawns cut lengthways and some succulent pork belly. So good. Out of every meal so far, this one is definitely die die must try.

The Newton centre has a reputation of being a late night tourist trap, but at 11 am is less than half open and seems to be mostly locals. Wandering around I could see dark clouds coming, and just knew a rain shower was on the way, so I stayed put, and in 5 minutes the heaves opened. I did the sensible thing, grabbed another sugarcane juice and took a seat and watched, feeling the humidity break. I’d recalled discussing fried carrot cake and oyster omelettes with Mr M, and when the rain finished, figured I had room for one more dish and saw a place with just that food, stall 51. It had no queue, but then no where really did at that time, and a few people sitting and eating in front, so went for the oyster omelette. I’ll be kind and say it was generally underwhelming, and then looking up online reviews found many had the same experience, a fairly bland overly starchy and oily omelette. The parts that weren’t starchy were crunchy and generally good, but it needed seasoning, and the oysters looked and tasted more like mussels to me. (The reviews generally did have good things to say about their carrot cake, just not the omelette.)

Time for electronics shopping, so off to the Funan Centre, several floors of shiny gadgets as well as food, because Singapore. I’d been handed a side quest by a Perth colleague, M, to hit the big M, aka the golden arches, aka the clown, and score some of the seaweed shaker salt. Apparently it’s the absolute bomb. Sadly, it appears the limited run of shaker fries has ended, so this side quest will remain unfulfilled. I’ve set foot in no less than three outlets, and touched the screens in hope, neither needing a clean bathroom nor wifi, and I must admit failure (though I have not succumbed to the curiosity a McSpicy offers). Failure admitted, I wandered the floors of shiny, stopping to take a selfie before a lit halo and wings mounted for just that (folks have commented about my looking over the glasses expression, I don’t have the heart to tell them that these days that’s how I best see the phone screen taking these pics). Spent some time looking at headphones and buds, but then checking the prices and adding exchange rate, found that I can likely get them slightly cheaper at home (thanks to L splurging on abezos prime). I’ll check another place tomorrow, but looks like i’ll be returning empty handed but not lighter in the wallet.

Wandered back to the hotel, doing my random stopping into little malls detours. Found a couple near Funan that were connected, one seemed to be very music oriented, with maybe 2 or 3 rehearsal studios and a bunch of music shops, while the other had a mix including a shop full of old knick knacks and possible every 7″ Madonna released in the 1980s. A different mall seemed to be mostly Myanmar businesses.

Back at the hotel for a rest, a de-sweat, and to thump these words from neurons to electrons, or something. Good food, so-so food, a bunch more walking, and random observations. This evening is Roit! hosted by Becca D’Bus at the Hard Rock Cafe, so who knows what wonders await there. It’s supposed to finish at 10pm, so after could be heading back to Newton to check the late night fare, or maybe just aiming for an early night as I’ve averaged 19,000 humid steps these last two days. It’s funny, I packed long-sleeve linen shirts and light jeans thinking I could be a mature, well-dressed visitor, but yesterday and today my daytime attire was t-shirts and shorts just like all the other sweaty tourists.