1939 The Gentleman's Companion volume II Beeing an Exotic Drinking Book

THE EXOTIC DRINKING BOOK

Shake with cracked ice and pour into a Manhattan glass. . . . We find this a good picker-upper, a stomachic par excellence, a carmina– tive of prompt efficiency, for ladies or gentlemen troubled with any of the various ailments from lack of appetite to plain old pre-war stomach ache or collywobbles. THE IMMORTAL SINGAPORE RAFFLES GIN SLING, MET in 1926, & thereafter NEVER FoRGOTTEN There are other good Gin Slings in the East. Spence's Hotel, a small one in Calcutta, frequented rather than the Grand or the Great East– ern, by business gentlemen who like good food, well mixed drinks, has the best in India-outside of those blended by amateurs at home. But the Singapore name clings to this famous drink, and along with the famous Shepheard's in Cairo, Hotel Raffles is probably the best known of any in the Orient. The Brothers Sarkies are canp.y man– agers with whom we have had some moderately large booking ac– counts on 2 occasions. Singapore stands at the cross roads of the East, and whoever has been to Singapore knows the Raffles. Here we can sit and w.atch steamers, warships, prahus, sampans, yachts, and God knows what else riding in the Roadstead off Collyer Quay. Just look– ing around the terrace porch we've seen Frank Buck, the Sultan of Johore, Aimee Semple McPherson, Somerset Maugham, Dick Halli– burton, Doug Fairbanks, Bob Ripley, Ruth Elder and Walter Camp -not that this is any wonder. We've had many Gin Slings out at Seaview, the summer seaside resort of the F.M.S., and where we found the quite delightful atmos– phere marred with a quietly grim touch due to the whole bathing area being surrounded with tough wire netting to dampen ardour and appetite of the sharks infesting those warm seas. But we still concede the palm to the- Raffles for the best Gin Sling. Hotel Nederlander, the Harmonie and Concordia Clubs in Batavia, Java, also make good Gin Slings-the Harmonie Club-where we are eating and drinking at table in a lovely courtyard one minute, feel a breath of cool night air, and see one of the most startling sights in the world: a couple of bun- . 45 .