Posted Monday, November 15, 2004; 21:00 HKT
Plenty of place names have inspired cocktail spin-offs: just think of Black (and White) Russians, Manhattans and Long Island Iced Tea. But perhaps nowhere is tipple tied more tightly to location than Singapore, with its eponymous Sling. The blend of gin, cherry brandy and Cointreau (not to mention lime juice, bitters and other ingredients) was dreamed up in the early part of the last century—no one knows quite when—by Ngiam Tong Boon, a bartender at the city's best-known hotel, Raffles.

Today, sipping a Sling in the hotel's Long Bar is a firm fixture on many itineraries. But some of those who have been there, drunk that, dare to claim that a rival bar has matched—or, sacrilege, even surpassed—the Raffles' creation. To take the taste test, head to the Boom Boom Room. On the second floor of an old shophouse, this late-night venue houses the city-state's finest cross-dressing cabaret two nights a week—and serves a spectacularly good Sling at $10 a pop. The Boom Boom Room is also home to Kumar, Singapore's leading drag queen and satirist. The Raffles still has all of its stately charm, but sometimes you have to jettison the jacket and tie and take a walk on the wild side.

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October 11, 2004	July 26 - August 2, 2004	April 26, 2004