European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 28, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Singapore Sein the famous cocktail is still available for $9 by Karl Schoenberger los Angeles times aps amps flashlight a necessity. Samono brought meals to my room setting them out on a table covered with a hand embroidered cloth. Lunch required several trips because there  so much to eat the spread included Quot Soto Yam Quot Chicken soup beef in Sweet tasting Coconut sauce Chicken in another Sweet sauce the javanese love sugary flavors a plate of delicious chewy Corn fritters two Quot Sayers Quot vegetable dishes a one made with chayote and the other with cabbage a a red vacuum Jug filled with Rice a Sweet sour Cucumber relish and two Quot Sambas Quot a spicy condiments with which to season the food. Dessert  Quot Agar Agar Quot pudding in layers of chocolate and Coconut. Breakfasts were generous too freshly squeezed Orange juice a soft boiled egg beef sausages and a my favorite touch a chocolate sprinkled Over Toast and bread in the dutch tradition. All this and my Coffee Plantation stay  a modest $30 per night and lunch  $5.50, plus tax service and a Small fee for eating in my room. Dinner  the same but i arrived too late for that and instead  invited to a birthday party for the estate manager where we feasted on Fried noodles yellow Rice grilled Chicken and steamed sponge cake and Toast with Tea rather than Coffee. Plantation Tours Are based on a minimum of two people and Cost $6 each. And so on a drizzly morning my guide and i bounced through the Lush growth stopping to see How rubber Trees Are tapped examining the huge pods in which Cocoa Beans grow sniffing the Aroma of doves drying in an estate Village examining Vanilla vines and viewing Coffee on the Branch. Java May be a synonym for Coffee but Many indonesians say the finest comes from Bali. Very Little of this Coffee is exported but you can buy it readily there. Balinese grow and roast Coffee for their own use too just As they Pluck coconuts bananas mangoes and other fruit from their Yards. I  Lucky enough to taste Home grown Coffee on several occasions. One of the Best cups extraordinarily Rich and full Flavoured  served at a family compound in Pawangan a Village near the town of Bud. There i sat with friends on the Steps of a local woman s cottage and sipped her brew while gazing out at the family s hindu Temple nearby. My hostess boiled the water Over a Wood fire on a tiny Hearth in the Small outbuilding that functioned As the Kitchen. She then stirred the water into Coffee powder and sugar and presented it with homemade Caramel cake. Balinese families sometimes turn their Homes into budget lodgings including breakfast a and Coffee a in the room rate. At one such lodging i visited a bouquet of orchids and a welcoming pot of delicious Sweet Strong Coffee sat on the veranda of the room assigned to me at a Small compound almost hidden on a Side Street in Bud. It  a charming  to Greet a tired traveler. And for a pick me up after a hard Day of touring i ordered a tall Tumbler of invigorating Coffee mixed with Quot Arak Quot a fiery liquor that the balinese distil from Rice or Palm wine. But the finest Coffee in Alt Indonesia is virtually impossible to obtain. It s the legendary Coffee Quot Luck Quot Luck is indonesian for Civet cat an animal that feasts on Coffee Beans but cannot digest them so the Beans Pas through intact. The cat May suffer but the Beans Are said to Benefit greatly by the internal  myth maybe so but 1 did meet one person who claimed to have tasted the rare brew. I however will leave that experience for another trip. Beyond the ornate East Iron portico on the facade of the Raffles hotel is a grand atrium lobby which rises three stories to a vaulted ceiling with skylights. Rubbe necking is allowed. Co ahead walk across the Lush carpet and the dark tropical Hardwood floorboards polished to a gleam and take a Stool at the writers bar where the management welcomes anyone who wants to buy a Singapore Sling a Raffles own famous cocktail. The writers bar  moved out of a dark Nook off the Grill room to the Middle of the cavernous lobby during renovation one suspects with the aim of Selling More Singapore slings or possibly in a crowd control tactic to keep the non guests concentrated in a strictly Public space. A Youthful bartender named Royston Png says most of his customers Are tourists who wander in to buy the Pink cocktail concoctions for $9 a pop. Png seems surprised to see one Patron take out a Pencil and a notebook and Start to write. A a a Quot this used to be a place where lots of writers came Quot he says As if out of personal reminiscence. Quot but that  Back in 1915. We Don t see them around  a no wonder. Purported Raffles Patron Rudyard Kipling Hung up his pith helmet eternally in 1936. W. Somerset maugham the wander lusting storyteller whom the new Raffles has adopted As a kind of Mascot yes there is a . Maugham suit would be 118 years old if he were alive today. And he would not be caught dead drinking a Singapore Sling which As the fruity taste testifies is unquestionably a lady s drink. Lest this last statement be taken As sexist consider that Png s patriarch As bartender Ngiam Tong Boon invented it in 1915 for the ladies not for the Cricket playing gentlemen or the Gin drinking homesteaders from the rubber plantations. It always  a lady s drink and it always will be something that might Best be kept from the male tourists. As a souvenir for the first writer he has served a Singapore Sling Png jots Down the recipe on the Back of a Raffles coaster Cherry liqueur Grenadine syrup triple Sec Benedictine Lime juice pineapple juice bitters and finally what every proper expatriate lady prefers Gin. Png does not disclose measurements just the ingredients. Nor would he hear of writing the recipe j on a piece of paper a the Raffles coaster appears to be part of the program. The Singapore Sling experience can be repeated at two other famous and authentic Raffles bars he bar amp billiard room a detached Pavilion with All the intimacy of Chicago s Union station and the Long bar which is tucked away in the Back of the new shopping mall. Raffles new masters say they Are not breaking tradition by putting the famous Long bar next to the boutiques a a it had been moved around the hotel premises a Tew times before on crowded nights the management concedes bartenders must use electric blenders to meet the tourist demand for the Pink drinks.  i a Slmaa by Alzaaa Wrislar and format Tokyo Baraad Cora Pondant. G4s Susan Hama a january 28, 1993 stripes Magazine 13