Friday, March 27, 2015

Drinks with Reads: Aunty Lee's Delights and the Singapore Sling



Robin Berry is here today matching Ovidia Yu's most recent Aunty book with the Singapore Sling...

In Aunty Lee's Delights, Ovidia Yu draws us into the subcultures of Singapore.  While the location and food is exotic, the characters will be familiar to mystery readers.   

Rosie Lee is the widowed proprietor of Aunty Lee's Delights.  She is people savvy and uses food to understand those that cross her path. Her faithful and long suffering companion Nina is her eyes and ears to the outside world.  It is Rosie's astuteness that solves the mystery, but her acceptance of people of all walks of life that makes her a delight.  

The second book Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials, is a delightful return to Singapore and it's sometimes not so nice subcultures. Here food takes center stage.  Aunty Lee is compelled to use her wits and understanding of the ingredients in people and food to solve the murders while saving her reputation.

Throughout the books are woven bits of color about the vastly intricate world of Singapore. Not mentioned in the books, but a Singapore original is the Singapore Sling; my drink of choice.  Per Wikipedia -- The Singapore Sling was developed sometime before 1915 by Ngiam Tong Boon, a Hainanese bartender working at the Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel, Singapore.
Here is the recipe:

Singapore Sling
1 ½ ounces gin
½ ounce cherry Heering liqueur
¼ ounce Cointreau liqueur
¼ ounce Benedictine
4 ounces pineapple juice
½ ounce lime juice
1/3 ounce grenadine 
1 dash 


I will look forward to the next installment -- Aunty Lee's Chilled Vengeance.  What could be better than a fun witty mystery and a tall chilled Singapore Sling?

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