Zouk @ Singapore *****

 Lychee Martini

With a Dutch father, a Singaporean Chinese mother, and an education in the US, “home” can be difficult to define. Yet, if anyone asks where I come from, my automatic answer is Singapore. Having been abroad since age 18, during my brief returns (mostly confined to the heightened atmosphere of holiday season) I often feel like a tourist in my own country. However, no matter how removed I sometimes feel, it is places like Zouk nightclub that remind me that Singapore is home after all.

Crowds spilling onto Jiak Kim St, the glow of a stamped wrist under blacklight, and bass beats you feel in your teeth. Memory washes over me as I slip past the red velvet rope into the Members bar and all the people I used to see are still there, a few years older but just as familiar. Dazzled by the laser lights and the gyrating bodies beneath, I am 16 and waiting for a boy to buy me a drink. Lychee martini in hand, I am a starry-eyed 17, talking about the future to anyone who will listen. 19, it is my first summer home from college and I ask for extra lychees, a fruit that can only be found canned in cold Cambridge, where I can’t imagine surviving another three years. 22, I am almost a graduate, absolutely terrified to cut the umbilical cord with mother Harvard. Tonight, toasting to Christmas 2009 at 23, I am reassured that home is where one’s memories reside, and in spite of infrequent contact, true friends will remain friends for life. 

An object as simple as a fruit-flavored cocktail can hold a lifetime of meaning. Something to think about the next time you pour your favorite drink.

Details: 17 Jiak Kim Street Singapore 169420 (+6567382988)