Hot Fandango

Stinging hot pepper in the morning for breakfast. Who would have thought? You have well and truly become an old hand at it now Bud, water off a duck’s back. Many intrepid travelers could not manage, abseilers, mountaineers and free divers included. Hot water too for soothing and washing down, a common beverage in these parts perhaps harkening back to late colonial era when it was a novel treat to the kampung folk. In SG the usual charge was 30c for the latter; here it ought to be the same in the local currency — 30 sen. But not for a rusted-on regular at Muthu on Jalan Trus, Straight Road. “In the computer” that was the rate, advised the nice cashier there when the man was quizzed on the matter. Glimpses of the bills left no recall of a charge; it needed proper confirmation. Honey pre-coating the tongue and gullet prior to ablutions was likely an aid. Uppuma and pongal traditionally in the South of India are breakfast dishes, always of course for the haves. At KV in Bufallo Road, Singapore three times out of four there was one or the other left over for the lunch crowd and Friday’s sweet pongal added. (Interestingly, in the same KV family’s outlet fifty metres away on Serangoon Road where tourists and a better class of clientele frequented, there was neither of these dishes available. Traditionally lower caste fare possibly. An upper ought not find such offered at their establishment.) Even in Eastern Europe they didn’t take hot chilli early morning, certainly not in the South-East. Mexico and Latin America it might be different. Set one abuzz from the get-go ready for anything.