I was sitting in my alternate breakfast place at 6:30 am (the sun rises at 5:45am this part of the year) looking at a bowl of bland healthy looking dry rice noodle in a few drops of onion oil and black sauce. In my hometown I would be given a tiny saucer of pickle chili in soy sauce. Here I look at a small container of self serve watery chili sauce in vinegar.
A few years back I was feeling so deprived that I dreamed of chili padi(tiny green spicy chili pepper) at night. Normally I don't eat much spicy food. But after about eight months of bland Cantonese cooking, I yearned for hot spicy chili. I went to the local Giant looking for raw chili pepper. Would you believe it? Eleven tiny chili padi was labelled at $3.93. In the end I didn't buy. A week later I flew back to my hometown and collected every piece of chili served to take home to be consumed at my leisure. My daughter Elizabeth couldn't believe her eyes, I would take a small container whenever we eat out so I could build a collection of raw chili pieces in soy sauce in the freezer. That continued for weeks. It is strange that one misses some food type when we move far to another town or state.
This trip I intend to buy some bottle chili sambal (chili paste made from a recipe that includes belachan - dried small prawns) way before the total depravation state.
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