Singaporean Desperation

(potp: Desperate Housewives - taken from the quality paper 'Strait Times'; no comment; click to enlarge)

THEORY ON SPICE?

Well, I hope all of you had a nice and not too stressful week. It is Saturday in the afternoon and I just came back from a nice lunch..I had some really tasty (and of course spicy) seafood called Laksa at one of the 'Hawkers 'centres close to the beach. Hawkers are basically an essential Singaporean experience. Food in general is one of the aces this city draws. Hawkers used to be people who wheeled their pushcarts through the streets, serving snacks to homes, shops and offices. Nowadays, they are conveniently grouped at Hawkers centres, since the Ministry of Environment started to enforce new laws on hygiene. There are some Hawkers also situated close to my workplace..you get fantastic Chinese, Indian and Malay food + freshly squeezed juice of whatever kind and combination (hmmm...) for about 3 Euros altogether..

There is one thing though, that I really do not understand. Why on earth seems food generally to be more spicy in warmer and hot places? I don't get it..it makes you sweat even more than usual and isn't that something you'd like to prevent? I already got used to the spices to some degree. The feeling of the spices crawling up my nose, causing tears and sometimes a cough is less repulsive compared to the first couple of days. This assimilation takes some time..maybe one of you has an idea, why there seems to be a clearly positive correlation between average temperature and the use of hot spices..? I have no idea and so far nobody could tell me.

HUMIDITY CAUSES HUMILIATION?

I am kind of an individualist in terms of sports. Team sports aren't really right up my alley..I like cycling, swimming and especially running. I was almost at about two thirds of the distance of a standard marathon earlier this year, when I still exercised in Dresden. My first run on the beach of Singapore one week ago virtually blew my mind. There had been a few showers during that day already. So, there was still water dropping from the palm trees and it was almost a bit misty. Combining this striking humidity with a temperature of 27°C in the evening gives a good explanation why I was totally soaked within 10 minutes of running. This may sound a bit disgusting, since sweating is usually associated with bad smell in European climate. Nevertheless, this kind of perspiration here is more kind of a healthy one I guess. Yeah, it does not look too pretty but involves less stench, as long as you don't overdo it and forget your shower for a couple of days ;-)...I was told that a good combination of exercising, spicy food, freshly squeezed drinks (and a working deodorant, of course :-) will make life much healthier and easier here..

I realised that day that I was wearing too much anyways. Most of the local runners are exercising just in their shorts (not the females of course :-)). So following 'In Rome do like the Romans do' I also went running virtually naked for the next couple of times. At least this does not seem to be punishable, like dancing on the streets (more on this next time ;-))

Wish you all a nice weekend!

Maik

(1) http://www.travellady.com/Issues/Issue60/singapore.htm