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Caffeine and Conspiracies
I’m now convinced there is a Great Conspiracy in progress here in Asia. All the Western-style hotels are part of it. And it has to do with coffee. The kind they put on the counter in your room near the dresser, along with the bottled water and the tea packets. It’s dreadful, freeze-dried stuff. And they include dry creamer, and refined white sugar.
I’m sure it’s a plot to kill off people like me, who live in hotels over 200 days a year.
Every morning, I get up and turn on the water boiler pot thingie. By the time I get through with my bathroom regimen I’m ready for a cuppa. I dump the chemicals into the mug and pour on the hot water. A quick stir and I’m ready to burn my tongue and get my brain ticking over. Caffeine, give me caffeine!
Then the taste kicks in and my mouth attempts to reject my face. Or vice versa. It’s too late, of course, and the caffeine lust is always in full roar so I can’t stop. But man, that’s a real rough way to start a day.
My plan to avoid the Conspiracy? Why, I’ll just limit myself to four cups each morning, of course. That’ll fix their little red wagon.
Breakfast of Champions
The hotel does a nice job of breakfast each morning. They have both Halal and Heathen (that’s me) offerings, properly labeled. Lots of fruit, juices, fresh coffee (Yay!), breakfast meats and sides. There’s an Asian area as well, with some monumentally hot offerings. Great stuff!
Today I asked the egg station cook for an omelette. Ham, cheese, onion and some pickled pepper slices. They looked like very small jalapeno slices, pickled the same way as what you can find in any supermarket in Texas. These aren’t jalapenos, of course. Turns out they’re a Thai or Indian pepper, I can’t decide which. They’re much hotter than a jalapeno. I should have paid attention to the clues: Smaller in diameter, the tip pieces very pointed; classic indicators of a Very Hot Pepper. But I was still half-asleep (remember, I’d only had four cups of freeze-dried coffee, and not a drop more) and didn’t notice in time.
Since these were pickled, they weren’t too bad. At first. Then they got me in the back of mythroat. They sneak up on you! So I now call them PSPs. No, not PlayStation Personal, that’s another wicked invention. These are Pickled Sneaky Peppers. And they’re great once you get over the shock.
That omelette was one of the best I’ve ever had. Eggs done properly (that is, scorched a bit, no runny stuff leaking out), folded in neat thirds, plenty of stuffing. The omelette chef showed me one of her tricks, using a small, specially-shaped wooden paddle to help with the folding. I’ll look for something similar when I get back home.
The rest of breakfast wasn’t bad either: Corned beef hash, bacon and sausage, char kway teow with Christmas Peppers (red, green, and smoking), a couple of dim sum selections, gyoza with spicy soy sauce, even congee with fresh pepper slivers. It’s the first time I’ve seen hot pepper slivers with congee before, but I understand the rationale. Congee is rice that’s been boiled all day, until it cooks down into a mild, creamy mush. It won’t hide the flavor of whatever you put in it, and peppers seem to be a logical choice.
I ate almost too much (almost), and consumed a few cups of their fresh-brewed coffee. After all, I’m on a caffeine budget now…
Enjoy the Heat!
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