To Salina, Lisa and nns …thank you for leaving comments on me bloggy, gals! The good thing is, your comments have reminded me of so many other things that I have been thinking and re-thinking and un-thinking of and about. I promised Lisa on this pedas story:
The year was 1998.
I was in Scarborough, Perth, then. The first few months in Western Australia I felt like I was in Fish ‘n Chips heaven. Masuk bulan ketiga, the heaven turned to limbo, and the fourth month…limbo turned to helluva fishy hell. (There is, however, a very good restaurant downtown Perth called ‘A Fishy Affair’.)
After the fifth month I started having some mental imbalance and strange hallucination that resulted in me salivating to the mention of “Tom Yum”. So, off to the Innaloo Fresh Produce Market I went. (What a name for a suburb eh? In-a-Loo! Imagine this conversation:
“Where are ya mate?”
“Innaloo right at the moment.”
“Again? But you were just there 10 minutes ago.”
“I was and I’m still here. Innaloo.”
“But I thought you said you were going to the market?”
“I am.”
“Where is the market?”
“Innaloo!”
“You can’t be serious! So, are you fishing or fertilizing then?”
Silly Aussie!
I asked for the hottest/spiciest cabai there and I got some Habaneros. The guy let me take a quick little lick to prove a point that I didn’t need half a kilo of those bombs. A quick little lick I had and I virtually DIED at the market! I bought six or seven pieces of those orange crinkly peppers and I died six or seven times again…after.
Everytime I made Tom Yum, I had to put only one or two slices for one whole 5L pot (and that is equivalent to over a half baldi of TomYum, ok!) Powerful tak powerful the Habanero kick in Perth. I died a few more deaths that year, but I resurrected a Tom-Yum-mier woman…beating all Tomb-Raiders alive!
Questa è Enida 
Dear Enida,
Your cabai episode in Perth is hilarious. Moral of the story don’t underestimate the cabais in Perth. I practically visualised smokes coming out of your ears and even your nostrils when reading your story. But cabais for me is one of the ‘nikmat dunia’s that i can’t live without. I myself had accidentally ‘ter’try a species of italian cabai (rupaya macam plum yang berkedut-kedut) recently – you tell me the consequences – i drank like a camel and kesian kat the sexy malay man in Leeds tu – his bums were practically glued to the toilet bowl the whole night. He warns me not to be so adventurous the next time i shop at the Leeds market. But i’ve got to say your tom yam in the pix looks good!