Red vs. Black

Your standard mamak store curry sauce normally consists of santan (fresh coconut milk), some meat and/or vegetables, nine secret herbs and spices (curry powder and msg fit into this category) and, if you're lucky, a couple of potato cubes. None of these ingredients are meant to be crunchy by default.

Today's curry breakfast, however, had a little extra something, adding a new level of depth to the texture. The difference was subtle, but noticeable nonetheless. Imagine bacon bits, but not. Revolutionary, I thought. Crunchy curry.

I sat for a while afterwards to let the meal settle when I felt something land on my head. Something tiny. I fished around in my hair and dug out an ant head, then another, followed by a twitching thorax with a few missing legs. A couple of ant colonies high in the above tree branch were duking it out for territorial rights.

Judging by the bits raining down on us (and our food), the red ants were winning against the black ones two to one.

Verdict: Tasty!