Enough of foreigners and all the negative things about them. I shall turn the hand and point the finger at we locals today. Think of something which distinguishes us from our classmates/colleagues from China, India etc. Let's just focus on China for this post

I had thought of one which most of our China friends do not do. The consumption of chili or anything that is spicy. Singaporeans have this habit, I don't consider it as a bad one but one which unique

Whenever we order something (fishball noodles, fried beehoon etc) at the hawker centre/food court, we inevitably must have a small plate of chilli to make it look like a complete meal

Sometimes the stall holder will serve that small plate of chilli to us. On other occasions, we will automatically self-service to take it on our own

The chilli can either be sliced and served with soy sauce or in a paste form like the sambal kind. Singaporeans are bizarre people. They know whether the chilli is too spicy/tasteless to them but most of the time, they will just continue eating it until they finish it

I admit I am one of them. Although I know that the chilli is not very hot, I will still continue eating until the small plate is empty. That is because I am Singaporean

Imagine you are a China man (not asking you to act like one), your two friends and you decided to have lunch at the hawker centre. You ordered erm, ban mian, a China delicacy commonly found in Singapore. (China people are not very adventurous in trying out new food). Your two friends ordered Hokkien Mee and yong tau foo

The three of you are busy enjoying your meals. You are contended with the richness of the soup and the texture of the noodles not wondering whether a little something would things up. On the other hand, both of your friends are busy placing chilli into their plates or mouth every thirty seconds

This is one separates Singapore Chinese from China Chinese sitting at the same table. The latter must have always wondered why are we so obsessed with that small plate of red thing

Not only chilli. Pepper has also been part and parcel of our daily meals. Drinking soup without pepper just feels different for Singaporeans. We just need to dissolve some pepper into the soup or our brain will tell us that it doesn't taste good

The third and final one is curry gravy. Most Singaporeans like to have curry on their rice when they order chap cai peng to spice things up. China people hardly request for that, they prefer it to be simple and basic as it is. I don't think locals creative, we are just more "in" to eating

Whether it is spicy or not spicy, it is still food and good food is meant to be share by everybody be it local or foreigner. But not the same for university places and jobs. Sorry, I just can't resist myself in taking a dig at them