In the early 2000’s I introduced my dad to this tiny hamburger joint in Glorietta called Hotshots. Each quarter pounder burger was around P55, which was relatively cheap even at that time. My dad liked it so much, that he would ask me to buy it whenever I passed by the mall. And on weekends, he would ask that we eat there. Soon enough we all got sick of the damn thing, except my dad. He wouldn’t eat anything else. We were eventually able to wean him off of it. Prior to that his favorite were the rice meals in Goldilocks. And prior to that, Chowking. He was a creature of habit, and now I’m discovering that I am too, although my fixations last for shorter periods of time.

My current fixation, the food in Nanyang. The meals are not even, like, super fantastic, but I now know what to expect, and I now feel comfortable ordering the same thing, at times rotating my orders. Yesterday I had this kaya toast meal for lunch. I only had kaya toast once, at the Changi airport. I’ve always wondered why people are drawn to it: it’s just tinapay with palaman. But it has its charm and I haven’t been to Singapore in 3 years. Besides, you can say that about most food. Like sticky mango rice is just suman with mangga, or arroz ala cobana is menudo with saging.

I always wondered what than thin white sliver of white was. In the photos it looks like cheese. It’s butter pala.I also never figured out what to do with the soft-boiled egg, and as I researched later, you dip the bread in it. Which makes me wonder: whatever happened to Hotshots?

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