The Opera Populaire

I once developed a taste for rice gruel. Like the Chinese story, I liked holding the bowl of gruel in my hands, smelling the aroma of the food from others' tables and imagining that the gruel is that of delicious steamed chicken, stir-fried beef or perhaps those tasty eel with vegetables.

People told me gruel is not good for my health. Not enough nutrition, only for basic sustenance. But I didn't mind. I couldn't imagine anything more delicious. True enough, the gruel did give me health problems at times, but I stuck on, held fast by my own liking for its pared-down taste.

Then one day, the tent that handed out the rice gruel decided to close. I had no choice but to go for other types of food. Over time, I was nourished by their nutrition as well as delicious taste and gradually lost the taste for rice gruel.

Recently, the tent re-opened and rice gruel is once again available. I haven't been near it enough to find out. But maybe, just maybe, the rice gruel has been improved, made into good preserved egg and pork porridge? Or maybe they have decided to change the rice used to fragrant Thai rice? I have decided not to patronise the tent though. Perhaps I may sit down and have a cup of tea with the person handing out the rice gruel some day...just the tea, though. Not the gruel.