Now that the temperature is down to the 50s again in New York, all I can think about is breakfast in Singapore.

I can practically smell the curries. And the tameepok prawn and pork noodles topped with sliced, super-hot chilis. And the starchy "carrot cake" (actually made of radishes) with heaps of crimson chili paste mixed in. And the…

File this under the "you always want what you can't have" category: growing up in Singapore, I coveted big American breakfasts. Those pictures of Grand Slams at Denny's restaurants showing plates of towering pancakes, bacon and sunny-looking eggs would inspire great yearning in my stomach.

And yet the moment I set foot in the land of massive, sausage-and-pancake breakfasts, all I could think of was the roti pratas and tameepoks I'd left behind.

  

Walloped with below-freezing temperatures as a freshman in the glacial Chicago area, I stumbled upon a rudimentary Web site set up by an equally homesick — and enterprising — Singaporean somewhere out in the ether. It simply featured a handful of pictures of Singaporean food — Hainanese chicken rice, the mee goreng fried noodle dish, roti prata.

No words were needed. I immediately began logging onto the site whenever I could, lingering over these pictures in a fog of titanic longing.

Forget the concept of hearty breakfasts meaning eggs, quiches and potato casseroles. Singaporeans consider dishes like liver-filled porridges or peppery pork-rib soups to be perfectly good starts to any day.

Whenever it gets cold here — and yes, 50 degrees is chilly for a gal who grew up in a country where people break out sweaters if it dips below 80 — I start thinking about these Singaporean breakfasts.

I head to Singapore next week for book research — that knowledge alone is creating an amplifying growling in my stomach.

"Do you have a small animal on you?" I imagine a flight attendant politely inquiring as I step onto the plane on Monday.

"No," I'll simply say. "I've been hungry."