You know you’re on a good thing when the hoppers regularly sell out. The brittle cups crafted from fermented rice flour are only available at Hop & Spice for dinner at weekends, and those in the know order ahead.

But consolation prizes at this brightly lit canteen can’t be overlooked. Lamprais is a specialty – a patchwork of deep-yellow rice, boiled egg, eggplant pickle known as moju and a choice of curry, perhaps chicken laced with cardamom and clove.

You’ll want more moju, and its blackened threads of eggplant, onion and green chilli, as a complex counterpart to a pull-no-punches goat curry.

Distant banging from the kitchen is a drumroll for kottu roti, a messy, joyous chopped roti stir-fry that balances out most everything from the fiery “devilled” section, while the honeycombed spiced custard watalappam is dense with cardamom and palm sugar.