If ever Ms Kamala Harris gains the vice-presidency of the United States and makes a trip to Singapore thereafter, the leadership here should have little difficulty planning a meal at a public venue, as it sometimes likes to do: A thosai at Madras New Woodlands in Upper Dickson Road would make for great visuals. Equally, a steak dinner at Morton's will do just fine.

These are the worlds straddled by Ms Harris, the junior senator from California and former attorney-general of America's richest state who is the child of a Jamaican-born father and a Tamil Indian mother, both US immigrants.