use HTML::Template::Compiled;
my $htc = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
    scalarref => \"<select><%html_option cities %></select>",
    plugin => [qw(::HTML_Tags)],
);
$htc->param(
    cities => [
      'Hamburg', # selected
      map { [$_, $_] } qw(Berlin Hamburg North_Adams)],
);
print $htc->output;