Rojak (1966) (a Malay salad)

[Laurence Horn]

>ROJAK--102,000 Google hits, 632 Google Groups hits
>2 November 1975, New York Times, pg. 370:
>_What Singapore Offers, in Supreme Abundance, Is Food_
>By PETER HELLMAN
>...
>"WE have marvelous food," a friend from Singapore informed me. "Indeed, one
>might say we have a fixation on food the way you Americans do on sex."
>...
>(Actually, Singapore is not bad for that, either, but I digress -  ed.)
>(Pg. 16 - ed.)
>...
>Looking for a light noon snack one day in Queenstown food pavilion (that's
>all one needs after a Hokkien breakfast), I was introduced to what became my
>favorite Singaporean dish. It is called _rojak_. The hawker roughly chops up
>wedges of unskinned cucumber, turnip, pineapple, fried bean curd and bits of
>chewy, CHinese style donuts - all of which are tossed forcefully in
>a rich dark
>  sauce of shrimp paste, chilis, shredded lime peel and juice, tamarins, a few
>  dollops of a heavy palm sugar syrup called _gula_ Malacca and, finally,
>coarsely  chopped roasted peanuts. That combination of bland but
>crisp fruit and
>vegetables set against a dark sauce as full of resonances as a good Burgundy,
>is  more than the sum of the parts...humble elevated to _haute_ for 30 cents.

Very good rojak available at our local Malaysian restaurants (yes, we
have two in New Haven), but at prices somewhat higher than 30 cents.
Somehow I always expect it to be brought out by a gruff-talking bald
waiter.

L