Fruit or Vegetable? How About Both?

A little bit stinky, sweet, salty, sour and spicy, rojak is said to be an acquired taste - like durian. Rojak is a traditional fruit and vegetable salad dish commonly found in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. The term 'rojak' means "mixture" or "eclectic mix" in colloquial Malay. This dish is available everywhere and the most popular rojak variant is 'rojak buah' (fruit salad), which it is basically mixed with sliced fruits and vegetables served with spicy palm sugar dressing. The pungency and black, sticky texture of the sauce comes from prawn paste, a condiment fermented from the heads and shells of shrimps as a by-product of the making of dried prawns.

According to Amir Mohammad's book entitled "Rojak", "Rojak is an exquisite escape into the very heart of the Malaysian experience. Shirt, scrumptious stories that captures the essence of who we are as people. Tiny toothsome tales that encapsulate clearly, our hybridity, our eccentricity , our cross-cultural identity." The description given was technically about the book, but he might as well be describing about the dish. No other dish can claim to be so quintessentially.

One of the most famous rojak in Malaysia is called Rojak Penang. The Penang-style salad with fresh cucumber, crunchy jicama, pineapple, jambu (water apple/rose apple), bean curd, and cuttlefish in thick, gooey, and pungent Hae Ko (dark prawn paste)–is the only salad that I would eat without being forced to. The Hae Ko sauce is also one of the few sauces that I would dabble with my fingers (even lick with my tongue), leaving not a single drop. The taste of Rojak is something that one must experience to fully appreciate.

Penang Rojak Recipe

Ingredients:

1 small jicama (cut into small pieces) 1 cucumber (peel the skin and cut into small pieces) 1 green mango (peel the skin and cut into small pieces) 1 bean curd (boil for 3 minutes and cut into small pieces) Some cuttlefish (boil for 3 minutes and set aside)

Method:

In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients. Add the sambal rojak dressing and toss well. Portion out onto plates.