Rojak is Singapore

Graduate students are notorious eaters, or should I say non-eaters. That is, there is only thing they (or rather 'we') do not eat: real food. 

From cup noodles to microwaved eggs, the food of convenience is the food of choice. After all, one can argue, there simply are not enough hours in a day to slice, stir-fry, and serve a good home-cooked meal when you're up to your ears in readings and papers due.

But I romanticize the graduate student life too much, or maybe that was just my Tito Ricky talking. I still remember the frozen cans of coke that exploded in his freezer at Darden. 

In reality, time is what you make of it and it just so happens that students believe they can't make time to cook, or a decent ham sandwich for that matter.

Luckily, I am in Singapore. Aside from being a 'fine city', Singapore is also a foodie's paradise. With the confluence of cultures, tastes, and traditions, the food choices in S'pore are dazzling for the foodie newbie like me. There are hawker centers that peddle cheap but tasteful meals and chi-chi restaurants that cater to tourists and the ever so upwardly mobile Singaporean. Being a student, I am more inclined towards the former. Though I would not say no to a free meal at the latter, hint hint. 

In the array of Indian, Chinese, and Malay cuisine, there is probably no dish as representative of Singapore as Rojak. I read that somewhere in a pamphlet. Rojak is literally a mixing of various ingredients and flavors. It can include anything from cucumbers to bean sprouts and even pineapple and can either be sweat or savory. I've never eaten Rojak myself, I'm just waiting for someone to point out the best there is, but I can tell by what I've heard it's like nothing I've ever tried before. 

The closest approximations I can give are Indonesia's Gado-Gado and our very own Halo-halo. But they are either only salty or sweet. Rojak promises to be a mix of a little bit of everything; much like Singapore is neither here nor there when it comes to architecture, culture, and especially food.

Stay tuned for my first Rojak experience.

In the meantime, the local hawker center near where I live, at College Green, is providing me with countless (possible) blog entries. Today I had Mutton Chops - no, not the exaggerated side burns - imagine instead slow cooked mutton pieces in a rich tomato masala sauce topped with hot french fries drizzled with lots of mayo. It's also served with sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and... drum roll please... a spoonful (read: not enough) of pork and beans! The cook takes pains to ration the beans from the can. Gosh, didn't know it was that expensive in Singapore. Mutton on the other hand is like chicken here!

It's a good meal to eat after a workout or visiting an HBD on a school assignment. I could do less with the mayo though. I feel ten pounds heavier and 5 Singapore Dollars lighter. But overall verdict: yummy lah!