This is Rojak, an intriguing snacky food consisting of dried cuttlefish (something like an octopus), pineapple, unripe mango, and cucumber, mixed with sweet, sour, and spicy, and topped with crushed peanuts. It's kind of good, kind of strange, and not really fit for a meal. Where it is served you may see a group sitting around having individual meals, with a plate of this in the middle, just as a snack on the side. It's served with several toothpicks and you just reach in and grab something.

Now the real interesting part of this photo, in case you missed it, is the egg on top, and that's actually my point in sharing. I don't know if rojak is meant to go with that, but what you see there is a century egg. A century egg is a very interesting thing, it's an egg that has been preserved by burying it with various things (ash, lime, salt, clay), and then just leaving it for a long time (but pretty much always less than an actual century). As I understand it, the egg becomes alkaline and sort of cooks itself. In the process, the white becomes transparent, but dark brown or black colored, while the yolk becomes deep green or brown itself. I'm actually unclear as yet whether the product as extricated from the earth is then cooked, or just cut open and served. I'd heard these described as pungent and strong, so I had to try one, and I only realized this stall sold them at all *after* I'd ordered my rojak, when a local came up and ordered an egg. When I asked about this they suggested just slicing it and putting it right on top.

Results: not that impressive really. It wasn't that strong flavored at all. Definitely different than a typical egg-- if anything, more of what I would call gamey, by which I mean it tasted more like I think chickens actually smell. but not overpowering. I think I prefer a regular egg in the end.


Here we have some Indian fare, this is a chicken dosai. A dosai (or often thosai) is a sort of a crepe, which wikipedia tells me is made of rice and black lentils. This one is stuffed with lots of onion and chicken goodness. I'm not actually sure what the little dough-ball is next to it. It was just doughy and tasty, a tiny bit sweet, a tiny bit spiced. yum. and bottom line doesn't it make for a pretty little picture with the colorful dipping sauces (#1 and #2 are HOT, #3 and #4 were safe to eat).


Luckily, if the food gets too hot, you can always have a mango sundae at the local food court.


And finally, here is a photo of Alli about halfway through her dinner of beef-wrapped (looks like bacon right?) green onions and mushroom skewer, enjoyed in a Japanese food court, basement of Raffles Place. I had a shrimp omelet (really an omelet inside an omelet) covered in wasabi mayonnaise that was DIVINE and that I ate much too quickly for any photographing.