rojak

The famous Rojak SS15 in Subang Jaya

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rojak mamak ss15

I don’t usually like rojak, or pasembur as it’s referred to in the North. I don’t actively go seeking it but I’ll eat it if it’s good. This one is. It’s located at SS15 in Subang Jaya and it’s pretty well known. Heck, I’ve probably eaten it and forgotten. Heh.

ss15 rojak

Anyway, the queue for Rojak SS15 Subang Jaya is quite long. I was there in the afternoon and there were people queuing under the hot sun for a taste of this – it’s a perpetual line that never seems to end!

rojak ss15 subang jaya

It’s actually a roadside stall and you only have four (4) options according to the menu:

  • Kosong (Plain) – RM 3
  • Telur (with egg) – RM 4
  • Sotong (with squid) – RM 4
  • Sotong & Telur (with squid and egg) – RM 4.50

pasembur ss15

I went for the one with all the bells and whistles (or with all the trimmings in food parley) – I like egg and squid and I don’t relish the thought of eating it plain. Rojak can best be described as a type of salad, with a peanut based sauce for the “dressing”.

rojak ss15

This place is actually Fiona’s old stomping grounds – she was craving for the rojak and we headed there to eat this. She had the plain one and it actually tastes pretty good by itself.

hb fiona rojak

However, I preferred mine with the additional squid and egg – well worth the RM 1 extra if you consider you get an entire egg and generous amounts of squid. I can’t vouch for the freshness of the squid but it’s the entire package that makes it good.

ss15 rojak egg sotong

Rojak SS15 Subang Jaya has really good rojak sauce – it’s sweet and nutty. It’s also warm which adds to the overall appeal of this rojak. I liked it but I doubt I’ll be returning specifically to eat this. I’ll have it if I’m in the area though, it’s really good rojak and it’s served warm!

rojak ss15 queue

You can even eat it right beside the stall under the shade of the trees…and watch the never-ending queue in relative comfort. 😉

Guide to making rojak

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rojak

Rojak is a local variant of the fruit salad that is usually served with thick, dark sauce and topped with coarsely ground peanuts. It’s a very popular dish for snacking on and Bintangor rojak is one of the most famous rojak concoctions out there, much like Klang bak kut teh. Keing managed to get hold of the rojak sauce from her trip to Bintangor and we decided to make some rojak at Joyce’s house.

The sixthseal.com Guide to Making Rojak:

You will need:
Cucumbers
Pineapples
Potato cakes
Tofu
Rojak sauce

slice cucumber

Slice some cucumbers into coarse chunks. You can peel the cucumbers beforehand if you don’t like the skin. It is important to slice both ends of a cucumber first and use the ends to rub the cucumber – this somehow attenuates the bitterness of the cucumber through reasons unknown to modern science.

diced cucumbers

The cucumber should be processed to be roughly angular chunks instead of pure circular slices for authenticity. No one slices cucumbers into rojak – slicing cucumbers is better suited to sandwiches and eye masks.

heat oil

The next thing to do is to heat up some oil in a frying pan. This is for the tofu and sweet potato fried in batter (optional).

sweet potato

The sweet potato slices in batter can be bought from your friendly neighborhood kueh vendor for RM 0.30 per piece. This can be fried (basically reheated) later for the rojak.

tofu

The tofu should be fried whole instead of being sliced. This is so the frying process only imparts a certain crunchiness to the tofu while maintaining a soft and sauce absorbing interior when sliced.

cut tofu

Joyce tells me that fried tofu should never be sliced – it flattens the entire thing. The proper method is to cut it using sharp kitchen scissors.

build up

The build up of ingredients should be contained in a large base serving dish for easy tossing and mixing.

pineapple

Next, the pineapples. Now, dealing with pineapples can be a bit of a prickly problem. This is due to the circumference of  “thorns” on a pineapple (which is one of the naturally occurring Fibonacci sequences in the world). The trick is to slice in an oblique direction down the entire length of the pineapple to cut out the “eyes”. The de-thorned pineapple can then be further sliced into appropriate lengths…
(Or you could just do it like us normal folks and get the pre-sliced pineapples)

pineapple chunks

…and then chunks. Pineapple must be present in rojak despite the hassle involved. It’s not rojak if there’s no pineapple in it.

rojak sauce

The essential ingredient in rojak is undoubtedly the rojak sauce. This is acquired from the famous stall in Bintangor and has a thick, gooey consistency. It’s RM 7 for a bottle of the sauce.

ground peanuts

Ground peanuts is an optional but highly recommended ingredient. You can get it pre-ground in hypermarkets and other supermarkets or just do it yourself in a food processor/mill.

add sauce

Heap all the ingredients into the bowl and then add in the rojak sauce to taste. The rojak sauce should completely cover and saturate all the ingredients until it puddles down at the bottom of the bowl.

add peanuts

Sprinkle ground peanuts over it…

mix

…and mix it well. Don’t toss it like a regular fruit salad, the pineapples are fragile and would likely bruise. Just mix it carefully, blending in all the sauce into the ingredients.

meal

We also had Coke chicken, prepared by Joyce earlier in the day. It’s awesomely tender, the meat practically falls off the bone! It tastes great too. Katherine’s mom also cooked some curry chicken, and she brought a pot of it over and made it into a meal.

rojak done

Here’s a closer look at the finished rojak.

Bintangor Rojak and Bintangor Orange Juice

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bintangor

Bintangor is a town about 95 km away from Sibu. It was decided that an impromptu road trip be made to check out their rojak and orange juice – the two things Bintangor is famous for. Four of us went in my car on Sunday afternoon: 

mary

Mary 

klm

Clare aka KLM. 🙂
The secret is out, so she let me put the original photos up.

huai bin

Huai Bin (me) and bengbeng

bintangor sarawak

Bintangor isn’t really far away from Sibu if you maintain a reasonable speed. It must have been the company of the two fine ladies coz we were there before we knew it. The “Welcome to Bintangor” signage is in the shape of the Bintangor orange. It’s the symbol of the town and there’s also a replica orange in front of the wharf – it makes for a good photo opportunity.

wong hung ping

The famous Bintangor rojak stall is called Wong Hung Ping and the rojak (a local fruit salad) is so renowned that Sibu people have been known to drive down just to eat the rojak during the weekends. They also sell the rojak sauce (which is the crucial ingredient that makes or breaks the dish).

rojak sauce

The bottles of rojak sauce goes for RM 7, which was up from the previous RM 5. That’s just about in line with the oft quoted 40% price increase. 😉

rojak owner

The proprietor of the Bintangor Rojak Stall used to be a nice, old lady. This is her daughter manning the stall. She’s the one managing the stall nowadays due to the advanced chronological age of her mother. I like her as well, she’s friendly, like her mom.

rojak ingredients

Rojak is made by chopping up pineapples, tofu, cucumbers and miscellaneous other items…

…before mixing it with the special Bintangor rojak sauce.

rojak dishing

It is then dished out and eaten with forks. It’s really a simple dish to prepare, it’s the special rojak sauce that makes it taste good. Bintangor is famous for their rojak due to the excellent rojak sauce that they make…at least in this stall.

bintangor rojak

This is the Bintangor rojak that we drove all this way for. Rojak is a communal dish, you’ll be hard pressed to find someone eating a plate all by himself.

bintangor rojak photo

Here’s a closer look at the Bintangor rojak. The money shot, if you will. 😉

bintangor orange juice

The stall also serves Bintangor orange juice. Bintangor orange juice is not made with Sunkist oranges (which was what they accidentally served us the first time) but from Bintangor oranges. It comes in a brighter shade than regular orange juice.

bintangor orange

These are what Bintangor oranges look like – it’s also the official produce of Bintangor. It’s sweet and tangy, with sour hints. It’s smaller in size than regular oranges. 

bintangor group

The Sibu blogger contingent at Bintangor.

bintangor camwhoring

True to blogger tradition, we did the camwhoring thing at the Bintangor wharf. This is me taking a pole up the ass while Mary looks on with mirth. Boy, I’m gonna be sore tomorrow.

bintangor photo

It was a fun road trip with the Sibu bloggers to Bintangor. I had wanted to go there for ages to take photos of the famous Bintangor rojak and Bintangor orange juice and the company was great! Cheers! 🙂

Ipoh Special Rojak and other rojak stories

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ipoh special rojak stall

Ipoh Special Rojak is a stall at Hai Pa Wang,
a popular seafood restaurant in Kuching. I didn’t even remember going
there until I saw the pictures and from that I deduced that the
combination of the remainder of an eighth of Shine On Georgia Moon
together with 4 tablets of Dormicum 15 mg (midazolam) and smoking weed
with Cherie collectively gave me anterograde amnesia.

cherie me

I seriously did not remember anything about going out last night
until I saw that there were images in my digital camera from last night
and then it all flashed back to me (no pun intended). I went out in a
daze at approximately 10 pm in search for nourishment (nutritionists
use the terminology “food”) and dropped by Luconia to meet up with
Cherie before going to Hai Pa Wang. I wanted to eat fish.

ipoh special rojak girl

This person approached our table as we were seated at Hai Pa Wang
and asked us if we wanted to try some “Ipoh Special Rojak”. She said
that it’s totally different from the Sarawak implementation, and having
developed symptoms of a serious case of the muchies, I said alright,
bring it on.

ipoh special rojak

She brought it on…the rojak is stoner’s heaven man, like totally.
Excuse my temporary lapse in linguistics. Anyway, the Ipoh Special
Rojak was topped with sweet rojak sauce and pork floss, creating a
wonderful topping. There were several unusual things in the rojak as
well, which I could not identify in my state of intoxication but there
was something very interesting with a chewy texture. Highly recommended!

…and God damn it, no pun intended. 😉

fish feat

Anyway, we ordered quite a lot of seafood, overestimating our
cannabis induced appetites and there was this huge fish (gestures with
hands) that we ordered and NO ONE had room for it anymore. It all boils
down to one person…someone of great testicular fortitude (or
gastronomic fortitude rather) to finish the damn thing. That person
also happens to be me, unfortunately drawing the shortest straw.

fish feat start

I started digging my way into the fish, and it was a bit of a
challenge to finish even one side of the fish, but I was determined to
finish the fucking thing. I started working my way though it…

fish feat half

…and finally managed to get one side of the fish into the deep,
dark bowels of my intestines. I’m very optimistic at that moment and
I’m sure I could finish it with my cannabis induced appetite…even if
I had another half of a large whole fish to eat.

fish feat other side

The fish was flipped over and I was initially overwhelmed by the sheer amount of fish that I still had to eat, but not being one to renegade on my words, I firmly planted my will into consuming the damned fish.

fish feat pwned

…and by the grace of God (or weed), I did it! Jesus Christ, I
can’t believe that I forgot all about that when I woke up this morning
and only remembered my gastronomical feat when I reviewed my digicam
and all the memories came rushing back.

Eating a whole fish is not something to sneeze at. I totally pwned that fish kau kau…

Anyway, I’ve gotta go to the toilet now…I’ll be flying to KL early
tomorrow morning on a business trip and I’ll be there till the weekend
so you know the number to call.

…er, actually, you probably don’t since I changed it. It’s 016 888 3166.

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