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Rain, Roti John, etc.
By John | July 25, 2008
Rain storms are pretty frequent here in Singapore, even during the “dry season” that we’re supposed to be in now. Jeni mentioned in an earlier post that it only takes getting caught in the rain once to learn that you should never be without an umbrella in Singapore. So true.
For instance, when I decided to leave work today to grab some lunch, this is what was happening:
This is just outside the main lobby of my office building and the downpour was torrential. Strong winds and big drops of rain = soaked suit. Unfortunately when it rains this hard, having an umbrella doesn’t help all that much. The best approach is to use underground walkways to get wherever you’re going or just stay where you are and order in.
As for the Roti John, I wanted to share a picture I took yesterday which I thought was neat:
Roti John is a Malay sandwhich-thing which I’ve yet to try since it looks pretty boring. Instead, I usually find myself eating whatever my colleagues suggest – which is always something different each day. Yesterday, while sitting in front of the Roti John stall, I ate nasi lemak for the first time. Nasi lemak is a very well-known Malaysian dish and usually consists of:
- cucumber slices
- small dried anchovies (ikan bilis)
- roasted peanuts
- stir fried water convolvulus (kangkong)
- hard boiled egg
- pickled vegetables (achar)
- hot spicy sauce (sambal) – this is always called “chili” in Singapore
Here’s a picture of traditional nasi lemak so you get an idea of what we’re talking about here:
And here’s the hawker center where I ate:
Anyway, the nasi lemak I had was from a very popular stall known for it’s fragrant rice cooked in coconut milk. Their standard version of nasi lemak is coconut rice, fried egg, fried chicken, chili, a weird flat fish-patty thing and dried anchovies. It was really all very good. The chili was great, the rice was perfect and the fried chicken rocked. The anchovies weirded me out a bit since you eat them bones and all (they’re just dried). As usual, I ate everything on my plate — the anchovies aren’t so bad once you get over the strong fishiness of them.
Hope that gives a little insight into my usual lunch experience here. Catch you all later!
Topics: food, rain | 3 Comments »
3 Responses to “Rain, Roti John, etc.”
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July 26th, 2008 at 1:36 am
John- you are a brave, brave soul. Jeni- I hope he brushes his teeth after eating bone-in anchovies. Barf.
July 26th, 2008 at 3:36 am
What’s the deal with all the coconut going on over there? I’d rather eat anchovies than coconut.
July 28th, 2008 at 1:11 am
Hi, Jeni & John – just lil ol aunt Cynthia here loving how brilliant and sweet you are to bring this wonderful blog to the world. Say, did I read you right, though? You did say “hawker” center? Whaaa??