Singapore Rojak

They say New York is a melting pot. I hear people saying Singapore is "rojak". A mish-mash of cooked and raw ingredients tossed in an earthen bowl. A dressing comprising crushed peanuts, prawn paste, belachan, sugar, lime juice and finely cut ginger flower.

When asked to name a distinctly, or "uniquely" - the Singapore Tourism Board would have foreigners believe, Singaporean whatchamightcallit, most would say "Singlish". Which is a really a linguistic version of "rojak".

This afternoon I saw the world as I sat down at a local eatery near my home.

I ate Hainanese Chicken Rice. Which is really the nation's hawker food champion. Real Hainanese from Hainan Island don't make chicken rice the way Singaporeans do. I forgot to mention that the chicken rice was Halal - Arabic for "permissible" which meant that Muslims can consume this chicken rice. MUIS Approved!

Furthermore, the seller had a Chinese National server and preparer. The sounded like they were from Beijing. Maybe not.

To top things off, there was music playing in the background. Guess what? They were Christian songs singing songs of praise! Oh well, it was Sunday afterall.....