Today, I came to Clementi Central to survey "Little Myanmar" which I will cover in a future post. In the process, I stumbled upon Brothers Rojak which is one of the best rojak that I have tasted in Singapore and Malaysia for a long while.
I was enjoying my rojak and nursing my kopi C kosong for an hour, observing the stall (actually trapped by pouring rain 😅 ). The queue was incessant and 5 - 6 deep, even post the lunch time peak.
The Tan brothers' father founded the mobile stall in the 1960s. The brothers took over in the 1980s, and have been here at this stall, at this same spot for over 30 years. The Tan brothers (Boon Hwa and Boon Heng) in their 50s now make their rojak order by order (which partially accounts for the queue).
The basic rojak starts at $3.50 which is just a slight increase from $3 in the 1990s i.e. over 20 years ago.
Then, there's optional add-ons of dried cuttlefish and dried fish which the brothers will toast over an electric grill before serving. There's also century egg and stuffed tau pok sides.
I ordered just the $3.50 one and was pleased with the size of the serving.
There's sliced cucumber, mang kuang (jicama), and yiu char kway, all enveloped in a thick brown sauce with plenty of crushed peanut. Nothing fancy in the ingredients, but I am here for the sauce, the soul of the rojak dish 😬
Brother Rojak is very generous with their thick, pasty sauce. When I finished eating the ingredients, there was still plenty sauce left in the styrofoam plate. I tried my best to eat as much of the sauce neat as possible - can't bear to throw the remainder away - to me, it was that good lor 😅
The sauce was robustly umami savoury from hae ko (black prawn paste), balanced with sweetness from sugar added, nuttiness from lots of crushed peanut, and it was punctuated with a zesty tangy zing from tamarind juice, including pieces of pickled tamarind(?). There's also a tinge of spicy heat as I asked for chili paste. This was the most well balanced and complex rojak sauce that I have had for a long while. (Others tended to be lopsided, too savoury salty for my liking.)
However, I didn't see any tau pok, bean sprout or torch ginger flower in my rojak today 🤔
Don't miss this marvellous rojak when you are in Clementi Central.
Some of my favourites in Johor.
Lao Wu Rojak in Johor Jaya 👈 click
Penang Rojak in downtown JB 👈 click
Ah Kim Rojak in Pontian 👈 click
Written by Tony Boey on 16 Jun 2022
Gary Lim said on Johor Kaki Facebook:
ReplyDelete"The other day someone highlighted a rojak stall n I noticed he uses kangkong n towkay. Really jolted my memory. I recalled in the past both were basic ingredients of rojak but somehow discontinued. Totally forgotten abt it 😅 "