Rojak

Rojak

Fruit rujak in Indonesia, seasonal fruits with spicy palm sugar dressing, served on stone mortar.
Alternative names	Rujak
Type	Salad
Region or state	Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore
Serving temperature	fresh in room temperature
Main ingredients	Fruits, vegetables, palm sugar, peanuts and chili dressing.

Rojak (Malaysian and Singaporean spelling) or Rujak (Indonesian spelling) is a traditional fruit and vegetable salad dish commonly found in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Other than referring to this fruit salad dish, the term rojak also means "mixture" or "eclectic mix" in colloquial Malay.

Rujak is available everywhere across Indonesia, and there are rich variations within the country. However, the most popular rujak variant is rujak buah (fruit rujak), which is mixed sliced fruit and vegetables served with spicy palm sugar dressing. Unlike common fruit salads, rujak is often describes as tangy and spicy fruit salad, due to its sweet, hot and spicy dressing made from ground chili pepper, palm sugar and peanuts. It is a popular street fare in Bali.

Indonesian rujak is usually made from fresh ingredients, especially fruits and vegetables. Rojak in Malaysia and Singapore, however, is mostly of Indian influence, mixed with fried tofu, cracker, cruller and fritter. Rujak is usually a vegetarian dish which does not contain any animal products, except the sweet and tangy dressing that might contain shrimp paste. Nevertheless, some recipes may contain seafood or meat. Rojak in Malaysia and Singapore usually contains sotong (cuttlefish), while certain rujak recipes in Indonesia may contain seafood or meat.

The origin of rujak is unclear, and there are numbers of rujak variants in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia. It is possible that since ancient times, the natives of the Malay archipelago has consumed sour-tasting seasonal tropical fruits—especially Java apple, kedondong and young mango—together with palm sugar and salt, to ease its sourness. In Indonesia, certain fruit plants has their own bearing fruits season, usually within late dry season to the wet season, thus the time of fruit harvest usually coincides with the time of having rujak in Indonesian villages. The fruit species season being anticipated for rujak feast are mango, Java apple and kedondong.