association between food and locality



















in singapore, if you sell indian rojak, any association or connection with waterloo street will serve to enhance the value and marketability of your stall and its foodstuff. the association between food and locality can last for sometime, even after the stalls have moved out from that locality: like laksa and katong, seafood and ponggol, teochew porridge and owen road and fish-head curry and race course road.

so, it is not uncommon to find many stalls, even in the heartlands, selling indian rojak which claim some link to waterloo street. often the name waterloo street is included somewhere in the signboard. anyway, the proof is in the pudding. you can have all the association but if your ware is not up to the mark, there will be few return visits.

like today when we went to seah imm food centre after our morning walk, victor headed straight for the indian rojak stall. could have been the two words "waterloo street" that pulled him there.
anyway, he chatted in tamil with the owner who gave him a bit of history. the owner's grandfather used to have an indian rojak stall at waterloo street.

in the 60s and 70s, when around eight stalls sold indian rojak, mee goreng and nasi goreng along this road that faced the field used by st joseph's institution, it seemed many of us would walk past them but we did not eat there as often. victor, who used to lived along bras basah road, ate there a few times only because " he could not afford to eat often".

these days, we still cannot afford to eat indian rojak too often but it is for a different reason. it is no longer the financial constraint; it is for health reasons as we have to eat less fried food.