One of the confusing aspects about Singapore is Singlish. It's a mix of Mandarin, English, Hokkien, Malay and Indonesian. When I ask about a specific word's origin I almost never get a straight answer. So I was excited to see some familiar Singlish words on the breakfast menu: mee, goreng and nasi. I was about to figure them out once and for all. I ordered the nasi goreng and this is what showed up:
Turns out, nasi is the Bahasa word for rice and goreng means fried. To be precise, they speak Bahasa Indonesia in these parts. It's a language that's very similar to the one they speak in Malaysia, known as Bahasa Malaysia. They tell me that two speakers from Malaysia and Indonesia can understand each other though some of the words vary owing to influence from different colonizers. Dodo's "European" included some SE Asian influence - fried bananas on the right and a layered butter cake called "kueh lapis" in the back corner of the plate.
I enjoyed the dragon fruit the most - it was far sweeter than the rest. I also liked the Balinese coffee. It's very strong, the grounds sit at the bottom of the cup so you have to be careful when you tilt it back.
I made sure to eat every grain of rice. While I always knew rice farming was tough, when you see it in person, it's another thing entirely. This gentleman was bent over in the hot sun for most of the day, tending each plant one at a time.
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