What's for breakfast this morning? Well, since I'm in a hurry to attend a class, I thought I'd have a 'roti canai' from Haji, from the food shack just next to my house. Pak Haji, as we fondly called him, had been selling at that spot for some months now. And by the look of it, he is quite popular.
'Roti' means 'bread' and 'canai' means 'to knead'. It is sort of flatbread eaten with lentil curry or in Melaka we have it with 'asam pedas' dish which literally means 'sour spicy'. When I was young, we could get roti canai only for breakfast. But these days one can have it any time of the day even in the wee hours of the night!
Pak Haji prepares the kneaded dough the night before and allowed to proof and rise.
Here's Pak Haji kneading the dough. See the bowl of oil? In the foreground is the skillet where he toasted the 'roti'.
One thing one need to have is the skill to twist and toss the thin dough several times. Look at Pak Haji with his flying bread.
And here's my roti canai all shredded up, just like how I wanted it, waiting to be covered with the delicious lentil curry.
YUMMY. . . .
6 comments:
Banjir satu!!
Hello Nazli,
Whenever I come across the word "roti" I tend to salivate. That is because it is one of the things from Trinidad that I miss most.
I like Malaysian roti canai very much but it is different in some respects from the roti of Trinidad. There it is a wrap. The flat bread, similar to roti canai, is wrapped around the curry, which may be goat, chicken, beef, shrimp or potato curry. The bread itself has a layer of ground peas cooked into it and that is the big difference between roti canai and Trinidad's "roti".
Some time ago I got all excited when I heard a "Trinidad roti shop" would be opening not far away, but it turned out to be disappointing. If I were in Canada I would have better luck, since, I am told, there are many good roti shops in Toronto.
Nora,
That's the way I like it, a ha a ha.
(Remember the song?)
Hi Louis,
How interesting! The Trinidad roti sounds similar to our 'Roti Martabak', except that there's no ground peas in the bread itself.
'Roti' originated from India. Are there many Indians in Trinidad?
Gracias again Louis.
De nada.
Yes, Indians make up nearly half the population.
Really? That many?
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