Yay! It seems there is no line at Mamek at midday!
One of the waiters gives me the table directly in front of the door. Suddenly a line begins to queue. Feeling guilty for being one person on a table… oh well.
Flicking through the menu. Bit pointless since I already know what I’m going to order. After reading so much about Malaysian food lately I’m so happy to be trying some. Gotta start with the basics: roti canai.
A different waiter comes to take my order. Okay, pronounce it correctly…
“Are the curries that come with the roti canai vegetarian?”
“One is vegetable. One is fish.”
“Can I have it vegetarian?”
“Okay, two vegetable. Would you like a drink?”
Hmm, I’ll save teh tarik for another day. “No thanks.”
He immediately gets me a bottle of water and a glass. Nice not to have to ask!
Craning neck… I can kind of see into the kitchen. Waiters constructing a tower of green and pink ice. A chef scraping clean a hot plate and getting ready for the next roti.
He’s finished cooking one… but he’s kind of squishing it in from all sides, balling it up before popping it onto a metal tray. Wasn’t expecting that!
The tray heads for me. Oh, I just saw my own roti get done!
The metal tray has two little spaces for curry, both filled with the same wood-brown dahl. And in the main space, my roti.
The original thin rectangle now looks like a shower puff. Parts of the outer flatbread are blistered from cooking, so crisp that it’s splintered through the shaping process, odd angles everywhere. The were-inner-now-everywhere parts are white.
Surely this is not a knife and fork situation? Well, I’m going to use my hands anywho. Too bad I’m facing the wrong way to see how everyone else is eating.
Tugging at one of the angles. This is actually stretchy and soft, despite the dried parts. Ripping. Into my mouth.
It’s warm, soft, stretchy, flaky, crisp. Definitely a little sweet. Buttery but not oily. More like pastry than traditional western-style bread.
Yes, I like it. Yes I do.
Rip off another segment. Steam issues from within the bundle. Dip it into the dahl.
The dhal is like gravy, totally liquid but not watery. Salty, not creamy, a bit of pepper, ginger and mustard.
The contrast of the sweet roti and the salty lentils is delicious. Hard not to make a mess, as the roti is too floppy to hold so it’s really all a dipping process.
Rip, dip, mmm. Rip, dip, yum.
Half-way there. When it first came I wondered if it would be enough for lunch. Now I see it definitely is!
The roti gets chewier and firmer as it cools, getting a little less tasty in the process. Perhaps I am eating too slow? I can fix that!
All gone! Licking my fingers, wiping the dhal away. Standing immediately so the patient people in the queue can have a table.
My first real Malaysian food. Would have been worth a wait.
Roti Canai
Yay! It seems there is no line at Mamek at midday!
One of the waiters gives me the table directly in front of the door. Suddenly a line begins to queue. Feeling guilty for being one person on a table… oh well.
Flicking through the menu. Bit pointless since I already know what I’m going to order. After reading so much about Malaysian food lately I’m so happy to be trying some. Gotta start with the basics: roti canai.
A different waiter comes to take my order. Okay, pronounce it correctly…
“Are the curries that come with the roti canai vegetarian?”
“One is vegetable. One is fish.”
“Can I have it vegetarian?”
“Okay, two vegetable. Would you like a drink?”
Hmm, I’ll save teh tarik for another day. “No thanks.”
He immediately gets me a bottle of water and a glass. Nice not to have to ask!
Craning neck… I can kind of see into the kitchen. Waiters constructing a tower of green and pink ice. A chef scraping clean a hot plate and getting ready for the next roti.
He’s finished cooking one… but he’s kind of squishing it in from all sides, balling it up before popping it onto a metal tray. Wasn’t expecting that!
The tray heads for me. Oh, I just saw my own roti get done!
The metal tray has two little spaces for curry, both filled with the same wood-brown dahl. And in the main space, my roti.
The original thin rectangle now looks like a shower puff. Parts of the outer flatbread are blistered from cooking, so crisp that it’s splintered through the shaping process, odd angles everywhere. The were-inner-now-everywhere parts are white.
Surely this is not a knife and fork situation? Well, I’m going to use my hands anywho. Too bad I’m facing the wrong way to see how everyone else is eating.
Tugging at one of the angles. This is actually stretchy and soft, despite the dried parts. Ripping. Into my mouth.
It’s warm, soft, stretchy, flaky, crisp. Definitely a little sweet. Buttery but not oily. More like pastry than traditional western-style bread.
Yes, I like it. Yes I do.
Rip off another segment. Steam issues from within the bundle. Dip it into the dahl.
The dhal is like gravy, totally liquid but not watery. Salty, not creamy, a bit of pepper, ginger and mustard.
The contrast of the sweet roti and the salty lentils is delicious. Hard not to make a mess, as the roti is too floppy to hold so it’s really all a dipping process.
Rip, dip, mmm. Rip, dip, yum.
Half-way there. When it first came I wondered if it would be enough for lunch. Now I see it definitely is!
The roti gets chewier and firmer as it cools, getting a little less tasty in the process. Perhaps I am eating too slow? I can fix that!
All gone! Licking my fingers, wiping the dhal away. Standing immediately so the patient people in the queue can have a table.
My first real Malaysian food. Would have been worth a wait.
Rating:
Specifics: Roti canai, eaten at Mamek, Haymarket.