Symbols of Malaysia: Roti Canai

In my recent post on the symbols of Malaysia I spoke about teh tarik. Well, when one thinks of teh tarik the next thing that comes to mind is roti canai (pronounced as chanai). These are two things Malaysian traditional breakfast consists of.

“Roti” is Malay for “bread”. And Canai is a modified pronunciation of Chennai, the capital of Tamilnadu state in India. Roti Channai is none other than a modified Indian paratha bread.
The dought is as simle as it gets: wheat flour, half cup of water, half cup of ghee and salt. But the rest of the process is perhaps not safe to try at home.

The dought is divided into small balls that are flattened into the roudn shape.

The dough is rolled out as thin as possible without using a pin.

And then the magic begins. The dough is thinned further as it is being juggled with a la italian pizza.

The dough completes prodigious somersaults in front of the mesmerized public who by the way get not only the food but also the show for breakfast.

Boy, this guy was really inspired!

Finally the dough is of the right diameter and is as thin as it is supposed to be.

Then it is folded in half right in mid air. Then again and again.

Finally the dough touches the hot plate. While it is being fried, the roti canai man keeps on folding it shaping it into a round.

Cooked roti canai is a flat bread of about 15 sm in diameter. It is served with curries of your choice.

There are more variations of roti canai as far as imagination goes. They make them with eggs, onion, sardins and bananas to name a few. The name will tell you everything as these extended versions are called according to the malay names for their ingredients. Roti telur would be with egg, roti pisang with banana and roti bawang with onion. And I guess roti sardin does not require translation.

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