Food - Again

I remember when I first arrived in Malaysia. It was the late '80's and I'd tried Sushi and lots of different Chinese dishes (my mom took a bunch of community courses when we lived in Hawaii and my dad Loved Sushi) but I'd never had curry or other spicy foods before. Our arrival orientation was at the University of Malaysia, and we stayed in dorms with UM students and ate in the UM cafeteria. Talk about being thrown in the deep end! One of the first meals we had was a yummy, but very strange looking to our Western eyes, Fish Head curry.


Some of us were daring enough to look past the eyes staring up at us and try the curry. I think growing up on the ocean made the fish more appealing for me. I'd seen them fresh out of the sea, before we chopped them up, so it wasn't so hard to deal with (I still avoided the eyes).

Anyway, sometimes the food was just too different for us. Some of the boys went for a walk one afternoon during our free time and discovered a kedai just down the hill from our dorms. It was love at first sight.

This is not our kedai, but it gives you an idea of what ours was like, pretty much all outside, ours had an indoor kitchen in the back, but where we sat was all like this, under cover, but outside.

A kedai is a little cafe that serves some food, and coffee and tea and juices and sodas. At some point during our week at the campus we all wandered down the hill to the kedai. They served beef burgers. Not a hamburger we were all used to, but a Malaysian version that sufficed for us all (to be honest, I miss them, little bit of Maggie hot sauce, slightly different taste, yum).

The true gem we found at that little kedai was roti canai. At least for me it was. I think some of the others really loved the burgers. Roti canai is a bread. First you make the dough into little balls and slather it with ghee (let them sit over night). Then you start flattening it out





You can just see the balls ready to be made in the plastic tub on the right side of this picture
 
Then you start throwing it, almost like pizza dough, but with Oh So Much More finesse.


There's a trick to the flick of the wrist to make this that I never could master.
 
Then you fry it on a dry griddle



And serve hot with a little bowl of chicken curry to dip it in.


Mmmm mmmm Heaven!

You can pretty much find Roti canai anywhere in Malaysia and Singapore. My favorite was my Host Mom's and my Host Aunt's, but I've been to many a stall or kedai and ordered "Teh Tarik Satu, roti canai satu" (teh tarik is like thai iced tea, only hot and Satu is Malay for one).

Thankfully for me, Roti canai can easily be found in Indian grocers in the states, In the groceries they sell it as paratha (sometimes you can find brands that say "Malaysian style."  All my children live for the days I pull these out of the freezer and fry them up!

I did pretty much try everything put in front of me, not only that year, but every time I've gone back for a visit (still haven't eaten a fish eye), but roti canai holds a special place in my heart. It's something that I'd never had, but was instantly a comfort food for me.

When I eat it, I think of Home.