Roti Canai - A new Gourmet in Sydney?

This article is the hardest to write todate. How do you explain to the Australian or anyone who has not been to or hasn't discover Malaysia enough, what is roti canai? Who is mamak? or WTF is Mamak is the first place. Here in Australia, I do need to be politically correct. So I need to be cirscumpect. No, Australians do not have ISA with Bukit Aman militants who will jump on me and then dragged me to jail... only to be mistaken with someone else. But I can potentially be termed racist! A reputation even KKK cannot afford.

A food for a thought or should I say a roti canai for a thought. Every Malaysian are bloody racists. Yes every single one of them, sinners and non sinners. Why? Let's start with Malaysian ID card, it displays the holder name, addy AND RACE!!! Not to mention we have Chinese school. Indian school. TV stations air endless of rowdy senseless cantonese soapies. etc. etc. My point is being racist in Malaysia is not as bad and as narrowly defined in western world where you could do time for being a racist. As a racist in Malaysia, you could well be a statistician, computing how many Chinese score straights As last year national examination. As long as you don't mutter acidic racist remarks...you could be a good racist, clear? Good.

So now back to Mamak food. It is a 'loose' good racist label on Indian (mostly tamil) descents in Malaysia who operate foodstall till late at night serving simple classic dishes for hungry night dwellers. Dishes that you will cringe if serve on dinner at home - but not when you are out and about, binge drinking with your mates, appetite for fast food in open air by the streets..ah! too good to pass. Even stir fry instant noodle tastes awesome, hence the birth of Maggi Mee Goreng.

One night, my pal and I decided to check out a restaurant in Newtown that serves roti canai, prata, murtabak and other yummies - reminded both of us of the late nights in KL. The rotis cost around $2 each but the curry cost $10 in a tiny aluminium bowl (more authentic, I presumed)! For something I never had for ages, it was ok. The food wasn't bad. The service - something not worth talking about. Typical mamak. However this is Newtown, it's cut-throat, merciless, expensive real estate area - so I give them ... 6 months. And I am being kind.

So I am quite dissapointed that there is no 'high' quality Mamak around, tossing roti in the air, cat sized rats scurry along the curbs, the fu*king crows, the "lah" here and "lah" there...

So you guys out there, the goldmines are mamak stall, bak kut teh, nasi dagang, keropok. Operate any food outlet under these concepts, mega bucks is ensured. Milo peng anyone?

Comments

[johnny the great]

yeah.. come to malaysia and i'll bring u guys to tour for nicest foods.. including roti canai!

ah..you just reminded me of the fun time we had while having the Bah Kut Teh during the working hour, so when are we going for the next "makan" session lar? Cheers

check out Chinatown Friday night markets - there's some people who open a mamak stall there.

[Author]

I tempted to delete the comment by the opportunist-above but I think some will find there are desperate quarters for mamak delicacies. I will post an article about what the anonymous dude yapping about.