ROTI JOHN
Roti John is a local dish with a recent history. Traditionally , it consists of sliced halves of bread loaf fried with a topping of minced mutton , sliced onions and egg but there are other versions like the egg-dipped bread loaf is filled with various ingredients (minced meat usually mutton and onions) and then fried , accompanied with chilli sauce . A variant is to place the minced meat, onions and sauce inside the baguette, then baguette dipped into beaten egg, and the whole then panfried on the frying pan. Or yet another version , the minced meat, egg and chopped onions are fried on a frying pan and then placed into the cavity of a baguette halved lengthwise. The whole baguette is then briefly pan-fried on the frying pan and then served after being cut into several portions.
Literally translated , means John's Bread and the name comes from the previously common form of address for Britains - John while Roti is Malay for bread (Roti is the Hindi , Urdu and Malay word for bread, and more generally for any bread-based or bread-like food, including sandwiches and pancakes). It is made using a local bread loaf similar to the French baguette but shorter in length , with rounded ends and a softer texture. Good Roti John is considered to be crispy on the outside while the meat and egg mixture remains soft and the onions crunchy .
Variations on the dish use chicken , beef or sardines instead of mutton and more recent innovations include adding melted cheese and mushrooms to the topping.
Sometimes called Singapore version of the burger , this dish is unique to the Malay Peninsula. Although is often classified as Malay cuisine , partly because it si usually served by Malay stalls , its origins , ingredients and taste melt together the diverse flavours of the English , Malay and Indian communities . Sometimes is considered as of Indian origin possibly because Shukor , the hawker who popularised it , was of Indian descent.
According to local legend, sometimes in the 1960s an englishman asked a Malay hawker in Sembawang for a hamburger. Because hamburgers were not available, as a substitute, the ingenious hawker spread minced mutton and onions between slices of French loaf and fried the concoction in egg. The name for the dish is also attributed to this anonymous hawker, who was overheard saying to the customer, “Silakan makan roti, John”, which literally translates as “Please eat this bread, John”. In the 1970s, a hawker named Shukor set up stall at the Taman Serasi hawker centre near the Botanic Gardens serving Eurasians and Caucasians, many of whom frequented the nearby Tanglin Club. Shukor obtained the recipe for Roti John from a fellow hawker in Geylang and began offering the dish at his stall in 1976. Shukor’s recipe for the dish contains eggs beaten with onions, minced mutton and sambal . Some of the mixture is slathered onto sliced halves of a local bread loaf similar to the French baguette, then pan-fried on a hot griddle. Shukor’s innovation is considered the original Roti John by some and his stall remains the benchmark for the dish. In 2001, the stall moved to the Serangoon Garden Market where Roti John is still sold by Shukor's daughter.
Today, Roti John is served throughout the Malay Peninsula, with variations in Malacca and Penang that use toppings of sardines or ikan bilis (anchovies) rather than meat.
thanks to all the sources : Wikipedia ; SingaporeLifestyle ; YourSingapore ; MakanTime ; and all the other sites and blogs
Literally translated , means John's Bread and the name comes from the previously common form of address for Britains - John while Roti is Malay for bread (Roti is the Hindi , Urdu and Malay word for bread, and more generally for any bread-based or bread-like food, including sandwiches and pancakes). It is made using a local bread loaf similar to the French baguette but shorter in length , with rounded ends and a softer texture. Good Roti John is considered to be crispy on the outside while the meat and egg mixture remains soft and the onions crunchy .
Variations on the dish use chicken , beef or sardines instead of mutton and more recent innovations include adding melted cheese and mushrooms to the topping.
Sometimes called Singapore version of the burger , this dish is unique to the Malay Peninsula. Although is often classified as Malay cuisine , partly because it si usually served by Malay stalls , its origins , ingredients and taste melt together the diverse flavours of the English , Malay and Indian communities . Sometimes is considered as of Indian origin possibly because Shukor , the hawker who popularised it , was of Indian descent.
According to local legend, sometimes in the 1960s an englishman asked a Malay hawker in Sembawang for a hamburger. Because hamburgers were not available, as a substitute, the ingenious hawker spread minced mutton and onions between slices of French loaf and fried the concoction in egg. The name for the dish is also attributed to this anonymous hawker, who was overheard saying to the customer, “Silakan makan roti, John”, which literally translates as “Please eat this bread, John”. In the 1970s, a hawker named Shukor set up stall at the Taman Serasi hawker centre near the Botanic Gardens serving Eurasians and Caucasians, many of whom frequented the nearby Tanglin Club. Shukor obtained the recipe for Roti John from a fellow hawker in Geylang and began offering the dish at his stall in 1976. Shukor’s recipe for the dish contains eggs beaten with onions, minced mutton and sambal . Some of the mixture is slathered onto sliced halves of a local bread loaf similar to the French baguette, then pan-fried on a hot griddle. Shukor’s innovation is considered the original Roti John by some and his stall remains the benchmark for the dish. In 2001, the stall moved to the Serangoon Garden Market where Roti John is still sold by Shukor's daughter.
Today, Roti John is served throughout the Malay Peninsula, with variations in Malacca and Penang that use toppings of sardines or ikan bilis (anchovies) rather than meat.
thanks to all the sources : Wikipedia ; SingaporeLifestyle ; YourSingapore ; MakanTime ; and all the other sites and blogs