Well, this is the way he does it – my regular roti canai guy at his stall by the road in the vicinity of the Bandong commercial centre here in Sibu.
He would have prepared the dough the night before and every morning when he opens up his stall, the dough would be ready for use…
He takes the balls of dough out and presses them to flatten them a bit…
Then he takes one and pulls it to stretch it into a broad thin sheet….
…after which he picks it up…
…and twirls it around in the air to stretch it further…
…before he places it back on his working area…
The skill is in doing all these without breaking or ending up with holes all over the dough.
Then he folds it…
…into squares…
If he is making murtabak, he adds the egg and meat and finely chopped veg and onion at this stage – before wrapping everything inside the thin dough like a packet. Finally, he cooks it on a hot plate…
Once golden in colour, the roti canai is done. He picks it up, squashes it in a clapping motion to make the layers come apart and serves it with dhall curry…
He sells his at RM1.00 a piece and his murtabak is RM2.50 each.
Business is really good in the morning and that day, there were a lot of other customers and as I was in no hurry, I asked him to attend to them first and in the meantime, I could take all these photographs. Hehehehehe!!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 