When in Thailand - Street Food - Thai Roti - A Traditional Thai Pancake :)

When I first visited Thailand I was surprised to hear the word Roti commonly known among the Thai, the roti what they refer to is a pancake similar to that of a Rumali roti. The Roti is one of the street food options that are available throughout the day.

The Flour used to make the roti is a white flour or may vary to wheat. The filling may vary based on your preference. They mainly have 4 options available for the filling which is eggs, banana ,nutella and cheese and some vendors do add in mango.It is served as a snack topped with sweetened condensed milk and toppings of your choice. Usual syrups include chocolate, strawberry, honey and vanilla.

Similar to making and Indian rumali roti the flour is mixed using water, egg, sugar, salt and oil in addition to the regular ingredients a little bit of condensed milk is added to the mixture. The dough is then kneaded into a firm dough after which the dough is shaped in small balls and stored for use. 

When you arrive at the roti vendors food cart , they expect you to choose the filling and the topping based on the options displayed. Once you have decided they start preparing the custom made roti right in front of you.They start to flatten the dough into a roti with their fingers and then by striking it around on the counter. As the dough is flattened it stretches to be larger and thinner. Some use a roller in the beginning and once its expanded a bit they pick it and slap it around. Finally the dough is transformed into the shape of a square almost the size of the pan.

A generous amount of butter or margarine is dropped on the pre heated pan, the flattened dough is placed on it, in about a minute it’s time for the filling to be added. Usually 2 whisked eggs are added 

( u can choose to opt out of it if you don’t want the eggs to be added ). The next item is the banana, which is sliced directly on the pancake, if you opted for Nutella its time for that as well. After a minute the roti is folded from the sides to make it into a smaller square and the roti is then turned over to the opposite side on the pan. After some time you will find the roti getting crispy and that’s when the pancake is transferred on to the plate.

Once it’s on the plate generous amount of sweetened condensed milk is poured, the pancake is chopped  into smaller bite size squares. The last part is to add a topping of your choice, I choose strawberry with vanilla as my taste-buds prefer it  however most of the people opt for chocolate!!.

It’s  definitely a  must try street food in Thailand