Mamak, Chinatown

Cheap, delicious and BYO, Mamak is my kind of place. It is deservedly popular, and arriving at 6.30pm on a Friday means an hour-long wait. Not always practical but worth it when you need a good Malaysian roti fix!

All the dishes are good – the nasi lemak, mee goreng, kari kambing (lamb curry) and kari sayur (vegetable curry) are pictured below.

These aren’t the dishes which compel people to queue for a table. If truth be told, I prefer the curries at Malacca Straits on Broadway. But there are a few stars here, which are worth a special mention…. Firstly, the rojak. Described as a salad, it is the best kind of salad ever – with crispy deep-fried prawn and coconut fritters, fried tofu, hard-boiled eggs, shredded yambean, cucumber and peanut sauce. They also do a great sambal belachan.

And I absolutely Love (with a capital L) Mamak’s satay. The sauce is nutty, fragrant with lemongrass and kaffir lime, slightly spicy and slightly sweet. (If only they served them with lontong!)

But the real star of the show is the roti. The roti canai is a crumpled ball of flaky goodness, served with two curry sauces and a blog of spicy sambal, is the original and still the best. So good, in fact, that I didn’t manage to get in a photo before someone’s greedy fingers got to it!

The red onion roti is also delish, with its sweet, fragrant filling.

The breads also dominate the dessert arena – I like an ais cendol in the middle of summer, but there’s no way one can pass up sweet caramelised roti with jammy coconut pandan (roti kaya) or banana filling (roti pisang).

Or try my personal favourite, the roti bom – a thicker textured roti, swirled and glazed with the most gorgeous golden caramel. Oh be still my beating heart!