Riyadh Muslim Food

Address Blk 32, Defu Lane 10 Stall 12, Soon Soon Lai Eating House

Opening Hours 6.30am-7pm daily (close last Wed of each month)

As we all cruise through our fad makan culture of having and checking our the latest, grandest, coolest, funkiest, prettiest and most of all, world classiest, something inside naturally roots us back to the three most important soulful and subconscious reasons why we endear to our good old street food- simple, good and cheap!

Even if you could afford to, you wouldn’t eat out at restaurants everyday. You need your fix of local makan, like a comforting plate of wanton mee, a simple bowl of clear yong tau foo or the classic roti parata kosong (plain) with a mean curry. And when the prata is done to a golden brown crispy perfection with a sweetish and fluffy-soft inside and slapped for better bite sensation, you bow down to the respect it demands when you yearn for it.

Jalan Kayu Roti Prata comes to mind but that’s too easy to enjoy. Not very many folks know that it’s founder, the late Mr KP Abdul Jabbar, has two sons in the business. Mr Abdul Hadi helms the extremely popular Thasevi’s (that the actual name, named after his son and has no branches) at Jalan Kayu and the lesser known Mr Abdul Aziz of Riyadh Roti Prata (also named after his son) at Defu Lane.

The recipe and taste of both are comfortingly similar but there’s a sense of discomfort in the relation between the brothers. “ My brother and I are very close as kids and I spent ten years helping out at the Jln Kayu stall in the 70s and 80s”, and Mr Abdul Aziz says things cooled with his elder brother and now its just quiet politeness and courtesy between them because “ after marriage, we became more of a husband and less of a brother. The wives just pulled us over to their side. Cannot blame.!”, and he shakes his head in resignation with a little smile.

I recall a quote he delivered in one of my earlier Makansutra TV show “ Friends can be brothers but brothers cannot be friends”, and it made me curious to follow up on his sentiments. But this man is so polite and resigned that he steered this kaypo so smoothly to his roti prata, as a platter of three kosong with chicken curry, arrived quickly. I was staring at the golden brown, nary oily, crispy rotis that’s slapped, fluffed and beckoning. They final straw was the thick rich chicken curry. Even the chicken pieces are not the usual dry and spicy version soaked in curry. It was juicy, just like how the Chinese does it. It’s just one reason why 80% of his customers are Chinese. One other reason, it’s just 60 cents per roti kosong.

Of course, the killer application, which draws the workers nearby each day and pack families in every weekend at this god-forsaken ulu( boondocks) industrial area, is the quality. One winning factor is that they don’t pre-fry the rotis. You come, you order and they’ll stretch, flip, toss, fold and fry each ball of dough immediately. So it comes crispy and hot. “ I have been at this stall for almost twenty years and, by now, I just simply give what my customers want. Don’t argue unnecessarily”. But he sometimes leaves less than ten pre-fried rotis on his shelf. “There are regulars working around who don’t want to wait, they want to eat immediately and go”. And as if on cue, one blue collared worker shows up, self serves two pieces and is quickly given a bowl of curry as he reached in for his $1.20 payment. All over in 15 seconds.

Mr Abdul Aziz is not shy to tell me his recipe- plain flour, water, milk, ghee, sugar and salt. But he knows the real secret is in conditioning the dough and the art of flipping and frying it over perfect fire with just enough oil. It all consistently comes out softly crispy, lightly sweet and fluffy inside. It all goes well with their above average chicken ($2.50), mutton ($2) and fish ($2) curries, all richly spicy.

His calm, friendly, resigned and insightful demeanor makes him contented with his simple success (they flip hundreds or rotis a day, compared to the brother’s thousands- a figure a line cook at Jln Kayu there once revealed). His parting shot to anyone who wants to be in this business “even if you pray, God won’t give you everything, but working hard can get you many things.