Roti Talk

Been quite a while since last time writing here. Spending time around the city doing food sampling...in local language, we call it "jalan jalan cari makan". Since I'm passionate bout food & a bread fanatic, I decided to start with roti bakar or toasted bread. Don't laugh first, just continue reading for u might be one of those who overlooked one of the most underestimated food in M'sia.

I made my way to the coffeeshops and those upmarket kopitiam. Notice those kopitiam are sprouting like nobody business everywhere in KL. The main similarity u might overlooked is these shops originated from outstations such as Ipoh, Kluang & even Kuala Lipis. Now, back to the roti bakar, the standard preparation is the normal toasted bread, with butter & kaya. Ordinary ppl wil say it's the same taste everywhere,doesn't matter where u go. Let me say it's not the same taste & let me substantiate my claim.

Been to most of the kopitiams & being an ex-business student, I kept guessing what could be the shops' competitive advantage & differential advantage while making the roti bakar. At least there's an avenue for me to put theories into practices...heehehe. Put it this way:-

The BREAD: All the breads from the kopitiam are prepared in accordance to age-old Hainanese traditional recipe. No point talking about freshness of the bread as normally the kopitiam owners will order in bulk and store them over few days. Bread is either toasted from an oven or over charcoal fire. I'm not a rocket scientist who could xplain what could be chemical reaction causing the difference between the two toasting style. Believe me, the charcoal toasted bread always tastes better..Try eat an oven-baked pizza & charcoal-baked pizza, u will know what I meant.

The BUTTER: All the kopitiam do not produce their own butter. They are no different compared to the one u buy in supermarkets. No point talking about which butter is better than the others.

The KAYA: THIS is what make the difference from the others. Those kopitiams produce their own kaya, using secret recipes, passed down from generations. Legend has it said that the magical taste of the kaya depends on how many eggs & type of eggs used as the ingredient. Heard that some ppl actually use duck's eggs instead and it actually tastes better.

The other day I watched Bobby Chim in Discovery Travel Asia Cafe, he tasted the toasted bread in a Hong Kong cafe & praising how great it was. I was like "Are you sure Bob?? Come to KL and try our roti bakar first!!!!" Having sampling those roti bakar around the city, these are my top picks (not in order) for the best roti bakar:
1) TCK 1920 Hakkakaya, One Utama
2) Yut Kee Restaurant, Jln Dang Wangi
3) Hainan Chef Kopitiam, Summit USJ Shopping
4) Uncle Lim's Kopitiam (multiple branches)
5) Killiney Kopitiam, Damansara Uptown

Roti will never be complete without a cuppa cham

Let me know if there's any other places better..for I shall go and sample myself..:)