I am confident that this particular prata stall will be around for a long time. This is one of those third generation "Lost & Found" stalls which have been around for quite a while. It was Faizal's grandfather who started selling prata when he arrived in Singapore and the recipe was then passed down to Mr Aziz who moved the stall to Cluny Road and subsequently to Sin Ming. Now, under the watchful eyes of the father, Faizal has been trained to take over the stall, so we can be certain that this prata will still be around to wow the next generation of Singaporeans.
This stall makes prata the way it should be - shatteringly crisp on the outside but chewy and fluffy on the inside and leaves a buttery sweet taste at the back of the palette after you work through the satisfying chew. As an added bonus, this stall sells curry rice, so you get a selection of different curries to go with your prata. Their curries are, in my opinion, quite spicy and I am sure that will please many prata fans out there. It was the best prata I had eaten in a long while.
How do you tell if a prata stall is serious about making good prata? One of the signs is a big red plastic tub with two Indian men shaping the dough. Conversely, if you spot a cardboard box with dough stacked up uniformly inside, it's a tell-tale sign that you will get a pedestrian prata. Before you even eat it, you know that the final product is going to reek of that cheap trans-fat laden margarine smell.
Faizal is a young man who still hangs on to the traditional recipe where the dough is mixed and kneaded by hand and left for an hour before being moulded into dough balls. There is something about dough that is mixed and kneaded by hand that gives it that special taste. In fact, with so much commercialization of prata dough these days, it is getting hard to find pratas like these so I think such rarity should be called artisanal pratas.
Having a stack of freshly made artisanal prata with a fish curry and a cup of tea at a neighbourhood coffeeshop is one of the most compelling reasons you should never migrate overseas! The prata I had that day was flaky as a croissant on the outside and chewy as sourdough bread on the inside and I reckon this is the way prata should be. Forget Roti Canai, we have roti prata!
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