Great tasting toasty thin pratas

[MarrickG]

When you see two old men making roti prata with so much gusto at this restaurant, you would expect them to stick to tradition - like using clarified butter in it.

Wrong, there's no ghee in it.

They used vegetable oil instead, and generous amounts of it.

So the hot oil on the griddle sizzled the prata dough till it's blistered till dark brown every where.

So the dappled prata was toasty and aromatic with a smoky smell and flavour.

The other good thing was the generally thin pastry, which was crispy because enough oil was used to cook it. It's slightly salty, so it's tasty enough to eat on its own, without the pungent and sharp curry gravy.

I had a version with egg and onion, which tasted sweet and caramelised because of the strong cooking heat and hot oil.

On the downside, it's definitely more greasy than many other pratas.

Prices are reasonable - 80 cents for a plain prata, $1.60 for one with filling.

Murtabaks are also available at $3.50 each.

I had a beef one, all torn up and served with a rich lentil curry, which I felt was over the top with spices - just like the curry.

The minced beef didn't taste fresh or lift the flavour of the murtabak. It was quite a boring meal, compared to the toasty, thin prata.

It's popular with residents, and even foodies from other estates. Some even travel from the west for their prata fix.

Rating for prata: 7.5/10
Rating for beef murtabak: 6/10

Afghanistan Family Restaurant
#01-56, Block 201E Tampines Street 23
Singapore 527201
Tel: 6783 7746

http://www.soshiok.com/article/15837