Memento Roti

As pointed out by documentary Dal Puri Diaspora, the roti flat bread may have originated in India, but it was in Trinidad-Tobago where it became the "Caribbean roti". Given the multicultural fabric of Toronto, it would seem inevitable that this daughter dish would return back home. And it has.

At the new College St. diner Butter Chicken Roti you can stuff your roti with korma, vindaloo, or the epynomous butter chicken sauce. What tantalizing possibilities for a Saturday lunch. I finally settled on Chicken saag roti ($9.95). But the execution was a bit below average.

They've chosen to go retro diner like other recent offerings (see Frank's Hot Dog) with picnic benches and menus written in chalk on large blackboards. Though the decision to plaster one wall with ripped-out Indian newspapers was a head-scratcher. Was this a  mural or unfinished renovation?

There were two points of pride here: the size of the roti, and the spiciness. And it was both true: the roti had quite a heft in its cardboard container, and medium-hot would be considered hot elsewhere. The roti shell was freshly made and grilled and so had a nice chewiness. The stuffings started out with wonderful flavour but the missteps revealed themselves. From the menu, I suspected that the ingredients were prepared separately and combined after an order. The chicken had the bland taste of plainly cooked meat, not something that has been simmering in sauces.

As such, the various chicken and lamb offerings are probably not great choices. I would stick to the vegetarian options or the pricier shrimp (seafood do not absorb much curry flavour anyway). They'll need to avoid these shortcuts if they want to stay in the competitive roti business.