Syed Restaurant: Ultimate Prata Challenge: Round 1 of 2
The response to my last blog on Thesevi's Jalan Kayu Prata hit the record for the most number of comments ever! Spurred on by the tremendous response, I set out on a quest to find Singapore's Ultimate Prata. Now, given that I have already sampled most of the Prata places recommended by our readers, I knew that in order to get the Ultimate Prata, it had to be a special order. So the plan was to find a reasonable prata place and get them to make me a prata to my specifications. (Same way the ieat SuperBurger and Godzilla Da Pao was born) For me, the Ultimate Prata would have to be big and fluffy on the inside, crispy on the outside and taste really good.
I knew there were several pretty reasonable Prata places at Simpang Bedok. Being a Centre for Roti Prata, the chances of finding a reasonable one should be quite good. We visited four Roti Prata Stalls and repeated the same order at each stall ie "I want a big Prata, use 2 dough and make into one Prata. I want it thick and crispy but not too oily. The best Prata Kosong you can give me!"
Out of the four stalls, 2 emerged with a Prata which I consider to be well worth your calories! Actually most Prata Chefs are quite happy to oblige when they are not too busy. (I went in the afternoon when there is no crowd). Prata making can be quite mundane, so when you give them the challenge of making the Ultimate Prata, most of them are quite happy to oblige!
Now here is a man I consider the Prata Champ. He's from Chennai and had been making Prata in Malaysia for 10 years before coming over to Singapore where he has been working for a few years. If you stacked all the pratas that he has made in his life, you'd get a tower of prata stretching from Singapore to KL. (Assume 15 years making Prata @700 per day, each prata being 1cm in thickness = 383.25km)
Just look at how thin he stretches the dough! He as the advantage of having a large work area, giving him lots of room to flip the prata till it is almost 3/4 of a meter in diameter. After that, the Prata is folded and left to rest for a few minutes before being flattened and fried. They use a commercial dough here, which is commonly used by many prata places.
Be still my trembling tastebuds! Now this is a Prata worthy of praise! Crispy on the outside, light and fluffy with microthin layers of dough on the inside, this is probably the best Prata I have had in terms of texture. Unfortunately, tastewise the Prata faltered. Instead of a buttery, savoury flavour, the taste of cheap margarine was predominant.
Conclusion
Almost there but not quite. The texture was excellent, but in order to get the Ultimate Prata, I think the dough has to be made in house. Still this Prata beats any Pratas I have eaten so far hands down. 4.25/5
Syed Restaurant
326 Bedok Road
Simpang Bedok
62425412
Open 24 hours
Click here to link to the next Ultimate Prata Challenge
13 comments:
I have been salivating all over your blog for the past half hour. Waaaa ... I have 24 days more to go and I'm back in Singapore - yahooooo!
This is torture most delicious ...
haha, i live just around the corner and this is the stall i would recommend too! good one! -bleu
Should the prata challenge include the curry test as well?
Hmmm, good point! I think most restaurants like this one offer quite a variety of curries, so it should be no problem choosing one you like, unlike some which only offer one curry. But I will make a point mentioning the curry. If curry not nice, then definitely it won't be in the running.
And the prata connoisseur would insists that it has to be fish curry too.
I beg to differ! It should be mutton curry!! Please do click "other" and give yourself a pen name!
I always order mutton curry, got stronger taste. If fish prefer fish head curry but not with prata.
I beg to differ, I like my Kosong fluffy, crispy but not too oily..
and I think the curry is very important ! I love Fish curry with my prata !
I personally love to eat my kosong with sugar, so the prata must not be too oily... but it must be fluffy
And I like hybrid pratas !
Stuff like durian pratas ! I think this stall near my house (at the lower end of Yio Chu Kang Road, in the direction of Serangoon Stadium) makes a decent durian prata..
Hi There!
I tried it at about 12 midnight. Had to wait 15 min before my egg prata was served. It was greasy, over priced, and didn't have the many layers as mentioned. I also had a big cup of bandung, $2.20, which was the normal size of sugarcane juice(the big cup one), it was too sweet and lacked the carnation milk. I was very disappointed-food, drink, waiting time. Casuarina Prata is much better.
hi anon, anon here too.
i;ve eaten a number of times at Syed Restaurant and find that the quality is inconsistent. different prata spinners perhaps. sometimes it can be really horrid, stiff like a leather belt and no fluff at all. other times it was quite fluffy and reasonably satisfying. tried the teh tarik there. that is quite the same each time, ok but not great.
If you want a good prata, you've got to tell them to put two pieces of dough together and flap it till it is wide and then fold it to many layers. You go there and just order 2 pratas and they will give you stuff which they have fried a while ago which is bound to be chewy.
Then again, I haven't been back for a while now so I cannot vouch for the standard now.
If you tell them to put 2 pieces of dough together, I wonder would they oblige? Considering that they've got the 2 pratas that are cold and chewy?
I have never had anyone say no before and I am not holding a camera or anything. You have to remember that Prata making is quite a boring, repetitive job. So when you smile at them and ask nicely, they usually will do it because it is a break from the mundane for them. Only thing is when they are extremely busy, they might not oblige.
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