The conversation should have gone like this: “I want roti prata for breakfast” … “YOU CAN’T HANDLE ROTI PRATA FOR BREAKFAST!”
Instead the conversation went: “Do you want to walk down to the corner and have roti prata for breakfast?” And the reply: a pleasant “yeah”.
And off we set. But the truth is… curry for breakfast can be a shock to the system.
Roti prata is something I’d read about but taken a long while to try. A colleague told me roti prata is a dish that’s difficult to do well. He said if I wanted to try good roti prata “and I mean gooooood”, I’d have to travel across Singapore to try it. Which is weird because he lives on the other side of the island, so surely the good places are near us.
The roti of the roti prata is similar to Indian roti bread. Its oily-puffed- flaky-stringiness is fantastic. The baby is a fan. The curry sauce it’s served with… well, in my opinion, the bread is better without the curry. This particular morning, Darling Man dipped some roti in the curry sauce and announced the curry was a day old. “I can tell,” he said.
We ate it anyway, along with Kopi-O, the local version of sweetened coffee. The baby ate so much roti we needed to order another round. This time Darling Man ordered the egg roti.
After the baby had finished entertaining nearby diners in the packed hawker centre, we started walking home. Suddenly I had to walk a little quicker. My intestines were having a hoe down. Then, I had to run.
This happens to me quite a bit in Asia. I think I have a very sensitive eject button. I never throw up so I think my body has developed a super-efficient way to fling the pilot out of the plane, as it were. A dose of the squirts doesn’t usually slow me down for long.
We’d planned a family bike ride along East Coast Park at sunset, when Singapore cools slightly. Off we set. Miss M had a problem with her helmet, so progress was slow. About a kilometre from our house, Darling Man pulls over, clutching his middle.
“I’ve got a dancing stomach,” he said.
“There’s a toilet right there,” I said, pointing to the convenient conveniences.
He vanished. Leaving me with a barefooted baby hell-bent on dashing onto the now-dark bike path. I think we waited 30 minutes before Darling Man reappeared, blaming the curry.
It could have been the curry. But it could have been the coffee, or the money we handled before using our hands to eat. The baby didn’t get the runs, so it wasn’t the roti. It’s just one of the great mysteries of life. Next time, though, we might try another place.
Laurel
December 28, 2010
Curry for breakfast? Love the idea, I can see how it would wake you up! I got hungry just looking at the photos!
ciki
December 29, 2010
In Malaysia we have roti for breakfast all the time ! Totally delicious.. a great carbo start if you are about to go on a hike too, but yeah, just like in your story, one should always be weary of the curry.. and the runs, if you are not used to it! LOL. Even me ,100% Malaysian, I sometimes suffer the ill effects of curry that’s gone off. Not funny;)
eat-laugh-love-anon
December 29, 2010
I think “the runs” is just part of living in Asia. Most cases are not serious, thankfully.
adventureswithben
December 29, 2010
I blame the curry. It’s happened to me twice.
Migrationology
December 29, 2010
Curry has to be 1 of my favorite breakfast foods in that part of the world, but yes, it’s great to have a bathroom handy for a while afterward!
eat-laugh-love-anon
December 29, 2010
Yes, I was very lucky we were so close to home!
budgettravelsac
December 29, 2010
That’s amusingly honest and funny…since it didn’t happen to me! I think I am going to go with you on the curry and remember to never eat it when it’s a day old!
eat-laugh-love-anon
December 29, 2010
The problem is I can’t tell when it’s a day old. Darling Man is the one with the finely tuned sense of taste!
inka
December 29, 2010
Eject button! Did I ever laugh. Now I have a new vocabulary and a new breakfast food too. Thank you for both.
Lorna - the roamantics
December 30, 2010
ha! eject button! sorry to read about your woes, but done up in a funny package 🙂
Caz Makepeace
January 10, 2011
Sounds delicious! I love eating curry and unusual things like that for breakfast. One of our fave breakfasts in Thailand was rice soup. I love your descriptions of the results of your upset stomach! How did the baby fare?
eat-laugh-love-anon
January 10, 2011
The baby was fine. We were too, after the toilet breaks.