Saturday, May 30, 2009

kuthu prata - southern indian carrot cake?



this morning, i drove victor samuel to sethi's place, parked my car outside sethi's house and took bus service 166 at 9.05 a.m. - so as to enjoy the senior citizen's concession - to tekka. victor had been insistent on us trying this dish called kuthu prata. i asked him if the word should be 'putu', he said 'no'. 'kuthu' is a tamil word, not the malay word for 'hair mite'.

it is actually a normal prata, with some vegetables and an egg thrown in. the circular prata is cut into bits and after some frying with the added ingredients, the result is kuthu prata. it looks and tastes a bit like the chinese white carrot cake. all three of us finished our respective plateful of kuthu prata.

we were also introduced to a new blend of tea - at least to me and sethi - today. it is the punjabi masala tea. the tea comes with a mixture of spices such as cardamon, cloves, cinamon and fennel seeds. according to the owner of the place - gholia's village - if you want more 'power' in your tea, add star anise. i think it was powerful enough for us.


gholia's village is at the junction of chander road and kerbau road, very near to the northern indian hindu temple which i blogged about not long ago.

the verdict for both kuthu prata and punjabi masala tea: no need to die to try and you won't regret it.

5 comments:

Victor said...

YG, have you tried the ah-pom in Little India? It is a flour dessert eaten with brown sugar and coconut milk. The flour is cooked in a small wok. The side is crispy and the yolk-like centre soft and springy. Much like the min jian kueh or pancake we are used too. Very nice and tasty, especially when eaten hot.

yg said...

victor, i ate apom when i was a boy. have not eaten it since. these days, my indian friends have been asking me to try the idli (sounds like italy) from an indian restaurant along syed alwi road.

Anonymous said...

You should call it kutu (or kuthu) roti rather than prata, even though the roti they use may be similar to roti prata... it's got less to do with prata and more to do with roti. :)

yg said...

hi anonymous, thanks for correction in the spelling (khutu instead of kutu)and the other information. it can also be spelt kothu. i did a check on the internet and i found out that in southern india and sri lanka, they use bits of roti. at this gholia's village stall, i saw them using the roti prata to make the dish. so, the original version is kuthu roti. thanks again for sharing.

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