You wanna know what's nice? It's spreading some butter and cream cheese over a freshly baked french loaf right out of a small bakery on the outskirts of Paris. It's even better when you are sitting outside under the 'air conditioned' sunny Parisian sun and sipping a cup of cafe au lait. I thought that nothing can beat French bakeries. That's until I tried Ismalia Roti Bengali. Let me tell you more.
Ismailia Bakery is a very famous roti joint in Penang. They supply to most of the roti hawkers in Penang. These are people on bicycles with cabinets attached to the back. The mamak roti sighting is one that you rarely see in KL anymore. Ismailia Bakery was established in 1928. They've been here all this while starting from a humble wooden building which was renovated into the brick building it now sports in the mid sixties.
Roti Bengali is an old style roti about three inches wide and six inches long with a dome at the exposed top. I don't know why it's called Roti Bengali as the proprietor is neither a Bengali or from Punjab but whatever it is, this roti can rival any french bread anytime. It has a leathery but soft outer crust but once the bread is sliced, you can smell the engaging aroma of freshly baked flour. It's white heart is soft, moist and fresh. Really delicious! I guess that all those years of experience really shows.
"Buns here are kneaded by hand"
You want to see the kitchen? C'mon.. let's go in and find out what makes this bread Ismalia. The flour is mixed in a huge mixer but to preserve the quality, the buns are kneaded by hand. The best thing is that all their rotis are baked in deep old fashioned ovens. And you know what? They are still using chopped firewood as fuel to bake the hundreds of rotis on metallic trays. Wow!That explains a lot about Ismailia's delicious bread.
Normally you don't buy one. It comes in sets of two. For two people normally four rotis are just about enough. You can't eat the bread at Ismailia as they are not a cafe so they will 'tapau' (wrap) it up nicely for you to scurry home with. The thing is they've got two sets of wrappers. If you are not local or new to Ismalia, they will wrap your bread in plastic bags. This absolutely spoils the bread as the moisture condenses on the plastic and ruins the crust. Instead, ask them to wrap your roti in paper wrappers which are more tolerant of the moisture. If you like roti manis, their's share equal praise with all the rest of the rotis.
Now comes the most important part. Eating your Roti Bengali. Sometimes in your busy life, you just need to wind down. Have ready some slices of roast chicken and roast beef, salad greens, butter, cream cheese, sliced sweet Holland onions, mayonnaise and not forgetting a cup of ice cold coffee. Make a roast chicken sandwich, have a munch and a sip of coffee while watching the sunset from Batu Ferringhi. I'm proud that we can make bread this good!
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I love Ismalia's roti benggali. Really nice with kaya and margarine.
by iswaziaz March 04, 2008 8:32PM
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