If you are a fan of prawn toast (and lets face it, who isn’t?) and you feel like a slight change of pace, Roti Babi is for you. Or if you happen to be firing up the wok to make prawn toasts and want to make a variation to go along with it, this may do you well. Its a beef or chicken mince version of the prawn toast, sans the ginger and its crispily and moreishly good.
Since it is a deep fried item I am not the chef (being mortally fearful of hot oil) so it is my mother who made this (and who usually makes the fried items). I simply participate in its copious consumption.
Roti Babi
Hard to find commercially in Singapore Roti Baba is an old time Nonya specialty still offered at the Coliseum Cafe in Kuala Lumpur. Better than fried bread, that sinful British invention, a meat mixture tops the sliced bread before it is fried!
Ingredients
- 8 slices of stale bread
- 300g (10 oz) minced pork or chicken
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp salt
- Pepper
- 1 tsp cornflour
- oil for deep frying
Mix minced meat together with onion, egg, salt, pepper and cornflour. Trim crusts from bread slices if desired.
Heat wok half full with oil. In the meantime, spread meat mixture evennly on each sliced of the bread. Test if oil is hot enough by frying first a small piece of bread, the oil should sizzle.
Once oil is hot enough, carefully slide in bread, meat side down, into the oil nad fry until golden brown. Turn over to fry the other side till golden brown.
Remove and drain on kitchen paper. Can also serve hot with a classic Hainandese dip of sliced red chillies in Worchestire sauce.
Recipe by Sylvia Tan from Singapore Heritage Food






2 Comments | Add your own
This may be pure pedantry, but is the name of the dish roti “babi” or “baba?” I ask because “babi” is Malay for “pig”, so it would follow that roti babi would refer specifically to pork toast, and not to chicken or beef toast. Just curious.
Hi Laura-It may well be Babi for pig. The recipe does say chicken or pork mince but I’m sure any sort of mince would taste good for it.
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