The next time you patronise a Malay stall in the hawker center, keep a look out for this local favourite Roti John or translated as John's Bread. Our story started around the 1960s when an Englishman ordered a hamburger at a Malay food stall in Sembawang, Singapore. Image Credit: Kuali.com + Eat Drink KL
But hamburgers were rare in Malay food stalls back then. So, the vendor got a little creative and spread some minced meat and chopped onions between slices of French loaf and fried the whole thing with egg. The Malays back then addressed all Englishmen as John, so in this case, the vendor probably said this while serving, “Silakan makan roti, John.” (Please eat this bread, John). The people around there probably overheard it as “Silakan makan roti John” (Please eat this John bread) and hence this Singapore food classic was birthed.
The original version evolved with the first localisation of Roti John being credited to Zawiah Anwar of Geylang Serai Food Centre, who prepared her version of Roti John using mutton, eggs, onions, peas and tomatoes. We then come to the store that made Roti John famous and hence became the gold standard for Roti John.
In 1976, Mr Shukor and his wife Khadijah bt Mohd Salleh opened their stall Shukor Makanan Istimewa in Taman Serasi Food Center. The couple learnt the recipe from a Geylang hawker and slowly modified the recipe by replacing peas and tomatoes with Sambal (minced chilli) which later became a benchmark for all Roti Johns. Their cooking style was different compared to the rest. Their recipe contains up to 30 eggs beaten with onions, minced mutton and sambal. Some of the mixture is slathered onto sliced halves of a local bread loaf similar to the French baguette, before being pan-fried on a hot griddle. It was so popular that they can sell about 800 pieces on weekends and 100 pieces daily.
After his death, his wife, Khadijah continued running the stall. Their stall made the hawker centre synonymous with Roti John. When the hawker centre was torn down in 2001, the stall moved to the Serangoon Garden Market with Shukor’s daughter Nurhayati Shukor taking over the reins. The family finally decided to close it in March 2010.
Have I made you hungry enough to go look for your Roti John yet?
