{"id":3823,"date":"2016-07-30T17:25:44","date_gmt":"2016-07-30T21:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/picklesandtea\/?p=3823"},"modified":"2016-08-01T13:10:29","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T17:10:29","slug":"omelet-bread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/picklesandtea\/omelet-bread\/","title":{"rendered":"Who’s John?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Roti<\/a>

Roti John, one of Singapore’s fun foods named in honor of its colonial past. <\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Roti John could be considered the b\u00e1nh m\u00ec, aka the ubiquitous Vietnamese sandwich, of Singapore (or Malaysia, or Brunei). Its components are similar\u2014bread, protein–and is a blend of East and West and just as delicious.<\/p>\n

Basically, roti John is a savory French toast\u2014baguette slices soaked with a meat, onion, egg, and sambal (chili paste) mixture to form what some people term \u201comelet bread.\u201d As with b\u00e1nh m\u00ec, there are endless variations. Sardines, anchovies (ikan bilis), lamb, all show up sometime, somewhere.<\/p>\n

So what does roti John actually mean? Roti means \u201cbread\u201d in Malay with \u201cJohn\u201d being the catchall name given to all Western men during post-colonial times. Think of it as a term like \u201cgringo\u201d or \u201chaole,\u201d except it could actually be someone\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Rumor has it that in 1960\u2019s Singapore, an Englishman asked a street vendor for a hamburger. Of course, street vendors at that time did not sell hamburgers, let alone know what they were, but this ingenious man came up with his own version, frying minced mutton and onions with eggs onto a bread loaf. The street vendor gave the sandwich to the Englishman and said \u201cSilahkan makan roti, John,\u201d which translates to \u201cPlease eat this bread, John.\u201d The name roti John stuck.<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, roti John happens to be one of my American born- and-bred husband\u2019s favorite foods. Whenever my mom is within cooking distance, she knows to make some for him. This is her version using ham and green onions, which may or may not be authentic but it sure is tasty.<\/p>\n[yumprint-recipe id=’30’]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Roti John could be considered the b\u00e1nh m\u00ec, aka the ubiquitous Vietnamese sandwich, of Singapore (or Malaysia, or Brunei). Its components are similar\u2014bread, protein–and is a blend of East and West and just as delicious. Basically, roti John is a savory French toast\u2014baguette slices…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,486,24,415,907,654,680,129],"tags":[909,910,908,911],"class_list":["post-3823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-appetizers-course","category-breakfast","category-fusion","category-kid-friendly-2","category-malaysian","category-pan-frying","category-singaporean","category-snacks","tag-eggs","tag-omelet","tag-omelet-bread","tag-roti-john"],"yoast_head":"\nWho's John? - Pickles and Tea<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/picklesandtea\/omelet-bread\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who's John? - Pickles and Tea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Roti John could be considered the b\u00e1nh m\u00ec, aka the ubiquitous Vietnamese sandwich, of Singapore (or Malaysia, or Brunei). 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